CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-filevbscriptcmd
fatbear
fatbear

Reputation: 80

Is it possible to run a command headlessly (in a bat script) as another user on Windows?

I want to have a .bat script do a particular task as a different user and run headlessly (no user input or prompting is allowed). Is there a way to do this with a .bat script? Please note that I am constrained to not use PowerShell as it not installed by default on all of the Windows operating systems that we must support.

I have considered RUNAS in my script, but it apparently requires interactive input.

In Linux, the equivalent idiom is:

echo "Password" | sudo -S -u username "command"

Any suggestions for Windows .bat scripts?

Update: I believe that vbscript is always available on Windows, so if a purely headless solution is available via vbscript, then that is good, too!

Upvotes: 3

Views: 15377

Answers (3)

rojo
rojo

Reputation: 24476

Here's another alternative:

wmic /user:username /password:pass process call create "cmd /c \"d:\\path\\to\\program.exe\" /arg etc"

EDIT : Apparently that doesn't allow authentication with separate credentials on the local machine.

There's a way to call runas with vbscript and have the vbscript send the password to the console to automate the password entry.

set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
WshShell.run "runas /noprofile /user:USERNAME " + Chr(34) + "d:\path\to\command.exe /args" + Chr(34)
WScript.Sleep 500
WshShell.SendKeys "PASSWORD"
WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
set WshShell = nothing

Save that to a .vbs file and call it via cscript /nologo script.vbs

If you need that to run from a batch script, just do some creative echos.

@echo off
setlocal

set username=username
set password=password
set program=d:\path\to\program.exe /arg argument

echo set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(^"Wscript.Shell^")>runas.vbs
echo WshShell.run ^"runas /netonly /noprofile /user:%username% ^" + Chr(34) + ^"%program%^" + Chr(34)>>runas.vbs
echo WScript.Sleep 500>>runas.vbs
echo WshShell.SendKeys ^"%password%^">>runas.vbs
echo WshShell.SendKeys ^"{ENTER}^">>runas.vbs
echo set WshShell = nothing>>runas.vbs
cscript /nologo runas.vbs
del /q runas.vbs

If that doesn't work for you, you could also use psexec to run a program with different credentials.

psexec -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD d:\path\to\command.exe

The only other alternative I can think of would be to run your script through a group policy startup script, which would execute the script from a system account. I also thought about calling it from the registry's HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce, but I think that might launch it from the first user who logs in after reboot.

Upvotes: 8

BernzSed
BernzSed

Reputation: 1139

Try the runas command.

runas /user:"DOMAIN\user" "C:\Program Files\path\to\program.exe" /savecred

You can save the credentials with /savecred, and not have to enter it another time.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771525.aspx

Upvotes: 0

Loïc MICHEL
Loïc MICHEL

Reputation: 26170

runas is the right way to do it. Add /username user /savecred the first time you run the batch it will ask for user's password and save it so next times it will run with the saved credential

Upvotes: -1

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