CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Yoosuf
Yoosuf

Reputation: 892

Automatically running a program as administrator in VB.NET

I am developing a VB.NET based application which requires administrative privileges in order to run properly. However I went through several tutorials online and it all mentioned how to do this using a mainifest file. The problem with this technique is that whenever the program is opened I need to type in the Administrator password, however I want this to happen automatically. (The user should not type the Admin password, the password must be entered from the code level)

The following code is the closest I could find, but it too does not satisfy my problem,

Dim securePass As New Security.SecureString()
Dim pass As String = "password"

For Each c As Char In pass
    securePass.AppendChar(c)
Next

' If there isn't a domain, set the argument to 'Nothing', as demonstrated below.
Process.Start("testsoftware\WinKBSel\WinKBSel1003.exe", "username", pass, Nothing)

Could anyone please let me know how I could do this without requiring the user to enter the administrator password?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 9442

Answers (4)

majdman
majdman

Reputation: 1

You don't need a code for this action, UAC is made so you can automatically log on without the user's permission. What you can do is use the manifest and change the startup so when the application starts it runs as administrator and asks for permission! Change the manifest. look it up!

Upvotes: -1

Dan Puzey
Dan Puzey

Reputation: 34198

You cannot create a program that will automatically log on as a user unless the username/password is already known.

That means that you're either restricted to running on systems where your app already knows the credentials, your user has to enter the credentials into your app, or your user has to use the "Run As" functionality in Windows to use the correct user.

If what you're proposing were actually possible, it would represent a huge security hole: you'd be able to run any code as any user without requiring authentication first. That is not a good thing!

Think about it like this: if you were sold a program that would automatically log on as administrator even without your permission, how would you feel?

Upvotes: 1

JonAlb
JonAlb

Reputation: 1720

You would probably be best splitting the application up, if you had a back-end service that runs under an administrator account your application could use that to do stuff it requires at an elevated privilege. UAC is designed to protect the user from themselves, you can get around it by adding a backend service... but be very careful about opening up holes in this way as they could be exploited by other applications/viruses. Storing an administror password inside an application is always a bad idea as the application could be decompiled and the password extracted.

Upvotes: 1

David Heffernan
David Heffernan

Reputation: 612963

UAC is designed so that you cannot do what you want. UAC ensures that in order to elevate the user must pass through a UAC dialog (either the admin consent dialog or the over-the-shoulder dialog). You need to adapt your expectations to the reality of UAC.

Upvotes: 0

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