CODEWITHSUNDEEP
command-linewindows-services
Gal Shadeck
Gal Shadeck

Reputation: 532

How to change user credentials of windows service from command line?

How to change user credentials of windows service from command line?

Upvotes: 37

Views: 94843

Answers (4)

brianary
brianary

Reputation: 9322

sc.exe config "Service Name" obj= "DOMAIN\User" password= "password" type= own

See Shortcut Setting Log-On Credentials for Windows Services » jonathanmalek.com.

@MattT points out that on Windows Server 2008R2 you have to add type= own, but prior to that version it isn't necessary.

In PowerShell 3+, you can avoid escaping the arguments with the stop-parsing symbol: --%

sc.exe --% config "Service Name" obj= "DOMAIN\User" password= "password" type= own

Upvotes: 75

Gideon Gyabaah
Gideon Gyabaah

Reputation: 418

For those who are wondering how to pass a secure password:

$credentials = Get-Credential -UserName 'Domain\username' -Message 'Enter password below'
$service = Get-WmiObject win32_service -filter "name='SERVICE_NAME'"
$service.Change($null,$null,$null,$null,$null,$null,$credentials.username,($credentials.Password | ConvertFrom-SecureString))

Upvotes: 1

Markus
Markus

Reputation: 31

Using WMI results in non-encrypted communication between your machine and the machine you are changing the service credentials on. So your new password can be sniffed quite easily. You just have to parse the WMI blob send over the network. By now I found no really secure way to change a service accounts password remotely with a tool.

Upvotes: 3

Jesse Weigert
Jesse Weigert

Reputation: 4854

I simply called WMI from powershell to do this.

$Svc = Get-WmiObject win32_service -filter "name='ServiceName'"
$Svc.Change($Null, $Null, $Null, $Null, $Null, $Null, "User", "Password")

Don't forget to restart the service afterwards:

Stop-Service -Name 'ServiceName'
Start-Service -Name 'ServiceName'

For more fun with WMI and services, see Win32_Service Class

Upvotes: 12

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