Granting Process Access Rights

[ahal89]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to create a process that will have the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION access right. I'm trying to create a new security descriptor to be used with CreateProcess(). However, MSDN is very confusing on this, and I am getting completely bogged down on DACL's and ACE's.

I also can't seem to find any examples relating to process'.

Here is some code I have so far:

PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR pSD;
pSD = (PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR) LocalAlloc (LPTR, SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR_MIN_LENGTH);
InitializeSecurityDescriptor(pSD, SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR_REVISION);
SetSecurityDescriptorDacl(pSD, TRUE, (PACL)NULL, FALSE);
    
// SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES struct
SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa;
sa.nLength = sizeof(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES);
sa.lpSecurityDescriptor = pSD;
sa.bInheritHandle = TRUE;
    
// Create process without the window
if (!CreateProcessW(utilityName, parameters, &sa, 0, FALSE, CREATE_PRESERVE_CODE_AUTHZ_LEVEL | CREATE_NO_WINDOW, 0, 0, &siStartupInfo, &piProcessInfo)){
    PrintLastError();
    return FALSE;
}

I need this access right because the process being created needs to call OpenProcessToken(). If I run the program as seen above, the newly created process just crashes upon hitting OpenProcessToken(). Is this expected behaviour assuming the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION permission isn't set? I don't even know if this is the reason for the crash (I would of thought that it would give me an error message, but I can't think of any other reasons)...

[Igor Vartanov]

I'm currently trying to create a process that will have the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION access right.

And what makes you believe it has not?

I need this access right because the process being created needs to call OpenProcessToken(). If I run the program as seen above, the newly created process just crashes upon hitting OpenProcessToken(). Is this expected behaviour assuming the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION permission isn't set? I don't even know if this is the reason for the crash (I would of thought that it would give me an error message, but I can't think of any other reasons)...

Sorry, but I think, before making questionable assumptions, it'd be more efficient to show your code that doesn't work. BTW, are you aware of GetLastError function?

[ahal89]

Yes I am, but the program crashes before I even have a chance to call GetLastError().

If you would like to see the code that is broken, here it is:

HANDLE hToken = NULL;  
OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess(), TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES|TOKEN_QUERY, &hToken);
MessageBox(NULL, "This does not get run", "", MB_OK);

The reason I believe that the process doesn't have the permission is because it is getting created with CreateProcess() and the default DACL. Maybe GetCurrentProcess() is causing the crash, I don't know.

Edit just to clarify... there are two processes I am working with here. The code in my first post creates the process that runs the code in this post.

[Igor Vartanov]

So you think it's normal for WinAPI call to crash the entire application when some security stuff isn't sufficient for doing something.

Did you ever try to run your second app in debugger session?