Granting Process Access Rights

**ahal89** · November 12th, 2009, 03:25 PM

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:

Code:

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** · November 12th, 2009, 06:24 PM

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** · November 13th, 2009, 09:04 AM

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:

Code:

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.