responding to system prompt?

I'm having trouble figuring out how to respond to a system prompt in a console application.

I need to run a setup.exe on users PCs under the admin context.

If I do something like:
system("runas /user:computername\administrator setup.exe");

the system then prompts me with:
"enter password for administrator"

I thought I could send the password to the keyboard buffer, but the problem is that the console app stops processing until a response is typed at the command prompt.

I'm not sure how to get around this. I used to use su, which allows you to supply a password as a parameter but microsoft has taken this functionality away with runas.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
CMG

You can't, since RunAs traps it. Use the API functions to do it. Try CreateProcessWithLogonW, or LogonUser and CreateProcessAsUser (on NT 4).

OK so I'm trying to use CreateProcessAsUser and LogonUser but I'm having problems with the Process_Information and StartupInfo structs that CreateProcessAsUser uses.

I've included Winbase.h and Windows.h but when I try to declare a struct of either type, I get a message:

"error C2079: 'P_INFO' uses undefined struct 'PROCESS_INFORMATION' "

However, If I try to typedef the struct myself I get an error:

error C2371: 'STARTUPINFO' : redefinition; different basic types
c:\program files\microsoft visual studio\vc98\include\winbase.h(3818) : see declaration of 'STARTUPINFO'

So it seems to see the struct in winbase.h after all. I'm not sure whats happening here.

Thanks,
CMG

Hahah looks like it was just a syntax error. my bad :)

Damn, I still can get this think working. Here is a sniipet of the code:

PHANDLE thandle;
HANDLE prochandle;
HANDLE threadhandle;

STARTUPINFO StartInf;
StartInf.cb=1000;
StartInf.lpReserved=NULL;
StartInf.lpDesktop=NULL;
StartInf.lpTitle="CMG";
StartInf.dwFlags=NULL;
StartInf.cbReserved2=0;
StartInf.lpReserved2=NULL;
LPSTARTUPINFO StartInfPtr = &StartInf;

PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcInf;
ProcInf.dwProcessId=NULL;
ProcInf.dwThreadId=NULL;
ProcInf.prochandle=NULL;
ProcInf.threadhandle=NULL;
PROCESS_INFORMATION *ProcInfptr = &ProcInf;


LogonUser(
"administrator", // user name
"computername", // domain or server
"password", // password
LOGON32_LOGON_BATCH, // type of logon operation
LOGON32_PROVIDER_DEFAULT, // logon provider
thandle // receive tokens handle
);

CreateProcessAsUser(
thandle, // handle to user token
"C:\\setup.exe", // name of executable module
NULL, // command-line string
NULL, // SD
NULL, // SD
TRUE, // inheritance option
NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, // creation flags
NULL, // new environment block
NULL, // current directory name
StartInfPtr, // startup information
ProcInfptr // process information
);


Any ideas? I don't get an error, it just doesn't launch setup. Argh.

CMG

> LPSTARTUPINFO StartInfPtr = &StartInf;

Why?

> LOGON32_LOGON_BATCH, // type of logon operation

Do you really intend for no UI at all?

You're not reading the output values from LogonUser or CreateProcessAsUser. Are they failing? If they do, what does GetLastError() tell you?

OK,
LogonUser is returning "a required privilege is not held by the client"

CMG

From MSDN:

"In Windows 2000, the process calling LogonUser requires the SE_TCB_NAME privilege." This is 'Act as part of the operating system', and not really something you want to give normal users.

If you're running 2k, you should use the CreateProcessWithLogonW function. I can't speak for NT 4, since I'm not running it any more...

Dude,
I don't have the CreateProcessWithLogonW function!? I'm using Visual Studio 6/Service pack 5. Do you know where I can get this?

CMG

> Dude,

Who's that?

> I don't have the CreateProcessWithLogonW function

You need the latest version of the Platform SDK, which you can get from http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/...sdk/sdkupdate/.

I installed the platform SDK and I now see the CreateProcessWithLogonW in the newer winbase.h, however I still get the unknown procedure error when I try to use it? Is there a trick to updating the platform sdk?

CMG