We Keep Coding

Process on ASP.Net server not running correctly over IIS

I am trying to run an antivirus scan on an uploaded file in an ASP.Net web app. We are using Sophos so have access to their command line API sav32cli. In the code I use:
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\Program Files (x86)\Sophos\Sophos Anti-Virus\sav32cli.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = #"-remove -nc " + SavedFile;
proc.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
When stepping through the code, when attached to the w3wp process on dev server, the code just jumps from one line to the next seemingly doing nothing at all. When running from code on dev server, it performs as expected scanning file and deleting if it is seen as a virus.
The server is running IIS 8.0, and the app built in .Net Framework 4. I have changed the machine config to allow the process to run as SYSTEM account, in accordance to these instructions. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/317012#%2Fen-us%2Fkb%2F317012
<processModel userName="SYSTEM" password="AutoGenerate" />
Is there something I'm missing? What is the best practice for this kind of implementation?
EDIT: When called, the Process returns an ExitCode of 2 (Error stopped execution), rather than the expected 0 (Scan worked, no viruses), or 3 (Scan worked, viruses found).
EDIT 2: As per comment below I changed the code to:
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\Program Files (x86)\Sophos\Sophos Anti-Virus\sav32cli.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = #"-remove -nc " + SavedFile;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.Start();
StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
while (!proc.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
string line = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
output.AppendLine(line);
}
proc.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
ASPxMemo2.Text = exitCode.ToString() + Environment.NewLine + output.ToString();
output is always empty when run over IIS, but is populated correctly when running from code.
EDIT 3: Instead of looking at StandardOutput we looked at StandardError and it revealed this error:
Error initialising detection engine [0xa0040200]
(Possible insufficient user Admin rights.)
For the time being we are going to move to another method of virus checking, but would still like to know a possible solution if anyone has it.

You will need to make sure that the application pool that is running your .NET application inside IIS has execute permissions to your file
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Sophos\Sophos Anti-Virus\sav32cli.exe"
You may also need to add this permission to the folder location where the file to be scanned is uploaded (c:\temp) for example
You may also need to have administrator privileges to run the anti virus scan since IIS8 does not run as an administrator. When you are debugging visual studio uses your current logged in windows user(unless you use runas) so this will explain why it would work when debugging.

Have you tried running your web process in elevated trust?
Configuring .NET Trust Levels in IIS 7
<system.web>
<securityPolicy>
<trustLevel name="Full" policyFile="internal"/>
</securityPolicy>
</system.web>
ASP.NET Trust Levels and Policy Files

Most likely the permissions are not configured correctly on the content being scanned (the uploads folder) or the worker process user doesn't have the full permissions it needs to use Sophos. You know the executable itself is accessible by the worker process because you are getting exit codes and error messages that are specific to Sophos.
Because your process will delete files that are perceived as threats you need to grant the user running the process modify or full control permissions on the folders that store the uploaded files.
By default you could use the IIS_IUSRS group for ApplicationPoolIdentity processes, but you can verify (and modify) the user in IIS Manager > App Pools > Advanced.
This answer has more details

Here are some ideas:
Create the process using a different user with elevated privileges on the folder, see for reference start-a-net-process-as-a-different-user
If the previous suggestion fails, login one time on the server using the credentials used in point 1. It will configure registry entries connected to the user profile, some programs requires it.
Develop a simple .net service running on the server and monitoring the upload folder. The service has more probability running the Sophos scan succesfully. Here is a reference on service creation using .net.
The service may also talk to your web page using DB/file system/ etc.. so the operation may seem synchronous.
These are my 4 cents :-)

Permission issue running .exe from ASP.NET web application

We have a .exe which we need to execute at the time an order is placed on a website. When
we test this locally it works fine using IIS Express. When we move it to IIS, it fails. We assume this is a permissions error as if we set the App Pool to run as the administrator then the script works again. The question we have is how do we execute the .exe as the administrator whilst the App Pool is ApplicationIdentity? We are using the following code:
var process = new Process
{
StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
FileName = executablePath,
Arguments = argumentList,
Domain = domain,
UserName = userName,
Password = securePassword,
UseShellExecute = false,
LoadUserProfile = true
}
};
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
process.Close();
The .exe is trying to write to the Users AppData folder which is why it fails. It is a 3rd party app so we cannot change the source code.
EDIT: Just to clarify also, when we specify the username and password in procmon it still appears to run from ISUR.

We fixed this by enabling User profile on IIS AppPool and setting permission for the IIS user on the folder it was trying to write to.
We sue ProcMon to find where the program was failing and the folder it was trying towrite to was C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile

i dont remember actually, but one of them is working 100% ( i had this issue before)
just let me know ehich one of them is the correct one.

Executing batch file from C# Permission issue

I have a batch file to execute a VB script. While executing the batch file by double clicking will work, But when I have done the same with C# its working on my local environment but not in the staging server (windows server 2008r2), Is there any permission level i need to apply for this execution. From the staging server I can double click and execute the batch file...
I have logged in to the server with Administrator account and browsed the application as localhost.
Is there anything I'm missing on the execution of batch file from C#,
I don't think there is any problem with my C# code as its working fine on my local environment, anyway following is my C# code,
if (File.Exists(FileName*))
{
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo p = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo(FileName);
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = FileName;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
}
else
{
lblMsg.Text = "Sorry unable to process you request";
}
*FileName is the path to batch file. Also I have set full permission to the folders that containg both batch file and vbs files.

For this to work your app pool needs to be run as a user who has access to the batch file.
Check how to change your app pool identity for IIS 7 or IIS 6.

To expand on what Kartheek said:
In IIS 7 application pools run as a app pool account, IISAPPPOOL\AppPoolName
In IIS 6 application pools run as Network Service
In either case, these accounts don't have any access a user's documents folder and (by default) can only read from common data stores.
Generally you want to keep the app pool account because it helps segregate the data -- so what I would do is just make sure you grant read+execute permissions on the bat file you need for the app pool account. You'll also need proper permissions on any filles/folders the bat needs to read/write from.
You do not need to change anything in your app to correct this problem, unless you want to IIS app to masquerade around as the user who is actually sitting at the website (it only really works if you use some form of authentication.) Generally this a bad idea anyway -- so it's best to just adjust the permissions.
As a general rule of thumb, when working on a web server you want to keep the permissions/execution levels as low/restrictive as possible.

Java Compiler ASP.NET

I'm trying to make an online compiler for java using ASP.NET C#
Process p=new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\Program files\\Java\\bin\\javac.exe";
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "C:\\Hello.java";
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
p.Start();
p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
I run javac.exe to compile Hello.java, but the process isn't allowed by ASP.NET to write Hello.class to disk
But on doing it manually through cmd.exe without using ASP.NET or progmatically using C# only it runs perfectly
Can you help me make an online java compiler using ASP.NET or PHP for compiling Algorithmic assignments?

This is a permissions problem - you have two options:
Change the application pool identity to an account that has write permissions
Give write permissions to the current application pool identity account

you should configure the access rights for the ASPNET user, this changes a bit depending on which version of IIS and Windows Server the web application runs.
Consider to store the output data locally on the server's disk on a proper location, not directly C or any system folder. let's say C:\JavaOutput\ then give read/write permissions to the ASPNET user to that folder.

This is a permission problem. You need to allow full permissions to c:\ for the ASP.NET USER\IISUSER. That's obviously a WRONG approach.
Your working directory should be the directory in which your web application sits.

Where on the disk does the compiler try to store Hello.class? Chances are, it's in a folder where the ASP.NET process has no permissions to write.
Some tips:
1) Find out what permissions the ASP.NET worker process has. If using IIS, check out the identity of the ApplicationPool it's running under. Chances are it's running under a limited profile.
2) Find a folder where the ASP.NET worker process can write to. This should probably be in a directory under the application root (~), or in some TEMP folder.
3) Check if the javac command-line allows you to specify an explicit output directory. If not, use p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory to specify a working folder for the process, which will probably make javac output to the specified folder.

Write Access to Program Files folder

my application include a self-updater executable that is used to update the application.
One of the first steps the updater is performing is to check that it does have write permission to the application folder
IPermission perm = new FileIOPermission(FileIOPermissionAccess.AllAccess, _localApplicationCodebase);
if (!SecurityManager.IsGranted(perm))
{
OnProgressChanged("Security Permission Not Granted \n The updater does not have read/write access to the application's files (" +
_localApplicationCodebase + ")",MessageTypes.Error);
return false;
}
OnProgressChanged("Updater have read/write access to local application files at " + _localApplicationCodebase);
return true;
When executing under Win7/Vista, this code pass (meaning that according to CAS, the code does have write access), however when I try to write files, I got an Access Denied (and I confirmed that the files are NOT in use)
I understand that Vista/Win7 UAC is preventing users from writing files in the program files folders. However, what I don't understand is why the permission is granted if in reality it is not
Regards,
Eric Girard
PS : If I run the same code using 'Run As Administrator', it works fine

The important thing to know about UAC is that by default, no code runs with Administrator privileges and thus cannot write to the Program Files directory. Even if you are logged in as an administrator, the apps are launched with standard user privliges.
There are two ways around this. You can have the user start the app with the Run As Administrator menu item. But this relies on the user to remember something. The better was is to embed a manifest into your executable that requests administrator privileges. In the manifest, set requestedExecutionLevel to requireAdministrator. This will cause UAC to prompt the user for admin credentials as soon as the app starts.
As Daniel said, the best solution is to put the updating functionality in a separate application. Your primary app will have an manifest that sets the requestedExecutionLevel to "asInvoker" and your updater app with request "requireAdministrator". Your primary app can run with standard privileges. But when the update needs to happen, use Process.Start to launch the updater application that requires the user to enter the admin credentials.

The best way to write an auto updater is to have a secondary application. The first program calls the second with elevated privileges, prompting UAC. Then the second application can install the patches.

I'm not sure if this is what you're trying to do, but I've found this post helpful. The included code let's you detect if you're app is running on Vista, if UAC is enabled and if user is elevated.
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/198-c-code-to-detect-uac-elevation-on-vista.html
then restart your app with runas to let user elevate permissions
ProcessStartInfo processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
processInfo.Verb = "runas";
processInfo.FileName = Application.ExecutablePath;
Process.Start(processInfo);