I have been asked to create an app that more or less does an archive with a few "tweaks". My problem is that before I do the copyDirectory and DeleteDirectory (yes, I want to do two steps rather than MoveDirectory), I would like to check all the file security settings for each file in the root directory (and sub-directories). I'm guessing this can be done programatically but I'm not sure how to start.
Related
I’m new to the IT industry but keen to learn.
Wanted to ask if anyone could point me in the right direction when trying to create a Powershell script to change settings within a computer app called plantronics hub.
Just need a better insight to what commands I need to use and functions. Just so that instead of going to a users machine every time and changing the settings I can just run a script and let it do it for me.
There are a few things you can look at. Look through the program files to see if there's any kind of command line utility for this sort of thing. Obviously, documentation is another good place to look. If available, you can also call their support and simply ask. Keep in mind they may have already considered this scenario, and may have other suggestions.
Try and figure out how the application stores its settings, Registry, XML, ini file etc...? PowerShell can work with any of these, but you need to answer this question before knowing what direction to go it.
If the settings are in the registry I'd start looking under HKLM:/ & HKCU:\Software\Plantronics. Settings and/or configuration files may be in the program files folder or under the user profile app data folders.
A few techniques:
Export the registry, make a configuration change, export the registry again to a different file. Compare the 2 files via some file comparison tool, like BeyondCompare or WinMerge. This might help you find anything that changed after you made the change.
Use procmon.exe . If you filter it properly you can determine which files the application is touching either on start or when you make a configuration change. ProcMon can also help identify which registry keys and values are being looked at.
Note: If the settings are consistent between stations you may be able to copy the config. This could be as simple as a file copy or importing a registry file.
Is it possible to append/remove a ressource file to a binary at execution time?
I have an application written with go, which saves/searches data from a database file, and i would like this database file to be embedded to the binary, and updated by the application itself.
This way the application would be self contained with its database.
Modifying the executable, this is generally a very bad idea.
Several issues pop right into my head, such as:
Does the current user have sufficient permissions?
Is the file locked during execution?
What about multiple running instances of the application?
Even if you manage to do just that, think of what anti-virus and firewall applications will say to it: most when they detect the change will flag the executable and/or contain it, or deny running it, or some may even delete it. Rightfully, as this is what many viruses do: modify existing executables.
Also virus scanner databases maintain reports where files (their contents) are identified based on the hash of their content. Modifying the executable will naturally change the file content hash, thus render the file unknown / suspicious to these databases.
As mentioned, just write / cache data in separate file(s), preferably in user's home folder or in the application folder (next to the executable, optionally in sub-folders). Or make the cache file / folder a changeable option (command line flags).
Technically, this is possible, but this is a bad idea. Your application could be run by users not having write permissions to your binary.
If you're talking about a portable app, your best option might be using a file in the same directory the binary is located, otherwise - use the user's home directory according to the conventions of the OS you're running on. You can use the os/user package to find the home directory.
I'm deploying a .NET application with VS2010. My application creates .txt file in the logs folder in the same directory with .exe:
app.exe
add.exe.config
logs (folder)
I used setup project to create a MSI installer. When I installed in the client machine C: drive or any drives I have no problem to create the .txt file, but when I installed in C:\Program File\myAppFolder or C:\Program File(x86)\myAppFolder I cannot to create the .txt file.
It is a poor design to write to install location for your application. It is better to write to the ApplicationDataFolder. The ApplicationDataFolder is under the user profile and the application will have access to write there when run as that user. #Ken White provided a very good pointer to an existing StackOverflow answer about this.
If this is a legacy application that must write to that folder, then you'll need to modify the permissions on the log folder such that all users can write to the folder. This is possible to do with the Windows Installer (aka: MSI) but I'm not sure that the Visual Studio setup projects expose it. The WiX toolset definitely supports doing such things.
An old post but I needed to do similar recently so I guess it is still valid! While I don't advocate bad design, in the real world sometimes we have to bend to requirement.
Writing to the application folder is possibly under Win7 and it is possible to set this up via an installer class in an MSI created by VS2010. You just need to give a relevant group (suggest either the "Users" group, or if you want to give more control over who gets what, supply a selection screen) Write-Data access.
Using DirectoryInfo on a path you can then get the security data from GetAccessControl.
When you have your Group known, get the SID for the group and AddAccessRule also supplying the required ControlType value.
Then set the access control on the DirectoryInfo object (SetAccessControl) using the security data object.
You can get the SID from the Groups principal object if you do a search with PrincipalSearcher.
Hope this helps
paul
This generally all depends on:
Whether your app requires to be run as administrator for other reasons and..
Whether your app is provided for limited users.
If the app requires elevation for a bunch of other reasons (and not just updating files in restricted locations) then the normal way is to have an elevation manifest embedded in your app. This isn't a good thing from the security point of view, but if you absolutely need admin privilege then this is the way to do it.
If the only operation requiring elevation is updating/creating data in the Program Files folder then don't put the file there. Every case of this that I've seen has been lazy programming where the code just refers to the file name and consequently it goes in the Program Files folder (more accurately in the same folder that the app runs in). The cure for this is to put the data file in the correct location (such as User's Application Data folder). As Rob Mensching says, you should alter the permissions on the install folder only if this is a legacy app that you cannot change.
I am creating a WIX installer project. During one managed customized action, I need to create a file (other than the deployed files specified in the components of WIX) in the installation folder, which by default is the Program Files folder. I am experiencing the "Access denied" problem in Windows 7. After some searching, I found out that people say it is not advisable to create files into Program Files folder. Instead, try to create files into for example AppData folder. For example, see this link:
C# Access denied to path in a Windows Application
But my question is, the generated file is crucial to our SW, so it must reside in the installation folder. Isn't it the target of SW installation, I mean, to create file in most of the cases Program Files folder? Does it mean the only files should be added into installation folder, during the installation, are the deployed files (basically the targets of XCopy)?
My file can't be made deploy-able in the WIX, i.e, it can't be made ready before the installation. So what's the proper way or best practice to handle such situation: a file must be generated during the installation, into the installation folder. It is not some log file that I can put somewhere else. I tried to create a Permission element in WIX for the INSTALLADIR, although it seems to be against the rule mentioned in the link, but it still failed. Thanks!
UPDATE:
Based one MichaelUrman's commen, some more information. The generated file is needed after the SW is installed and necessary during normal launch of the SW. And I think it needs to be modified during normal use after the installation. And as I mentioned my a comment to #caveman_dick answer, my CA is actually in commit phase, I don't know whether there is any difference between it and normal deferred CA
Set the custom action to Execute="deferred", that will run the command elevated and should give it the required permissions to create the file.
Since you need to update that file from the main application, and I'm assuming your application does not require elevated privileges, you have three options.
The first is the worst: without a manifest, your executable's attempts to write to the Program Files folder will typically result in it being redirected to the Virtual Store (see File Virtualization). It sounds like this isn't happening in your case, so you can't use it.
The second option is to modify the application to store this in an appropriate location such as the ProgramData folder, or Common Documents, or (if appropriate) a per-user location under LocalAppData. This is typically the best approach, but has the highest development costs.
Finally the third option is to create the file and change its permissions (or in some cases to change the permissions on the folder containing the file), allowing limited users to modify this file. See LockPermissions or MsiLockPermissionsEx for the Windows Installer way to approach this. Change the permissions on as few files or folders, as restricted as possible, to keep the system as safe as possible if you go with this option.
we are making an Application for OS X, however, when the .app is copied on another MAC, we have problems with reading and writing files
on one MAC, everything works great from the start...
the other one will not write certain files and another 2mac will not write certain different files
if i go to show application contents and wants to edit the file by myself, i get a writing permission denied
how to distribute an MAC application so there are no such issues? so all files can be read and write by the current user
does there have to be some authorization or code sign, or smth. different in this form, in addition to normal code?
thank you
It sounds like your application tries to write files within its own application bundle. The correct solution here is: DON'T DO THAT! The only time your application bundle should be written to is when it's installed or updated.
Files that the application needs to write to should be stored in the user's home folder, generally under ~/Library. See this note in Apple's dev docs.
Preference and settings files in ~/Library/Preferences/<appbundleid>.plist; use NSUserDefaults.
Data the app manages for the user in ~/Library/Application Support/<appname> (the docs say to use the bundleid, but everyone -- Apple included -- uses the app name instead).
Cache files in ~/Library/Caches/<appbundleid>.
Temp files, use NSTemporaryDirectory
If you need to share settings & files between users, that should generally go in /Library/Application Support/<appname>, except that you really shouldn't be doing that at all.
In the past I've always used PackageMaker to create installers. An installation package can authenticate with root privileges so you can set permissions after the install. I don't have it in front of me right now but if you look around you should be able to see a Post-Installer script line. Write a shell script that manually sets the permissions of each file you have in question and then have the package execute that script after the install is finished.
You can find PackageMaker at /Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker