why is CreateProcessWithTokenW failing with ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED - winapi

Question

I have a call to CreateProcessWithTokenW that is failing with access denied. Any ideas how to debug this?
The call to CreateProcessWithTokenW is here: https://github.com/fschwiet/PShochu/blob/master/PShochu/PInvoke/NetWrappers/ProcessUtil.cs
For now I'm using a access token for the current process, eventually I'll use a token from another user. For now then I'm using https://github.com/fschwiet/PShochu/blob/master/PShochu/PInvoke/NetWrappers/AccessToken.cs to get the access token.
If you want to debug, pull down the sourcecode and run build_and_test.ps1. The error stack is:
1) Test Error : PShochu.Tests.can_run_remote_interactive_tasks, given a psake script which writes the current process id to output, when that script is invoked interactively, then the script succeeds
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception : Access is denied
at PShochu.PInvoke.NetWrappers.ProcessUtil.CreateProcessWithToken(IntPtr userPrincipalToken, String applicationName,
String applicationCommand, Boolean dontCreateWindow, Boolean createWithProfile, StreamReader& consoleOutput, StreamReader& errorOutput) in c:\src\PShochu\PShochu\PInvoke\NetWrappers\ProcessUtil.cs:line 52
at PShochu.ProcessHandling.RunNoninteractiveConsoleProcessForStreams2(String command, String commandArguments, String& newLine) in c:\src\PShochu\PShochu\ProcessHandling.cs:line 36
at PShochu.ProcessHandling.RunNoninteractiveConsoleProcess(String command, String commandArguments) in c:\src\PShochu\PShochu\ProcessHandling.cs:line 20
at PShochu.Tests.can_run_remote_interactive_tasks.<>c__DisplayClass16.<>c__DisplayClass18.<Specify>b__2() in c:\src\PShochu\PShochu.Tests\can_run_remote_interactive_tasks.cs:line 27
at NJasmine.Core.Execution.DescribeState.<>c__DisplayClass7`1.<visitBeforeEach>b__3() in c:\src\NJasmine\NJasmine\Core\Execution\DescribeState.cs:line 62
Later update: I saw in some docs that additional privileges are needed (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374905%28v=vs.85%29.aspx). I am having trouble getting tests to verify I have these individual securities (they are set in secpol.msc pre-reboot)
SE_ASSIGNPRIMARYTOKEN_NAME "Replace a process level token"
SE_TCB_NAME "Act as part of the operatin system"
SE_INCREASE_QUOTA_NAME "Adjust memory quotas for a process"
These tests keep telling me I don't have the permissions I've set in the UI, https://github.com/fschwiet/PShochu/blob/master/PShochu.Tests/verify_privileges.cs

Answer 1

Through trial and error I figured out that the token you pass to CreateProcessWithTokenW() needs the following access flags (at least on Windows 7 SP1 64-bit):
TOKEN_ASSIGN_PRIMARY
TOKEN_DUPLICATE
TOKEN_QUERY
TOKEN_ADJUST_DEFAULT
TOKEN_ADJUST_SESSIONID
The last two in bold are very helpfully not mentioned at all in the documentation for CreateProcessWithTokenW().
EDIT: The following code works fine for me (when running elevated):
HANDLE hToken = NULL;
if(OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess(), TOKEN_DUPLICATE, &hToken))
{
HANDLE hDuplicate = NULL;
if(DuplicateTokenEx(hToken, TOKEN_ASSIGN_PRIMARY | TOKEN_DUPLICATE | TOKEN_QUERY | TOKEN_ADJUST_DEFAULT | TOKEN_ADJUST_SESSIONID, NULL, SecurityImpersonation, TokenPrimary, &hDuplicate))
{
TCHAR szCommandLine[MAX_PATH];
_tcscpy_s(szCommandLine, MAX_PATH, _T("C:\\Windows\\system32\\notepad.exe"));
STARTUPINFO StartupInfo;
ZeroMemory(&StartupInfo, sizeof(STARTUPINFO));
StartupInfo.cb = sizeof(STARTUPINFO);
PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcessInformation;
ZeroMemory(&ProcessInformation, sizeof(PROCESS_INFORMATION));
if(CreateProcessWithTokenW(hDuplicate, LOGON_WITH_PROFILE, NULL, szCommandLine, 0, NULL, NULL, &StartupInfo, &ProcessInformation))
{
WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInformation.hProcess, INFINITE);
CloseHandle(ProcessInformation.hThread);
ProcessInformation.hThread = NULL;
CloseHandle(ProcessInformation.hProcess);
ProcessInformation.hProcess = NULL;
}
CloseHandle(hDuplicate);
hToken = hDuplicate;
}
CloseHandle(hToken);
hToken = NULL;
}