Vista: Out-proc servers vs requireAdministrator

Hello everybody,

By design, our product has a set of applications which have
"requireAdministrator" in the manifest and a set of other which have
"asInvoker".
These applications use (when needed) a signle multi-use out-proc server
which has "asInvoker" in the manifest and does not need to be run elevated
(we even prohibit it from running elevated).

The problem that we see is when a client app with "requireAdministrator"
instantiates that out-proc server, the server's exe gets an an elevated
instance. And there's previously running instance of server's executable
with non-elevated context, now elevated clients cannot connect to that
either, spawning a new elevated instance.

How can we get our out-proc server be instantiated only in non-elevated
multi-use manner regardless of incoming client context?

Thanx in advance,
AlexC

Don't mark the client as requiresAdministrator. Instead start the client
normally and move the requiresAdministrator functionality into another
process or com app. The client can then call the elevated process as
necessary and the client app which is running as the standard user should
start the other non-elevated process. If you start the application based on
the response of the elevated component it might be as simple as if
ElevatedComponent.DoSuchAndSuch() then start other process but if the
elevated process must initiate the request rather then the client you'll
need to establish a remoting channel or other form of IPC from the service
to the client, such as a WCF ServiceContract hosted by client application.
The client then becomes a service to the elevated process allowing the
elevated process to request the client application to start the non-elevated
process when necessary. As long as client application does not request
administrator priviliages it will not recieve them even if the user is
logged in as administrator.


- Kurt

"Alex Chmut" <AlexChmut"AT"MailShack"DOT"com> wrote in message
news:e2B3J$xDHHA.3524@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hello everybody,
>
> By design, our product has a set of applications which have
> "requireAdministrator" in the manifest and a set of other which have
> "asInvoker".
> These applications use (when needed) a signle multi-use out-proc server
> which has "asInvoker" in the manifest and does not need to be run elevated
> (we even prohibit it from running elevated).
>
> The problem that we see is when a client app with "requireAdministrator"
> instantiates that out-proc server, the server's exe gets an an elevated
> instance. And there's previously running instance of server's executable
> with non-elevated context, now elevated clients cannot connect to that
> either, spawning a new elevated instance.
>
> How can we get our out-proc server be instantiated only in non-elevated
> multi-use manner regardless of incoming client context?
>
> Thanx in advance,
> AlexC
>
>

Thanx, Kurt. It all makes sense. I'm just kind of disappointed with the
amount of work that needs to be done in order to have existing XP-compliant
apps to work properly under Vista.

AlexC