Performing Access Checks

An access check determines whether a security descriptor grants a specified set of access rights to the client or thread identified by an access token. You can call the security function AccessCheck from WMI client applications or providers written in C++ or C#. Scripts and Visual Basic applications cannot perform access checks using the method described here.

Client applications should do an access check to determine the identity of the callback when returning results to the sink provided by the client asynchronous call.

When providers cannot impersonate the client application or script that is requesting data, they should perform access checks for the following situations:

• When accessing resources that are not protected by access control lists (ACL).
• When the client has connected at the RPC_C_LEVEL_IDENTIFY impersonation level.

Note

C++ and C# applications can control whether access checks are performed by a separate process. Scripts and Visual Basic applications can read or change a registry key to ensure that WMI performs access checks. For more information, see Setting Security on an Asynchronous Call.

 

The code example in this topic requires the following references and #include statements to compile correctly.

#include <lmcons.h>
#define _WIN32_DCOM
#define SECURITY_WIN32
#include <wbemidl.h>
#include <security.h>
#include <safestr.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "wbemuuid.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "Secur32.lib")

The following code example shows how to check that the security token of a client application thread contains permissions appropriate to a specified security descriptor. The function takes the string "domain\user" and returns the SID. If the call fails, the function returns NULL, otherwise the caller must free the returned pointer.

BYTE * GetSid(LPWSTR pwcUserName)
{
    DWORD dwSidSize = 0, dwDomainSize = 0;
    SID_NAME_USE use;

    // first call is to get the size
    BOOL bRet = LookupAccountNameW(

      NULL,            // system name
      pwcUserName,     // account name
      NULL,            // security identifier
      &dwSidSize,      // size of security identifier
      NULL,            // domain name
      &dwDomainSize,   // size of domain name
      &use             // SID-type indicator
      );    

    if(bRet == FALSE && ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER 
        != GetLastError())\
        return NULL;

    BYTE * buff = new BYTE[dwSidSize];

    if(buff == NULL)
        return NULL;

    WCHAR * pwcDomain = new WCHAR[dwDomainSize];

    if(pwcDomain == NULL)

    {
        delete [] buff;
        return FALSE;
    }

    // Call to LookupAccountNameW actually gets the SID
    bRet = LookupAccountNameW(

      NULL,           // system name
      pwcUserName,    // account name
      buff,           // security identifier
      &dwSidSize,     // size of security identifier
      pwcDomain,      // domain name
      &dwDomainSize,  // size of domain name
      &use            // SID-type indicator
      );    

    delete [] pwcDomain;

    if(bRet == FALSE)
    {
        delete [] buff;
        return NULL;
    }

    return buff;
}

// This returns true if the caller is coming 
//   from the expected computer in the expected domain.

BOOL IsAllowed(LPWSTR pwsExpectedDomain, 
   LPWSTR pwsExpectedMachine)
{

    WCHAR wCallerName[UNLEN + 1];
    DWORD nSize = UNLEN + 1;

// Impersonate the caller and get its name

    HRESULT hr = CoImpersonateClient();
    if(FAILED(hr))

        return FALSE;

    BOOL bRet = GetUserNameExW(NameSamCompatible, 
       wCallerName, &nSize);

    CoRevertToSelf();

    if(bRet == FALSE)

        return FALSE;


    // take the expected domain and lan manager 
    //   style name and create a SID.  In actual
    // production code, it would be more efficient 
    //   to do this only when necessary

    WCHAR wExpectedName[UNLEN + 1];

    HRESULT hrCopyCat;
    hrCopyCat = StringCchCopy(wExpectedName,
        sizeof(pwsExpectedDomain)*sizeof(WCHAR)+1, 
        pwsExpectedDomain);
    if (FAILED(hrCopyCat))
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
    hrCopyCat = 
        StringCchCat(wExpectedName,sizeof(wExpectedName)
        + 2*sizeof(WCHAR)+1, L"\\");
    if (FAILED(hrCopyCat))
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
    hrCopyCat = StringCchCat(wExpectedName,sizeof(wExpectedName)
        + sizeof(pwsExpectedMachine)*sizeof(WCHAR)+1, 
        pwsExpectedMachine);
    if (FAILED(hrCopyCat))
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
    hrCopyCat = StringCchCat(wExpectedName,sizeof(wExpectedName)
        + sizeof(WCHAR)+1, L"$");
    if (FAILED(hrCopyCat))
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
  

    // convert the two names to SIDs and compare.  
    // Note that SIDs are used since 
    //   the format of the names might vary.  

    BYTE * pCaller = GetSid(wCallerName);

    if(pCaller == NULL)

        return FALSE;

    BYTE * pExpected = GetSid(wExpectedName);

    if(pExpected == NULL)
    {
        delete [] pCaller;

        return FALSE;
    }

    bRet = EqualSid((PSID)pCaller, (PSID)pExpected);

    delete [] pCaller;
    delete [] pExpected;

    return bRet;
}

Related topics

Choosing Correct Registration

Maintaining WMI Security

Securing Your Provider

Access to WMI Namespaces