What does psexec -s do? - psexec

I want to run some commands on the remote machine. I am using psexec.exe in my application, when I try to run some command using -h and -s arguments as mentioned in the below command.
C:\psexec.exe -accepteula \\IPAddress -h -u "Username" -p pwd -s netstat -bno
When we provide a valid username and password it works with provided credentials, but when we provide username and password which is not valid it picks up -s and works I have done some research on -s it says -s = Run the remote process in the System account.
What exactly -s command do, when running above mentioned command on a particular remote machine with the arguments like -h and -s together is user passed Username and Password will be preferred over -s?

With -s your command is executed with the System account. The System account is a special Windows account used to run core Windows services (more info here and here); this account also has special privileges, for example access to registry keys that is denied to all other accounts.
As you can read in the linked docs:
This account does not have a password
so you don't have to specify a password when using the System account.
This is how PsExec works:
When you add the -s parameter the command is executed with the System account, so -u and -p parameters are ignored.
If you specify -h (but not -s), then account and password (-u and -p) are used to connect and execute the process with the account's elevated token (if available), so they must be correct.
If you specify -h together with -s then account and password (-u and -p) will NOT be used to connect, since the command will be executed with the System account anyway.
You can double check this behavior launching a program on a remote server and looking at the task manager of the remote machine: you will see that, using -s, the program will run under the System account, otherwise it will run under the user specified with -u.
For example if you run notepad with this command:
psexec \\remote_server -u domain\user -p correct_password -d -i -s cmd /c notepad.exe
or with this command:
psexec \\remote_server -u domain\user -p correct_password -d -i -s -h cmd /c notepad.exe
or with this command:
psexec \\remote_server -u domain\user -p wrong_password -d -i -s -h cmd /c notepad.exe
in all these three cases notepad is executed under the System account:

Related

What is meaning of 1/0 in PSExec command?

I am using PSTools to remotely running the application in Windows machine using the command
PsExec.exe \Machine-i 1 -u Username -p Password -d /accepteula
C:\Test\PsexecConsole.exe
My question is what is the 1 means in the command?
As stated in the documentation of the PsExec.exe application the -i switch is used to identify the session on the remote system:
-i Run the program so that it interacts with the desktop of the specified session on the remote system. If no session is specified the process runs in the console session.

Standard Input setting after configuring process.launchPath = "/usr/bin/sudo" in swift [duplicate]

I'm writing a C Shell program that will be doing su or sudo or ssh. They all want their passwords in console input (the TTY) rather than stdin or the command line.
Does anybody know a solution?
Setting up password-less sudo is not an option.
expect could be an option, but it's not present on my stripped-down system.
For sudo there is a -S option for accepting the password from standard input. Here is the man entry:
-S The -S (stdin) option causes sudo to read the password from
the standard input instead of the terminal device.
This will allow you to run a command like:
echo myPassword | sudo -S ls /tmp
As for ssh, I have made many attempts to automate/script it's usage with no success. There doesn't seem to be any build-in way to pass the password into the command without prompting. As others have mentioned, the "expect" utility seems like it is aimed at addressing this dilemma but ultimately, setting up the correct private-key authorization is the correct way to go when attempting to automate this.
I wrote some Applescript which prompts for a password via a dialog box and then builds a custom bash command, like this:
echo <password> | sudo -S <command>
I'm not sure if this helps.
It'd be nice if sudo accepted a pre-encrypted password, so I could encrypt it within my script and not worry about echoing clear text passwords around. However this works for me and my situation.
For ssh you can use sshpass: sshpass -p yourpassphrase ssh user#host.
You just need to download sshpass first :)
$ apt-get install sshpass
$ sshpass -p 'password' ssh username#server
For sudo you can do this too:
sudo -S <<< "password" command
I've got:
ssh user#host bash -c "echo mypass | sudo -S mycommand"
Works for me.
The usual solution to this problem is setuiding a helper app that performs the task requiring superuser access:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setuid
Sudo is not meant to be used offline.
Later edit: SSH can be used with private-public key authentication. If the private key does not have a passphrase, ssh can be used without prompting for a password.
Maybe you can use an expect command?:
expect -c 'spawn ssh root#your-domain.com;expect password;send "your-password\n";interact
That command gives the password automatically.
This can be done by setting up public/private keys on the target hosts you will be connecting to.
The first step would be to generate an ssh key for the user running the script on the local host, by executing:
ssh-keygen
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/myuser/.ssh/id_rsa): <Hit enter for default>
Overwrite (y/n)? y
Then enter a blank password. After that, copy your ssh key onto the target host which you will be connecting to.
ssh-copy-id <remote_user>#<other_host>
remote_user#other_host's password: <Enter remote user's password here>
After registering the ssh keys, you would be able to perform a silent ssh remote_user#other_host from you local host.
When there's no better choice (as suggested by others), then man socat can help:
(sleep 5; echo PASSWORD; sleep 5; echo ls; sleep 1) |
socat - EXEC:'ssh -l user server',pty,setsid,ctty
EXEC’utes an ssh session to server. Uses a pty for communication
between socat and ssh, makes it ssh’s controlling tty (ctty),
and makes this pty the owner of a new process group (setsid), so
ssh accepts the password from socat.
All of the pty,setsid,ctty complexity is necessary and, while you might not need to sleep as long, you will need to sleep. The echo=0 option is worth a look too, as is passing the remote command on ssh's command line.
Take a look at expect linux utility.
It allows you to send output to stdio based on simple pattern matching on stdin.
ssh -t -t me#myserver.io << EOF
echo SOMEPASSWORD | sudo -S do something
sudo do something else
exit
EOF
Set SSH up for Public Key Authentication, with no pasphrase on the Key. Loads of guides on the net. You won't need a password to login then. You can then limit connections for a key based on client hostname. Provides reasonable security and is great for automated logins.
echo <password> | su -c <command> <user>
This is working.
a better sshpass alternative is: passh
https://github.com/clarkwang/passh
Login to a remote server
$ passh -p password ssh user#host
Run a command on remote server
$ passh -p password ssh user#host date
other methods to pass the password
-p The password (Default: `password')
-p env: Read password from env var
-p file: Read password from file
here I explained why it is better than sshpass, and other solutions.
You can also pass various parameters as follows:
echo password | echo y | sudo -S pacman -Syu
(Although that's a bad idea, it's just an example)
I had the same problem. dialog script to create directory on remote pc.
dialog with ssh is easy. I use sshpass (previously installed).
dialog --inputbox "Enter IP" 8 78 2> /tmp/ip
IP=$(cat /tmp/ip)
dialog --inputbox "Please enter username" 8 78 2> /tmp/user
US=$(cat /tmp/user)
dialog --passwordbox "enter password for \"$US\" 8 78 2> /tmp/pass
PASSWORD = $(cat /tmp/pass)
sshpass -p "$PASSWORD" ssh $US#$IP mkdir -p /home/$US/TARGET-FOLDER
rm /tmp/ip
rm /tmp/user
rm /tmp/pass
greetings from germany
titus
Building on #Jahid's answer, this worked for me on macOS 10.13:
ssh <remote_username>#<remote_server> sudo -S <<< <remote_password> cat /etc/sudoers
I once had a use case where I needed to run Sudo and ssh in the same command without stdin specifying all the variables needed.
This is the command I used
echo sudopassword | sudo -S -u username sshpass -p extsshpassword ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no username#ipaddress " CMD on external machine"
Breaking that command into pieces!
This will allow you to run commands through your machine using Superuser:
echo password | sudo -S -u username
This will allow you to pass ssh password and execute commands on external machines:
sshpass -p sshpassword ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no username#ipaddress " CMD on external machine"
make sure you install the sudo and openssh packages on your machine.
One way would be to use read -s option .. this way the password characters are not echoed back to the screen. I wrote a small script for some use cases and you can see it in my blog:
http://www.datauniv.com/blogs/2013/02/21/a-quick-little-expect-script/
USE:
echo password | sudo command
Example:
echo password | sudo apt-get update; whoami
Hope It Helps..
You can provide password as parameter to expect script.
su -c "Command" < "Password"
Hope it is helpful.

pgAgent scheduled job failed on Windows

I am trying to set up the step with Batch file path on particular time in pgAgent via pgAdmin. But when I run that it is failing and in Step statistics I got this Output
C:\Windows\system32>C:\postgresql\run.bat
'psql' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Details:
Postgresql 9.3.5 on local system account (Current User)
pgAdmin 1.18.1
pgAgent via stack builder with Administrator account (Current User)
in run.bat I have only two statement
#echo off
psql -h localhost -p 5433 -U postgres -d test -a -f "test.sql"
I have psql in system path variable and able to access it in cmd. When I run that bat file manually it is executing without fail. But when I given the batch file path (C:\postgresql\run.bat) in pgAgent jobs it is giving that error in statistics.
Is there anything wrong in my configuration? Why it is always going to that C:\Windows\system32>?
Edit:
My run.bat file
#ECHO OFF
SET LBSDatabaseName=Test
SET dbHost=localhost
SET dbPort=5434
SET dbUser=postgres
SET logFile=DbInstall.log
SET sqlFolder="D:\SOURCECODE\archivescripts"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PostgreSQL\9.3\bin\psql.exe" -h "%dbHost%" -p "%dbPort%" -d "%LBSDatabaseName%" -U "%dbUser%" -L "%logFile%" -q -f "%sqlFolder%\Archive.sql"
My Archive.sql
update "Archive".emp set "FirstName"='Srikanth Dyapa';
For example,
D:\pgAgent_jobs
is the path where psql located.
D:\pgAgent_jobs\scripts\test.sql
is the path in which my test.sql placed.
D:\pgAgent_jobs\scripts\psqlss.bat
is my bat file to execute test.sql
so my bat file will be like below
#echo off
cd /D D:\\pgAgent_jobs
psql -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres -d db_name -a -f "D:\pgAgent_jobs\scripts\test.sql"
Note : my pg_hba.conf is configured with trust for all hosts that's why am not passing any password in the above psql command

How to execute Powerpoint on a remote computer using psexec

I have a remote computer I'd like to launch a powerpoint presentation remotely using psexec. I would like the powerpoint presentation to launch on the REMOTE computer.
I'm trying to execute the following command and it says "invalid file name" I have verified the file exists
psexec -u domain\user -p password \remotepc -h C:\Test\Test.pptx
Try:
psexec \\remotepc -u domain\user -p password -h -i C:\Test\Test.pptx
Notice you have 2! slashes before the remotepc name.
And I added the -i option.

PsExec run remote batch file in visible mode

I am trying to execute following command
psexec \\x.x.x.x -d -c -f cmd.exe /c d:\test\hello.bat
It runs fine and gives output
cmd.exe started on x.x.x.x with process ID 106084.
But when I login on x.x.x.x I can find the process ID but no visible batch file is launched. It runs in background.
Batch file
echo "Hello"
pause
Please tell me how to see the command window launched on x.x.x.x
Thanks in advance
I think you can look at the Session Id for your current user and pass it as parameter with -i For example:
PsExec.exe -s -d -i 2 c:\temp\MyServer MyConsoleApp.exe
To look at the current Session Id you can run query session
Sometimes the Session Id is 2 for the active user you want to start process for, so try looking for your correct Session Id and use it with -i parameter.
Try one of those:
psexec \\server -u xxx-p xxxx /accepteula -i 1 -d cmd.exe /K "cd d:\test && call hello.bat"
psexec \\server -u xxx -p xxxx /accepteula -i 1 -d d:\test\hello.bat
Alex K. is correct. Specifically, remove the "-d", which tells PsExec "Don't wait for process to terminate (non-interactive)". In fact, if you run the sample batch file above, which includes "pause", the cmd process will continue to run on the remote host (invisible to the remote host's GUI, since it's done via PSExec) until you kill that process.
PsExec.exe -s -i 2 C:\path_to_exe.exe
This need to check with the session ID variable (-s & -i)