Process that copies a prn file to a network printer under username

[Philip Wagenaar]

I need to send printjobs to a printqueue under diffrent usernames. The
printsoftware on the queue is not very 'secure' so I can create a user on 1
system and send a printjob under it's name to the printqueue.

This is why I created a program that picks the username out for the .PRN
file, creates a local user, copies the PRN file the network printer and
deletes the user.

I cannot get it to work. I tried first copying a normal text file from one
folder to another but that also does not work. I am having a difficult time
getting a new process to run cmd.exe with /c copy aaaa.txt c:\ as arguments,
let alone copy a .prn file to a network printer (which is also copy aaa.prn
//server/printqueue).

What am I doing wroing?

My code:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Diagnost ics

Public Class Form1

Public watchfolder As FileSystemWatch er
Public ComputerName As String
Public PrintQueue As String
Public Password As String
Public ini As New iniFile(Environ ment.CurrentDir ectory + "\settings.ini" )

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVa l sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArg s) Handles MyBase.Load
Password = "P@ssw0rd"

watchfolder = New System.IO.FileS ystemWatcher()

'this is the path we want to monitor
watchfolder.Pat h = ini.GetString(" main", "folder", "")

'Add a list of Filter we want to specify
'make sure you use OR for each Filter as we need to
'all of those

watchfolder.Not ifyFilter = IO.NotifyFilter s.DirectoryName
watchfolder.Not ifyFilter = watchfolder.Not ifyFilter Or _
IO.NotifyFilter s.FileName
watchfolder.Not ifyFilter = watchfolder.Not ifyFilter Or _
IO.NotifyFilter s.Attributes

' add the handler to each event
AddHandler watchfolder.Cre ated, AddressOf CopyJob
MsgBox(ini.File Name)
MsgBox(watchfol der.Path)
'Set this property to true to start watching
watchfolder.Ena bleRaisingEvent s = True
End Sub

Private Sub StartCommand(By Val Command As String, ByVal Args As String,
ByVal User As String, ByVal Password As String, ByVal WorkDir As String)
Dim ProcessInfo As New ProcessStartInf o
Dim sstr As New System.Security .SecureString
Dim pwd As String = Password

Dim chars() As Char = pwd.ToCharArray ()

Dim i As Integer

For i = 0 To chars.Length - 1
sstr.AppendChar (chars(i))
Next
ProcessInfo.Use ShellExecute = False
ProcessInfo.Use rName = User
ProcessInfo.Pas sword = sstr
ProcessInfo.Fil eName = Command
ProcessInfo.Arg uments = Args
ProcessInfo.Wor kingDirectory = WorkDir
ProcessInfo.Win dowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Hidden
ProcessInfo.Cre ateNoWindow = True

Dim myProcess As New Process()
myProcess.Start Info = ProcessInfo
myProcess.Start ()

End Sub

Private Sub CreateUser(ByVa l User As String)
'Create Account
Dim strUser As String = User
Dim oDomain As Object = GetObject("WinN T://" + ComputerName)
Dim oUser As Object = oDomain.Create( "user", strUser)
If (Err.Number = 0) Then
oUser.SetInfo()
oUser.SetPasswo rd(Password)
oUser.SetInfo()
End If
End Sub

Private Sub DeleteUser(ByVa l User As String)
Dim strUser As String = User
Dim oDomain As Object = GetObject("WinN T://" + ComputerName)
Try
Dim oUser As Object = oDomain.Delete( "user", strUser)
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Messa ge)
End Try

End Sub

Private Sub CopyJob(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As
System.IO.FileS ystemEventArgs)
Dim filename As String = e.FullPath
MsgBox(filename )
ComputerName = System.Environm ent.MachineName
PrintQueue = ini.GetString(" main", "printqueue ", "")
Dim Username As String = ""

If Not e.Name.IndexOf( "_") = -1 Then
Dim NewOwner() As String = e.Name.ToString .Split("_")
Username = NewOwner(0)
End If

If Not Username = "" Then
DeleteUser(User name)
CreateUser(User name)
StartCommand("c :\windows\syste m32\cmd.exe", "/c copy " &
filename & " " & PrintQueue, Username, Password, Environment.Cur rentDirectory)
DeleteUser(User name)
MsgBox("Done")
End If
End Sub

End Class

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi,

Based on my understanding, copy a file onto a file share folder under
certain username.
I think we can call the impersonate code to run the File.Copy code under
certain user credentials to achive the job.

Here is an KB about how to call logon user to impersonate a user credential.
841699 How to validate Windows user rights in a Visual Basic .NET
application
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;841699

If I have misunderstood, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Philip Wagenaar]

Can this be used to copy a file to a network printer?

PCL files can be copied to a network printer with copy myprintjob.prn
//server/printername

This works from the shell command.

""Peter Huang" [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi,

Based on my understanding, copy a file onto a file share folder under
certain username.
I think we can call the impersonate code to run the File.Copy code under
certain user credentials to achive the job.

Here is an KB about how to call logon user to impersonate a user credential.
841699 How to validate Windows user rights in a Visual Basic .NET
application
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;841699

If I have misunderstood, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Philip Wagenaar]

And the kb is for framework 1.1, in 2.0 you can start a process under a
diffrent username.

"Philip Wagenaar" wrote:

Can this be used to copy a file to a network printer?

PCL files can be copied to a network printer with copy myprintjob.prn
//server/printername

This works from the shell command.

""Peter Huang" [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi,

Based on my understanding, copy a file onto a file share folder under
certain username.
I think we can call the impersonate code to run the File.Copy code under
certain user credentials to achive the job.

Here is an KB about how to call logon user to impersonate a user credential.
841699 How to validate Windows user rights in a Visual Basic .NET
application
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;841699

If I have misunderstood, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi Philip,

From your description, I understand that you want to know how to use the
Process class to run a shell command using another user account in .NET 2.0.

Based on my research, we can use the Start method of the Process class to
achieve your job.

Here is the code snippet for your reference.

=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
============
'TextBox1: username
'TextBox2: password
'TextBox3: domain
Private Sub Button1_Click(B yVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArg s) Handles Button1.Click
Dim pass As New SecureString
Dim s As String = TextBox2.Text
For Each c As Char In s.ToCharArray()
pass.AppendChar (c)
Next
Process.Start(" cmd", "/c copy c:\test.bmp \\servername\my share",
Me.TextBox1.Tex t, pass, TextBox3.Text)
End Sub
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
============

If you still have any concern, please feel free to let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Philip Wagenaar]

This works for copying a file to another folder or drive. But this does not
work for copying a .prn file to a network printer. But when you try to copy a
..prn file to a network printer using the same commands using a dosbox it does
work.

So why does copying prn file work from a dosbox and not from process.start
(can you confirm this?)

""Peter Huang" [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi Philip,

From your description, I understand that you want to know how to use the
Process class to run a shell command using another user account in .NET 2.0.

Based on my research, we can use the Start method of the Process class to
achieve your job.

Here is the code snippet for your reference.

=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
============
'TextBox1: username
'TextBox2: password
'TextBox3: domain
Private Sub Button1_Click(B yVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArg s) Handles Button1.Click
Dim pass As New SecureString
Dim s As String = TextBox2.Text
For Each c As Char In s.ToCharArray()
pass.AppendChar (c)
Next
Process.Start(" cmd", "/c copy c:\test.bmp \\servername\my share",
Me.TextBox1.Tex t, pass, TextBox3.Text)
End Sub
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
============

If you still have any concern, please feel free to let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi Philip,

Based on my test, I can not reproduce the problem.
Here is my test code.
Private Sub Button1_Click(B yVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArg s) Handles Button1.Click
'Dim p As New Process
Dim pass As New SecureString
Dim s As String = TextBox2.Text
For Each c As Char In s.ToCharArray()
pass.AppendChar (c)
Next
Dim par As String
par = "/c copy c:\test.prn \\servername\pr intername"
'par = "/c copy c:\test.bmp \\servername\my share"
Process.Start(" cmd", par, Me.TextBox1.Tex t, pass, TextBox3.Text)
End Sub

BTW: Did you run the code in a Window Service? Because the Window Service
will run under another desktop which is different from the logoned
interactive desktop, in that desktop, the network share printer did not
work as \\servername\pr intername, this is commonly user percific.

To isolate the problem, I suggest you run the code in a winform application
directly.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Philip Wagenaar]

For some reason today it works, I think it has to do with space in the
printername and quotation marks.

I changed my approach from a windows service to a forms application. When
the forms app works I will try to convert it to a window service.

I am doing this because I need to start a print job under a specific
username. I have solved the problem of the shared printername for when I
convert to service.

- I installed services for unix on both machines.
- Installed a localprinter that uses a LPR printer poort to the networked
printer
- Now I can print to a local printer (machine specific) from any account on
the machine

I will try

""Peter Huang" [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi Philip,

Based on my test, I can not reproduce the problem.
Here is my test code.
Private Sub Button1_Click(B yVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArg s) Handles Button1.Click
'Dim p As New Process
Dim pass As New SecureString
Dim s As String = TextBox2.Text
For Each c As Char In s.ToCharArray()
pass.AppendChar (c)
Next
Dim par As String
par = "/c copy c:\test.prn \\servername\pr intername"
'par = "/c copy c:\test.bmp \\servername\my share"
Process.Start(" cmd", par, Me.TextBox1.Tex t, pass, TextBox3.Text)
End Sub

BTW: Did you run the code in a Window Service? Because the Window Service
will run under another desktop which is different from the logoned
interactive desktop, in that desktop, the network share printer did not
work as \\servername\pr intername, this is commonly user percific.

To isolate the problem, I suggest you run the code in a winform application
directly.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi

Thanks for your quickly reply!

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.