PSEXEC - "The Handle is invalid" When running the command as System User

Question

This is the command that works fine if run from a user-spawned command prompt:

PSEXEC \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -u xxxx -p xxxx -accepteula cmd /c "TYPE C:\Pyxislog\PYXIS01.log|Find/i "%ID%"" >nul

However, if I try to run this from a system-invoked cmd prompt I get this:

Couldn't access 10.219.149.65:
The handle is invalid.
Connecting to 10.219.149.65...

It has to run as a system user, since it will be deployed via a remote software tool which runs as a system user. Is this a limitation of psexec? and yes, the Username and password have administrative rights.

Answer 1

After much research, it is a windows security feature to block all network access to the system user, which includes running tasks as another user. The best method I have found to circumvent this , is to create a scheduled task to run psexec from an administrator account.

Answer 2

Psexec forces to use System user account by adding -s parameter.

We use psexec to launch some task in remote computers and it logs in a database table. When we dont use -s parameter user appears as domain\administrator but if you use -s parameter it appears as "System"

For the invalid handle message check this:

https://superuser.com/questions/200938/psexec-the-handle-is-invalid

Answer 3

Have you tried using the -h flag?

from technet: -h If the target system is Vista or higher, has the process run with the account's elevated token, if available.

Full page: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/psexec.aspx

Answer 4

It might be unrelated, but I actually found I got this "The handle is invalid" error if the connection went down to the machine - i.e. the machine fell asleep.

Answer 5

Here is the code I used to follow The IT guy's instructions on scheduling a task to run as admin and avoid the "The handle is invalid" issue.

        //Schedule a task that will run the script
        using (TaskService ts = new TaskService())
        {
            TaskDefinition td = ts.NewTask();
            td.RegistrationInfo.Description = "Runs script as admin user";
            td.Triggers.Add(new TimeTrigger(DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(2)));
            td.Actions.Add(new ExecAction(@"C:\...\script.exe"));
            try
            {
                ts.RootFolder.RegisterTaskDefinition(@"Script", td, TaskCreation.CreateOrUpdate, "username", "password", logonType: TaskLogonType.Password);
            }
            catch (UnauthorizedAccessException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Could not register task in task scheduler.");
                Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
                return;
            }
        }

Answer 6

My code works perfectly :

public static void RunTask(string[] task, string username, string password)
{
    System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo(task[1] + ".exe");
    psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
    psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
    psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
    psi.UseShellExecute = false;
    string args = String.Format(@"-u {1} -p {2} -accepteula \\{0} " + (task[1] == "psexec" ? "-d -s -i 2 {3}" : "{3}"), task[0], username, password, task[1] == "psservice" ? task[2].TrimStart('"').Insert(task[2].IndexOf(' '), "\"") : task[2]);
    psi.Arguments = args;

    System.Diagnostics.Process prc = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
    string output = (prc.StandardError.ReadToEnd() + "\r\n" + prc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()).Trim();
    output = output.Substring(output.IndexOf(".com\r\n\r\n") + 8);

    prc.WaitForExit();

    if (!(output.Contains("started on") || output.Contains("killed on") || output.Contains("SERVICE_NAME"))) throw new Exception(output);
}

Sample calls :

    RunTask(new string[] { "MACHINE", "psexec", @"""C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe""" }, "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
    RunTask(new string[] { "MACHINE", "pskill", @"""iexplore.exe""" }, "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
    RunTask(new string[] { "MACHINE", "psservice", @"""start SOMESERVICE""" }, "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
    RunTask(new string[] { "MACHINE", "psservice", @"""stop SOMESERVICE""" }, "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");

• Make sure you have the psexec.exe, pskill.exe and psservice.exe beside your program.