README.md

psexec-sudo

Overview

Pseudo "sudo" prompt for Windows using psexec64, allowing access to the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account.

Installation & Usage

1. Download Sysinternals psexec https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

2. Place sudo.cmd and psexec64.exe into your %PATH%, execute with run prompt.

The script will verify administrative credentials, and then will run psexec64.exe with the switches -s -i and cmd.exe.

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 -s         Run the remote process in the System account.
 -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.

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psexec is incredibly useful for diagnosing, troubleshooting, and verifying any remote administration tasks that require administrative or alternate credentials. This is typically how tasks are run from Task Scheduler or remote admin tools, which will allow you to diagnose steps in scripts such as:

• Access to folders/files
• File paths are interpreted correctly (as you are launching from %SYSTEMROOT%\System32)
• Correct location of certain logs - for example, for Office installs run from a default Windows account context will store logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp, but will store in %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp when run from the SYSTEM context.
• Additional note: SYSTEM does not have any rights to access the network. When network access is required, it will use DOMAIN\ComputerName$. Therefore, the necessary permissions for something like a software install share would be to include the Domain Computers group. See reference below regarding %ComputerName% credential.

Images

Additional references:

• https://forums.ivanti.com/s/article/How-To-Test-SYSTEM-Account-Permissions
• https://www.itprotoday.com/compute-engines/psexec
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/Services/localsystem-account
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/system-center/configuration-manager-2007/bb680595(v=technet.10)