Programatically raise user privileges

Question

I have been maintaining an installation for a while but I am not really an expert. now I've been asked to come up with a solution for this:

Our software is always sold together with a computer as it has to be run in a very controlled environment. The installer needs administrative privileges to be executed. So far we had two different users, one with administrative rights and other one without. Our custumer service login as Administrator, install the software and restart the machine so that the user can access as a normal user.

Now we want the user to be able to install the software themselves but we don't want them to have access as an administrator because they can modify things it shouldn't be modified.

So, is there any way to programatically raise the user privileges during the installation and afterwards lower them back? The installer is made using InstallShield but we use vbscript to check some pre-requisites.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Check out CPAU. It allows you to create an encrypted command that will run the installation as administrator.

EDIT: This is a more comprehensive list of like tools.

Answer 2

If you are looking for a toolkit to do this kind of thing, well, Microsofts MSI technology has this built in: Administrator access is required to install the initial MSI file, additional patches (MSPs I think) are digitally signed by the original MSI and are thus deemed safe - users can install them without requiring administrator elevation.

You can do the same thing: As part of your administrative install, install a service. The service can create a named pipe - that you explicitly give user ACLs to - or even just a socket or monitor a drop off folder that allows the user level code to communicate with the service code (running with SYSTEM or configured access). The service can then use its SERVICE or configured account level permissions to either impersonate an administrator, or do other tasks on the behalf of the user without EVER giving the user any kind of elevated permission - even temporarily.