C# – Process.Start() under asp.net

asp.netciisiis-7.5w3wp.exe

According to msdn :

ASP.NET Web page and server control code executes in the context of
the ASP.NET worker process on the Web server. If you use the Start
method in an ASP.NET Web page or server control, the new process
executes on the Web server with restricted permissions. The
process does not start in the same context as the client browser, and
does not have access to the user desktop.

Which account precisely is the "restricted permissions" ?

Example :

I'm logged to win7 as RoyiN
windows authentication is enabled
Impersonation is enabled as BobK at web.config ( all over the site)
The W3WP user is UserA (not network nor ApplicationPoolIdentity).

In C# I do Process.start("....cmd.exe...") ( with Startinfo credentials as : "Martin","Password","Domain")

Who is the efficient account which finally runs cmd.exe ?
To whom "restricted permissions" is actually regarding ?

Best Answer

Impersonation won't come into play here, since under the hood, Process.Start is relying on one of two native Win32 calls:

If ProcessStartInfo.UserName is provided:

CreateProcessWithLogonW(startInfo.UserName, startInfo.Domain, ...)

CreateProcessWithLogonW

And if not:

CreateProcess(null, cmdLine, null, null, true, ...)

CreateProcess

The nulls passed into CreateProcess are what's probably biting you; from MSDN:

The lpSecurityDescriptor member of the structure specifies a security descriptor for the main thread. If lpThreadAttributes is NULL or lpSecurityDescriptor is NULL, the thread gets a default security descriptor. The ACLs in the default security descriptor for a thread come from the process token.

Note it says from process token, not calling thread - the impersonated identity doesn't get a chance to join the party since it's bound to the thread.

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

Reference

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.