Security Workaround for Installing Apps on Windows Server 2K8

2009-02-17T13:02:23Z

When attempting to install applications on Windows Server 2008, even though the user account is part of the administrator group, you will receive an error stating as follows:

"Administrator privileges are required to install a web application"

This is due to the fact that being part of the Local Administrator Group doesn't provide the same access as the Local Administrator Account (the same also applies to Windows Vista). With Windows Server 2K8, the administrator access token is split into 2 tokens when logged into the server. One of these is an administrator token and the other a standard user token. During the logon process, authorization and access control components that identify an administrator are removed, leaving a standard user token. The standard user token is used to start the desktop and, therefore, all applications that start, will be run as a standard administrator. As a result of this, the workaround is to disable the UAC (User Account Control) so that the logged in user will have the administrator token. It's interesting to note that the error that you receive isn't a UAC pop-up message, but just a general error message.

Disabling UAC

Click Start, and then Control Panel
Click on User Accounts
Click on Turn User Accounts on or off
Uncheck the User User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer checkbox and click OK
Click on Restart Now

*Note, it is not recommended to leave UAC turned off due to the exposure of increased risk of malicious software attacks.

For further information regarding UAC and configuring it on Windows Server 2K8, please see Microsoft's TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709691.aspx

Creating a SharePoint Custom Event Handler

2009-01-09T16:47:23Z

I’ll review the basic steps on creating a SharePoint custom event handler.

You begin by opening up Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and create a new class project. Reference the Microsoft.SharePoint assembly and then rename the default.cs class to the name that you want to give to your event handler. Also, remember to add your using statement for Microsoft.SharePoint.

Depending on which type of event handler you are wanting to write, will determine the proper SharePoint class to derive from. A breakdown of the available SharePoint classes to derive from are as follows:

· List Items – SPItemEventReceiver

· List Columns – SPListEventReceiver

· Site – SPWebEventReceiver

· Email – SPEmailEventReciever

At this point, you need to make a decision on whether you want to use Asynchronous or Synchronous events in your event handler. In order to determine which one you want, first decide if you want the event to fire before or after the event.

Asynchronous calls occur after the event, and do not block any code being executed in SharePoint. On the flipside, synchronous calls occur before the event, will block code being executed in SharePoint until your custom event handler is completed.

For a list of the available methods for each class, refer to Microsoft’s site:

SPItemEventReceiver Methods

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spitemeventreceiver_methods.aspx

SPListEventReceiver Methods

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.splisteventreceiver_methods.aspx

SPWebEventReceiver Methods

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spwebeventreceiver_methods.aspx

SPEmailEventReceiver Methods

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spemaileventreceiver_methods.aspx

Once you make your decision on what type of event receiver and also what type of method call you will be using, write out the override method . I will discuss further on manipulating particular methods.

Creating a Strong Name Key

After completing your method, you will need to sign the assembly. You can do this by going into solution explorer and right clicking your project and selecting properties. Then, click the Signing tab, then select Sign the Assembly, then select Choose a strong name key file and click “<New…>”. Type a name into the Key file name box (usually the name of your project). It needs to be in the format of xxxxxx.snk. You can set a password if you want, and click OK.

Creating Event Receiver to be installed as a Feature

Right click on your event handler project and select Add / New Folder. Name the folder as the same name as the project or similar. Add to blank XML files under the folder. Name the XML files as elements.xml and the other feature.xml.

In the feature.xml file, it should follow the following format:

<FeatureScope="Web"

Title="My Event Handler"

Description ="Description goes here."

Id="F141E5EA-796E-4807-AB86-43F5DC560371"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

<ElementManifestLocation="elements.xml"/>

</ElementManifests>

</Feature>

For further explanation, refer to the Microsoft site for all the available nodes. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms436075.aspx

<Elementsxmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

<ReceiversListTemplateId="101">

<Name>MyEventHandler</Name>

<Type>ItemAdded</Type>

<Assembly>MyEventHandler, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=1cd942f82aed8c82</Assembly>

<Class>MyEventHandler.EventHandler</Class>

</Receiver>

</Receivers>

</Elements>

In the elements.xml, the ListTemplateId refers to which list to associate the event handler. 101 = document library. For a description of the available id, see here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms462947.aspx

The <Type> node refers to the method that will be raised when the action takes place. For multiple methods, you will need multiple <Receiver> nodes. <SequenceNumber>node refers to the order of execution.

Add a text file to the root of the project and rename it to cab.ddf and input the following:

;** MyEventHandler.wsp **

.OPTION EXPLICIT

.Set CabinetNameTemplate= MyEventHandler.wsp

.Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM

.Set CompressionType=MSZIP

.Set UniqueFiles="ON"

.Set Cabinet=on

.Set DiskDirectory1=Package

;**************************************************

manifest.xml manifest.xml

MyEventHandler\elements.xml MyEventHandler \elements.xml

MyEventHandler \feature.xml MyEventHandler \feature.xml

bin\debug\ MyEventHandler.dll MyEventHandler.dll

Then add another text file and rename that one to installer.bat. The following should be inputted:

makecab /f cab.ddf

Add a new xml file to the root of the project and rename it to manifest.xml and input the following:

<?xmlversion="1.0"encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Solutionxmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"SolutionId="BF2A762B-A158-456c-BCA5-38120E87D982">

<FeatureManifestLocation="MyEventHandler\feature.xml"/>

</FeatureManifests>

<AssemblyDeploymentTarget="GlobalAssemblyCache" Location="MyEventHandler.dll">

</Assembly>

</Assemblies>

</Solution>

Save all your work and build your project.

Steve Boldt

Security Workaround for Installing Apps on Windows Server 2K8

Creating a SharePoint Custom Event Handler