Within IIS 6, I am trying to change the Logon account for all of the IIS
services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL, and WWW) from the Local System account to a
custom account in the Administrators group. Whenever I try to start IIS
Admin, the service terminates with an error in the Event Log: "Access is
Denied". When I set the Logon account back to the Local System account,
services start.

The Administrators group has the required permissions on inetinfo.exe and
the system32 and inetsrv directories. In the Local Security Policy, I've
tried giving the Administrators group the "replace a process level token" and
"adjust memory quotas for a process" rights (Administrators group has most
rights already).

After researching on Microsoft's site, I ran the command line below:
sc query IISADMIN
It showed that the STATE was "STOPPED" and the WIN32_EXIT_CODE was 5.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Re: IIS Admin Service - changing Logon account by Ken

Ken
Wed Mar 30 16:56:40 CST 2005

You should check with Microsoft whether what you are trying to do is a
supportable configuration. As far as I know, IIS is only supportable if the
services are running as LocalSystem

Cheers
Ken

--
Blog: www.adopenstatic.com/cs/blogs/ken/
Web: www.adopenstatic.com


"fwrs" <fwrs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A7ABAF84-8AE9-4101-A38C-A23CFAE2D5B9@microsoft.com...
: Within IIS 6, I am trying to change the Logon account for all of the IIS
: services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL, and WWW) from the Local System account to a
: custom account in the Administrators group. Whenever I try to start IIS
: Admin, the service terminates with an error in the Event Log: "Access is
: Denied". When I set the Logon account back to the Local System account,
: services start.
:
: The Administrators group has the required permissions on inetinfo.exe and
: the system32 and inetsrv directories. In the Local Security Policy, I've
: tried giving the Administrators group the "replace a process level token"
and
: "adjust memory quotas for a process" rights (Administrators group has most
: rights already).
:
: After researching on Microsoft's site, I ran the command line below:
: sc query IISADMIN
: It showed that the STATE was "STOPPED" and the WIN32_EXIT_CODE was 5.
:
: Does anyone have any ideas?
:



Re: IIS Admin Service - changing Logon account by Bernard

Bernard
Wed Mar 30 20:24:56 CST 2005

Yes, IIS Admin must run under LocalSystem

--
Regards,
Bernard Cheah
http://www.tryiis.com/
http://support.microsoft.com/
http://www.msmvps.com/bernard/


"Ken Schaefer" <kenREMOVE@THISadOpenStatic.com> wrote in message
news:OupE%23uXNFHA.3772@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> You should check with Microsoft whether what you are trying to do is a
> supportable configuration. As far as I know, IIS is only supportable if
> the
> services are running as LocalSystem
>
> Cheers
> Ken
>
> --
> Blog: www.adopenstatic.com/cs/blogs/ken/
> Web: www.adopenstatic.com
>
>
> "fwrs" <fwrs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A7ABAF84-8AE9-4101-A38C-A23CFAE2D5B9@microsoft.com...
> : Within IIS 6, I am trying to change the Logon account for all of the IIS
> : services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL, and WWW) from the Local System account to
> a
> : custom account in the Administrators group. Whenever I try to start IIS
> : Admin, the service terminates with an error in the Event Log: "Access is
> : Denied". When I set the Logon account back to the Local System account,
> : services start.
> :
> : The Administrators group has the required permissions on inetinfo.exe
> and
> : the system32 and inetsrv directories. In the Local Security Policy, I've
> : tried giving the Administrators group the "replace a process level
> token"
> and
> : "adjust memory quotas for a process" rights (Administrators group has
> most
> : rights already).
> :
> : After researching on Microsoft's site, I ran the command line below:
> : sc query IISADMIN
> : It showed that the STATE was "STOPPED" and the WIN32_EXIT_CODE was 5.
> :
> : Does anyone have any ideas?
> :
>
>



Re: IIS Admin Service - changing Logon account by David

David
Wed Mar 30 22:13:25 CST 2005

Changing the logon account for those three services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL,
and WWW) is not supported. Please describe the reasons that you are trying
to do this.

Believe me, with IIS6 you do not need to change those user accounts from a
security perspective because no user code runs in them. And any security
audit that requires changing them is 100% wrong because from IIS
perspective, you are simply misconfiguring the server and it should
rightfully fail.

All user code runs in w3wp.exe, whose process identity is 100% customizable
and controllable by the user, and it should give you all the flexibility
that you need. And in IIS5 Compatibility Mode, the security situation is
not different than IIS5 on W2K (user code can run in LocalSystem on
inetinfo.exe) -- but the goal is compatibility. If you want security, use
the IIS6 Process Model.

But in no case should you think about changing the logon account and then
expect things to magically work.

A very common misconception is that if an identity has all privileges (or if
you enable anonymous access), that all requests/actions should NEVER get
access denied (that's what the exit code of "5" means). Clearly, that is
false, because if an identity never had any ACL on the resource to begin
with, or if the resource has a deny ACL for that identity, the identity will
not be allowed to access the resource, period. No matter the privileges held
by the identity. There is no privilege that says "the user never gets access
denied". There is a privilege that says the user can change any ACL.

In other words, System Administrators can get access denied. What is special
about administrators is that they have the power to CHANGE an ACL, so they
may be initially denied access, but they can later change the ACL such that
they are allowed access.

--
//David
IIS
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//
"fwrs" <fwrs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A7ABAF84-8AE9-4101-A38C-A23CFAE2D5B9@microsoft.com...
Within IIS 6, I am trying to change the Logon account for all of the IIS
services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL, and WWW) from the Local System account to a
custom account in the Administrators group. Whenever I try to start IIS
Admin, the service terminates with an error in the Event Log: "Access is
Denied". When I set the Logon account back to the Local System account,
services start.

The Administrators group has the required permissions on inetinfo.exe and
the system32 and inetsrv directories. In the Local Security Policy, I've
tried giving the Administrators group the "replace a process level token"
and
"adjust memory quotas for a process" rights (Administrators group has most
rights already).

After researching on Microsoft's site, I ran the command line below:
sc query IISADMIN
It showed that the STATE was "STOPPED" and the WIN32_EXIT_CODE was 5.

Does anyone have any ideas?



Re: IIS Admin Service - changing Logon account by fwrs

fwrs
Thu Mar 31 08:13:05 CST 2005

Thanks to everyone for your replies. This was not something I was choosing to
do but was being mandated as part of a web security audit/checklist. You know
Security...lock it down til it doesn't work. I will try to get them to
consider your suggestions as an alternative. Thanks again.

"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

> Changing the logon account for those three services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL,
> and WWW) is not supported. Please describe the reasons that you are trying
> to do this.
>
> Believe me, with IIS6 you do not need to change those user accounts from a
> security perspective because no user code runs in them. And any security
> audit that requires changing them is 100% wrong because from IIS
> perspective, you are simply misconfiguring the server and it should
> rightfully fail.
>
> All user code runs in w3wp.exe, whose process identity is 100% customizable
> and controllable by the user, and it should give you all the flexibility
> that you need. And in IIS5 Compatibility Mode, the security situation is
> not different than IIS5 on W2K (user code can run in LocalSystem on
> inetinfo.exe) -- but the goal is compatibility. If you want security, use
> the IIS6 Process Model.
>
> But in no case should you think about changing the logon account and then
> expect things to magically work.
>
> A very common misconception is that if an identity has all privileges (or if
> you enable anonymous access), that all requests/actions should NEVER get
> access denied (that's what the exit code of "5" means). Clearly, that is
> false, because if an identity never had any ACL on the resource to begin
> with, or if the resource has a deny ACL for that identity, the identity will
> not be allowed to access the resource, period. No matter the privileges held
> by the identity. There is no privilege that says "the user never gets access
> denied". There is a privilege that says the user can change any ACL.
>
> In other words, System Administrators can get access denied. What is special
> about administrators is that they have the power to CHANGE an ACL, so they
> may be initially denied access, but they can later change the ACL such that
> they are allowed access.
>
> --
> //David
> IIS
> http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> //
> "fwrs" <fwrs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A7ABAF84-8AE9-4101-A38C-A23CFAE2D5B9@microsoft.com...
> Within IIS 6, I am trying to change the Logon account for all of the IIS
> services (IIS Admin, HTTP SSL, and WWW) from the Local System account to a
> custom account in the Administrators group. Whenever I try to start IIS
> Admin, the service terminates with an error in the Event Log: "Access is
> Denied". When I set the Logon account back to the Local System account,
> services start.
>
> The Administrators group has the required permissions on inetinfo.exe and
> the system32 and inetsrv directories. In the Local Security Policy, I've
> tried giving the Administrators group the "replace a process level token"
> and
> "adjust memory quotas for a process" rights (Administrators group has most
> rights already).
>
> After researching on Microsoft's site, I ran the command line below:
> sc query IISADMIN
> It showed that the STATE was "STOPPED" and the WIN32_EXIT_CODE was 5.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas?
>
>
>