Inherited permissions in Everything 1.2.1.451a

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Magritte
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:04 pm

Inherited permissions in Everything 1.2.1.451a

Post by Magritte »

I'm not sure this would be technically a bug, but I think it is an important issue. Everything must run with Administrator permissions, which is fine. However, there are a number of cases where launching an application from the result list in Everything causes that application to inherit the Administrator permissions in Windows 7 (and I assume Vista) which is not appropriate unless the user specifically desires this behaviour. If you search for an executable and launch it from Everything it will run as Administrator. More disturbing is that in some cases launching a document from Everything will cause the associated application to run as Administrator. This doesn't seem to always be the case, but I just did find that launching a .docx file caused Word 2007 to run as Administrator. In contrast, using the open path command then launching it from Explorer caused Word 2007 to load normally as a regular user. I'm not clear on what conditions cause the associated application to launch as Administrator, but depending on the application (eg. a web browser) this could create an unintended security problem that might otherwise be mitigated by running as a limited user.

I'd really like to see Everything specifically launch all applications as the user and not administrator. There could be an extra option in the context menu to launch as administrator. However, since is more likely to be the exception, it could be adequate to always launch as a limited user and if you want to launch as administrator you can go to the Explorer window to do so.
therube
Posts: 4580
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Inherited permissions in Everything 1.2.1.451a

Post by therube »

Mentioned before, by yourself, run as a service (UAC and user permissions) & here, Everything and file system permissions!.

Guess we have to see what the boss thinks.
therube
Posts: 4580
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Inherited permissions in Everything 1.2.1.451a

Post by therube »

Found this comment (from another program) interesting:
FAQ: Drop Box doesn't work on Vista and later.

Due to Microsoft's decision, the priviledge levels of the Explorer and the drop source/destination programs have to be exactly the same for any drop operations to work. If the Explorer is running under the Administrator's priviledge, please excute our program in the Administrator's priviledge also.

Also, if you want to drop system protected files onto the drop box, you may have to run both Explorer and our program in the Administrator's priviledge. Otherwise, you may change the file attributes to non-system protected ones or move them to non-system protected folders before you drop them onto the program.

We've been looking for any solution to hack this issue around. However, please understand it's exactly the planned behaiver by Microsoft.
http://www.moo0.com/software/AudioTypeConverter/
Magritte
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:04 pm

Re: Inherited permissions in Everything 1.2.1.451a

Post by Magritte »

Forgot I even posted that and did find the other in a search... Hopefully this will be addressed in the next version as it is more than just a cosmetic issue... Not enough to keep me from using Everything as it is so supremely useful, but I'm careful about launching anything from it now.

Not quite sure how your second comment relates. I haven't noticed any issues using drag and drop to copy files from the Everything results to Explorer.

I suspect the best solution would be the service/client model, spawning additional processes as necessary. However that would clearly require a major reworking so a simpler solution within the current framework would make me happy.

Thanks.
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