AutoIT stopped working

[jcrist90]

Hi All,

I faced very strange issue with AutoIT v3, version 3.3.14.5. Operating system Win 10 Pro 64bit Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134. AutoIT stopped executing any scripts, which were working fine before without any problem.

The symptoms are: - whenever I run any script it returns with exit code 0 without actually doing anything. It doest matter if I do it from the AutoIT editor or from the command line - she just exits silently without any diagnostics whatsoever. The same release works fine on other machines.

I tried  restart, reinstall, Windows reboot- nothing helps. Any idea how I can troubleshoot this problem? I even created a new test file and typed some gibberish in it - AutoIT just swallows it without any issue and returns OK without doing anything.

Other programs on this machine work without any problem.

 

[Jos]

Any AntiVirus/malware software running that is interfering with the execution?

[jcrist90]

No, just Windows defender. It is very strange but it seems I worked around the issue. When I copy the folder with my scripts from the network drive to C:\ drive they start working fine! Very strange as I developed the whole set on the network drive and all scripts worked fine before from that location. The network drive is mapped as D:\, no issues with copying files back and forth. 

[Jos]

i have seen other reports about this issue but we have never been able to drill it down to the level what is causing it and have never been able to replicate the issue.

Jos

[jcrist90]

Thank you for prompt response and sorry for false alarm. I will experiment more with this problem and update here if any new findings.

[water]

Maybe your admin has changed the group policy so programs can only be executed from some "secure locations" (Application Directory whitelisting or even applocker)?

[jcrist90]

I am the admin All I changed - I added this folder to git so I suspect this could be the reason.

Win 10 is running as VM on VirtualBox, all network drives are permanently mapped to the host file system, host is Ubuntu 18.04.

[jcrist90]

Although new file in that location also doesn't work so it is unlikely that git is the problem.

[Jos]

Here is the other thread which seems to be a similar case with a virtual box:

 

[TheDcoder]

Thanks for mentioning my topic @Jos

  On 6/21/2019 at 1:03 PM, jcrist90 said:

Win 10 is running as VM on VirtualBox, all network drives are permanently mapped to the host file system, host is Ubuntu 18.04.

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I assume you are running the scripts from one of the network drives? Please test if you could run a script if it is in the system (usually C)  drive... the desktop is a handy location to test

  On 6/21/2019 at 11:59 AM, Jos said:

we have never been able to drill it down to the level what is causing it and have never been able to replicate the issue.

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I am able to replicate the issue on my computer, and I volunteer for any testing efforts... maybe we can use a debug version of AutoIt to output some useful information to see what is happening behind the scenes with reading the script?

[jcrist90]

  On 6/22/2019 at 4:57 AM, TheDcoder said:

Thanks for mentioning my topic @Jos

I assume you are running the scripts from one of the network drives? Please test if you could run a script if it is in the system (usually C)  drive... the desktop is a handy location to test 

I am able to replicate the issue on my computer, and I volunteer for any testing efforts... maybe we can use a debug version of AutoIt to output some useful information to see what is happening behind the scenes with reading the script?

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yep, it is exact same problem. Scripts worked before but stopped out of sudden without any obvious reason. Copying them to the C:\ drive cures the issue - all is working fine as before. 

I suspect that this issue could come with some upgrade, either in Windows or Linux and probably the one, which came out just recently. Which distro are you using as a host OS?

[jchd]

If that's true, I wouldn't call it an "upgrade".

[TheDcoder]

  On 6/22/2019 at 6:33 AM, jcrist90 said:

Which distro are you using as a host OS?

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Fedora 30 with VirtualBox from the official Oracle repository

[jcrist90]

Ok, my host is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS but I have some updates still pending and I did not update Ubuntu recently, it goes only manual. My VirtualBox version:

I guess the suspect is Microsoft Windows 10 as it did do several updates recently, in May-June. My Win 10 installation is saying it is "up to date", so I got all the fixed from Microsoft. What Windows version do you run?

 

[TheDcoder]

  On 6/22/2019 at 8:45 AM, jcrist90 said:

What Windows version do you run?

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The latest version of Windows 10 I presume, I update it regulary.

I also just updated my host operating system, I have VirtualBox v6.0.8 r130520.

I did another quick test now... still doesn't work

[jcrist90]

So this is most likely Microsoft. Could be their anti-malware, which may block running scripts from network locations.

[water]

Did you check the Windows event logs or VirtualBox logs.
Maybe you will find some entries on startup time of VB or run time of your script.

[Werty]

Just a thought, could it have anything to do with the BIOS setting "Execute Disable Bit" also called "Data Execution Protection" or "No Execute Memory Protection".

Try disabling it in BIOS, i read somewhere that people have problems with that and virtualization.

Maybe it doesnt work, but wouldnt hurt trying.

[mLipok]

  On 6/21/2019 at 11:57 AM, jcrist90 said:

The network drive is mapped as D:\, no issues with copying files back and forth. 

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Save your script to C drive ... Add FileExist('D:\....au3') and give as the result.

I think you are using #RequireAdmin but the D drive is not mapped for admin.....

 

[jcrist90]

  On 6/22/2019 at 10:09 AM, Werty said:

Just a thought, could it have anything to do with the BIOS setting "Execute Disable Bit" also called "Data Execution Protection" or "No Execute Memory Protection".

Try disabling it in BIOS, i read somewhere that people have problems with that and virtualization.

Maybe it doesnt work, but wouldnt hurt trying.

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I guess this bit is enabled by default. I haven't seen such setting in my BIOS - I have MSI z170a gaming m5 mobo. Can probably help with buffer overrun attacks prevention but I doubt it is related to this problem.