Helpdesk Tool

[Phases]

I'm new to AutoIT, but have experience programming in PHP and VB.

I know there are paid programs out there that will do this. But essentially, what I want to know is would this be difficult for AutoIT to do. Below is my design criteria.

1. Client Computer has a service running on it and an application that provides general helpdesk information. Within that application is a Temporary Administrator option.

2. The temporary administrator option provides a string of random text - that is given to the helpdesk. They then provide the second half of the key through their applicaiton. The combination of the keys is checked by the client program which, if things are good. tells the service to allow administrator for say 3 hours.

3. The service then adds the user to the Administrators group for 3 hours, then removes them.

Optionally...

4. The user can click an option to remove themselves from the administrators group prematurely.

5. While in the administrator group certain programs cannot run. (like Internet Explorer) A message should pop up indicating why.

Is this possible?

[CyberSlug]

I'll assume Windows 2000 and/or XP.

1 - I've not tried running AutoIt as a true service, though I've seen info about using srvany.exe

2 - If you want the string of random text sent to the helpdesk through TCP/IP, the beta version of AutoIt has such functions.

3 - Should be possible by using the "net user" command-line util:

;I think the syntax would look something like
RunAsSet ("existingUserWithAdminPrivs", "domain", "password")
Run("cmd /c net localgroup "Administrators" "joeuser" /ADD", "", @SW_HIDE)
RunAsSet()

The hard part is getting the password to the RunAsSet command. I don't know if I'd trust embedding the password in plain text or sending it over TCP/IP.

I assum removal code would be similar.

4 - Sure. You can look at the GUI features of AutoIt to make a nice interface.

5 - Sure, but this can be tricky to implement well. Windows 98 lockdown policies just used to look at the filename; so a smart user would rename the file to something allowed.... Maybe a file hash would be good or info from the FileGet* functions to verify size/version/timestamp....

[Phases]

Thanks! It never occured to me to use the net commands - that should work perfectly.

Once I have a script written, I'll post it.