Convert a username to a SID string in C#/.NET

Question

There's a question about converting from a SID to an account name; there isn't one for the other way around.

How do you convert a username to a SID string, for example, to find out which HKEY_USERS subkey relates to a user of a given name?

Balneal

Answer 1

The podcast tells me I should ask, and answer, questions when they're not answered on SO already. Here goes.

The easy way, with .NET 2.0 and up, is this:

NTAccount f = new NTAccount("username");
SecurityIdentifier s = (SecurityIdentifier) f.Translate(typeof(SecurityIdentifier));
String sidString = s.ToString();

The hard way, which works when that won't, and works on .NET 1.1 also:

[DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto, SetLastError=true)]
public static extern bool LookupAccountName([In,MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string systemName, [In,MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string accountName, IntPtr sid, ref int cbSid, StringBuilder referencedDomainName, ref int cbReferencedDomainName, out int use);

[DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto, SetLastError=true)]
internal static extern bool ConvertSidToStringSid(IntPtr sid, [In,Out,MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] ref string pStringSid);


/// <summary>The method converts object name (user, group) into SID string.</summary>
/// <param name="name">Object name in form domain\object_name.</param>
/// <returns>SID string.</returns>
public static string GetSid(string name) {
    IntPtr _sid = IntPtr.Zero; //pointer to binary form of SID string.
    int _sidLength = 0;   //size of SID buffer.
    int _domainLength = 0;  //size of domain name buffer.
    int _use;     //type of object.
    StringBuilder _domain = new StringBuilder(); //stringBuilder for domain name.
    int _error = 0;
    string _sidString = "";

    //first call of the function only returns the sizes of buffers (SDI, domain name)
    LookupAccountName(null, name, _sid, ref _sidLength, _domain, ref _domainLength, out _use);
    _error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();

    if (_error != 122) //error 122 (The data area passed to a system call is too small) - normal behaviour.
    {
        throw (new Exception(new Win32Exception(_error).Message));
    } else {
        _domain = new StringBuilder(_domainLength); //allocates memory for domain name
        _sid = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(_sidLength); //allocates memory for SID
        bool _rc = LookupAccountName(null, name, _sid, ref _sidLength, _domain, ref _domainLength, out _use);

        if (_rc == false) {
            _error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
            Marshal.FreeHGlobal(_sid);
            throw (new Exception(new Win32Exception(_error).Message));
        } else {
            // converts binary SID into string
            _rc = ConvertSidToStringSid(_sid, ref _sidString);

            if (_rc == false) {
                _error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(_sid);
                throw (new Exception(new Win32Exception(_error).Message));
            } else {
                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(_sid);
                return _sidString;
            }
        }
    }
}

Balneal

I am intrigued as to why I chose 'f' as the variable for the NTAccount! – Balneal

"which works when that won't" ... any pointers to when the easy approach won't work, assuming I have .NET 2.0? – Philipps

Not that I remember sorry. I probably meant pre-2.0 only; I expect it boils down to the same Win32 API calls. – Balneal

One of my client report an exception: "Some or all identity references could not be translated" when I use the first method, I haven't tried the second method but I just leave my comment here for anyone to know. – Contributory

I got System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException – Targum

Answer 2

The LookupAccountName() native method has the advantage of being able to be executed on a remote machine whereas the .NET methods can't be executed remotely.

Though the example doesn't show it LookupAccountName(null) <- this is the remote system to execute on.

Martin

Answer 3

using System.Security.Principal;

var curUser = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().User.Value;
var otherUser = new WindowsIdentity("[email protected]").User.Value;

Tuberculous

While your code can be self-explanatory it still is a bad idea to only provide code dumps. Without any explanation and code only answers are marked as low-quality and are subject for deletion. – Burned

@NawedNabiZada This is a programmer's question to programmers. We're not writers 😁. I was looking for an answer to this question myself and found it and decided to share it. In my example, variable names and function names tell everything about themselves! – Tuberculous

Believe it or not, I only commented to make you aware of the rules of SO. – Burned

Answer 4

using System;
using System.Management;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WMISample
{
public class MyWMIQuery
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        try
        {
            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = 
                new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2", 
                "SELECT * FROM Win32_UserAccount where name='Galia'"); 

            foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
            {
                Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
                Console.WriteLine("Win32_UserAccount instance");
                Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
                Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", queryObj["Name"]);
                Console.WriteLine("SID: {0}", queryObj["SID"]);
            }
        }
        catch (ManagementException e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI 
            data: " + e.Message);
        }
      }
    }
}

/////////Remote:

            ConnectionOptions connection = new ConnectionOptions();
            connection.Username = userNameBox.Text;
            connection.Password = passwordBox.Text;
            connection.Authority = "ntlmdomain:WORKGROUP";

            ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(
                "\\\\ASUS\\root\\CIMV2", connection);
            scope.Connect();

            ObjectQuery query= new ObjectQuery(
                "SELECT * FROM Win32_UserAccount"); 

            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = 
                new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);

            foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
            {
                Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
                Console.WriteLine("Win32_UserAccount instance");
                Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
            }

Katheleenkatherin

Presumably this only works for local user accounts? – Ferdinana

for remote computer it's almost the same – Katheleenkatherin

Huh, I had no idea WMI could work for domain stuff, thanks! – Ferdinana