Question

Is it possible to restart server from ASP.NET application that is hosted by LocalSystem or LocalService account? This is working when I create custom administrative account and put AppPool to run under that account:

Process.Start("shutdown", "/r /d 4:1 /t 10");

However, I don’t want to have custom accounts (because of password expiry and need to update all AppPools when User passwords are changed – I need to maintain multiple servers).

So, is this possible?

Answer 1

You can always start the process with a different identity that can restart the server:

var info = new ProcessStartInfo("shutdown.exe", "/r /t 0");
info.UserName = "accountWithAdminPermissions";
//A not-so-secure use of SecureString
var secureString = new SecureString();
var password = "abc123";
foreach (var letter in password)
{
    secureString.AppendChar(letter);
}
info.Password = secureString;
var restart = new Process();
restart.StartInfo = info;
restart.Start();

---

If you just want to give a non-Administrative account the permission to restart the server:

1. Open secpol.msc.
2. Navigate to Local Policies\User Rights Assignment.
3. Find Shutdown The System.
4. Add the account.

This might be a good way of using an account for least privilege. That way you don’t have to use a really big hammer like an account in the Administrator group.

Shutdown.exe (I believe) always requires Administrator permissions. You can refer to this MSDN post on restarting the server without shutdown.exe.