Autopatcher Share EXE Creation Utility

[dirtymafia]

I am in the process of, and almost completed with, the creation of a utility that will allow you to punch in the UNC path, the target EXE name, specify any command line arguments to be used (ie /noeula, /unattend:t2, etc) and the credentials(domain or local) for autopatcher to be ran as.

This is in response to my problem of running Autopatcher from a network share with a higher level (administrator) of access than what the user that will be logged into the computer has. I was going to use batch file to accomplish this, but it ended up that I needed like 3 batch files to get the job done. That wouldn't have been that bad, I guess, but then you have to factor in that a batch file is basically a plain text document and if I'm going to be using this method my password would need to be piped in somehow, most likely in plain text. Some of you might come back with the argument to use CPAU because you can encode a file and then run that file..I just don't like that method, I want to keep everything simple and just have 1 EXE file that is involved with invoking Autopatcher. So after exhausting several different methods I decided to just write the EXE myself.

In case anyone wants to know how the EXE utility works here goes:

A gui will pop up asking you for the following information(defaults given in parenthesis):

UNC Path (blank)

Autopatcher EXE: (autopatcher.exe)

command line arguments: This is not an open edit box; instead there are checkboxes for /noeula and /noreboot, etc and then a drop down for unattend:t1/unattend:t2/unattend:t3. All command line arguments listed on this forum will be available.

Credentials:Username (username), Domain (blank=local computer), and Password.

After all that information is supplied then there is a 'create EXE' button, which after pressing will give you a prompt of where to save the resulting EXE . Pressing the create button does the following:

Takes all your data and creates a temp file (located in same dir as utility) and then compiles that as an EXE in the place you have chosen, then deletes the temp file.

The actual process of "running" the autopatcher.exe (or whatever target EXE you input) will be done with the following lines (which will be created from your created EXE file)

pushd UNCPATH

autopatcher.exe /noeula /unattend:t2 (or whatever command line options you choose)

popd

All of that will be run under the credentials you specify.

One thing concerning the compiled EXE: The end result compiled exe (which you create by hitting 'create EXE' is not heavily encoded and could be compromised if someone had the capability to de-compile the exe and grab it out. Of course it is still MUCH more secure than a plain text batch file. In my company this is not a problem, I actually probably would have been safe with a batch file since most users are not very Knowledgeable of programming and the like.

I will make this utility available here when finished if anyone is interested in it. If you have any other questions or ideas let me know by making a reply post. I hope more than myself will find this utility useful.

[+theblazingangel MVC]

(Y)

[dirtymafia]

Here is a screenshot of the current progress

http://img398.imageshack.us/my.php?image=a...rutility5xo.jpg

[+theblazingangel MVC]

looks good (Y), i cant test/use it myself, but im sure it will be useful to a lot of people ;)

[pdsa]

Hi there

This would be a very good tool i can't wait to try it out

[Dennis_HR]

I am very interested in this tool too.It would help a lot trying to fix all windows machines in my network.Hope everything will be done as planned.Keep up the good work.Greetings from Croatia ! :cool:

[stephenm00]

Is there any update on this?

[RGabriele]

Look great ... have a release date yet?

[RGabriele]

Thanks to +M2Ys4U for pointing this out

bit of code to easily map then un-map a UNC path

Can't seem to refined the thread to give author credit ... will look again later

Autopatcher will only run from a mapped drive from a network share. I used pushd and popd to temporarily map a drive and run autopatcher in between. Threw it into a batch file, and with CMDOW the cmd window calling the batch can even be hidden.

My batch is as follows:

----------------------------

@copy /y \\servername\autopatcher\cmdow.exe %systemroot%\system32\cmdow.exe

@cmdow @ /hid

pushd \\servername\autopatcher

autopatcher.exe /noeula /unattend:t2

popd \\servername\autopatcher

----------------------------

Of course, the /noeula prevents having to accept the eula, and the unattend:t2 completes the unattended aspect with just a small notification window. You could also use t3 to make it completely invisible.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Thanks to +M2Ys4U for pointing this out

bit of code to easily map then un-map a UNC path

Can't seem to refined the thread to give author credit ... will look again later

That would be rtk and in this thread :)

[RGabriele]

^ thanks +M2Ys4U 2nd time for finding that tread fro me ... I needed that!

It seems that dirtymafia went to some trouble to create the utility he was working but has never come back

Since rtk found a different work around I'm happy!

[dirtymafia]

^ thanks +M2Ys4U 2nd time for finding that tread fro me ... I needed that!

It seems that dirtymafia went to some trouble to create the utility he was working but has never come back

Since rtk found a different work around I'm happy!

Yeah got really busy with some other stuff and completly pushed this off. Now I have no idea where the code went..If I ever find it again I will finish this out.

Mine was a bit more robust than the fix that's out there..and hopefully I can find the code again..

[dirtymafia]

Yeah got really busy with some other stuff and completly pushed this off. Now I have no idea where the code went..If I ever find it again I will finish this out.

Mine was a bit more robust than the fix that's out there..and hopefully I can find the code again..

Alright, found the code...Have started to finish it.

I plan on having a version out by the end of the week. I would love if some of you would be willing to work with it and let me know about any bugs.

I will create a new thread on here when it is completed.

[rtk]

Alright, found the code...Have started to finish it.

I plan on having a version out by the end of the week. I would love if some of you would be willing to work with it and let me know about any bugs.

I will create a new thread on here when it is completed.

I'm using the workaround I posted way back when, daily on 300+ machines. I'd be happy to help test and whatnot, but I'm no coder.

[dirtymafia]

I'm using the workaround I posted way back when, daily on 300+ machines. I'd be happy to help test and whatnot, but I'm no coder.

Alright, cool, got one tester on board. I don't need coding or anything I just need to know of bugs / things that would make it better. So far since yesterday I have added the ability to save defaults (loaded when program starts) and to also save settings to a file and load them back from the file.

This way if you have to make more than 1 exe runner, or whatever, you can just load up what you had before, or just use the 'defaults' if that's what you use everytime.

I'm making a little help file to be included with it right now. I'm looking at thursday/friday to post it on here.

[dutch2005]

nice very nice.. any ETA on finish? placing it on a network share would be awesome! :), if we have a pc that is out dated just run the tool form the network and voila, its rdy to go after updates...(and it saves harddisk space since only 1 place needs to have it...)