WindowsNT user authentication

**Tim Golden** · Feb 12 '07, 01:55 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

billie wrote:

Hi there,
I would like to submit a username/password pair to a Windows NT
workstation and find out if it's valid.
Moreover I would like to get the user's home directory given the
username.
Does it is possible to do that by using pywin32 extension?

Tim Golden's Python Stuff: Check a user's credentials

http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/check-a-users-credentials.html

There are a few caveats (and there are other ways, too). This
one is pretty simple, though.

HTH
TJG

**billie** · Feb 12 '07, 03:45 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

On 12 Feb, 14:45, Tim Golden <m...@timgolden .me.ukwrote:

billie wrote:

Hi there,
I would like to submit a username/password pair to a Windows NT
workstation and find out if it's valid.
Moreover I would like to get the user's home directory given the
username.
Does it is possible to do that by using pywin32 extension?

>
http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_...ers-credential...
>
There are a few caveats (and there are other ways, too). This
one is pretty simple, though.
>
HTH
TJG

Thanks, it shoulda work.
Do you got any idea about how getting user's home directory?

**Tim Golden** · Feb 12 '07, 04:05 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

billie wrote:

Do you got any idea about how getting user's home directory?

The answer to that is unfortunately slightly complicated,
because Windows has no such thing as a "user's home directory"
or, if you prefer, it has several such things.

If you want, you can let Python make the decision, by
calling os.path.expandu ser on "~" which, in my case,
correctly gives h:\ which is my domain home directory.

Obviously this is not necessarily the same as my Documents
and Settings directory, which can also be considered a home
directory. That you can get by querying the shell:

<code>
from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon

idlist = shell.SHGetSpec ialFolderLocati on (0, shellcon.CSIDL_ PERSONAL)
documents_and_s ettings = shell.SHGetPath FromIDList (idlist)
print documents_and_s ettings

</code>

In my case they are the same but that will depend on your
setup. I know in the past at least one of these has
defaulted to c:\

Alternatives (which in my case amount to the same thing)
include using the HOMEDRIVE / HOMEPATH / HOMESHARE
environment vars:

<code>
import os
drive = os.environ.get ("HOMEDRIVE" , "")
path = os.environ.get ("HOMEPATH", "")

share = os.environ.get ("HOMESHARE" , "")

print drive+path
print share
</code>

I haven't bothered to look, but I think this latter
is how the expanduser function works things out.

YMMV
TJG

**billie** · Feb 13 '07, 09:35 AM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

On 12 Feb, 16:53, Tim Golden <m...@timgolden .me.ukwrote:

billie wrote:

Do you got any idea about how getting user's home directory?

>
The answer to that is unfortunately slightly complicated,
because Windows has no such thing as a "user's home directory"
or, if you prefer, it has several such things.
>
If you want, you can let Python make the decision, by
calling os.path.expandu ser on "~" which, in my case,
correctly gives h:\ which is my domain home directory.
>
Obviously this is not necessarily the same as my Documents
and Settings directory, which can also be considered a home
directory. That you can get by querying the shell:
>
<code>
from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
>
idlist = shell.SHGetSpec ialFolderLocati on (0, shellcon.CSIDL_ PERSONAL)
documents_and_s ettings = shell.SHGetPath FromIDList (idlist)
print documents_and_s ettings
>
</code>
>
In my case they are the same but that will depend on your
setup. I know in the past at least one of these has
defaulted to c:\
>
Alternatives (which in my case amount to the same thing)
include using the HOMEDRIVE / HOMEPATH / HOMESHARE
environment vars:
>
<code>
import os
drive = os.environ.get ("HOMEDRIVE" , "")
path = os.environ.get ("HOMEPATH", "")
>
share = os.environ.get ("HOMESHARE" , "")
>
print drive+path
print share
</code>
>
I haven't bothered to look, but I think this latter
is how the expanduser function works things out.
>
YMMV
TJG

Thanks.

**billie** · Feb 14 '07, 01:15 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

Another question, I'm sorry.
Do you got any idea about how to get permissions of a file/directory
given the username?
For example: I would like to know if C:\my_file.ext is readable/
writable by user 'x' or not.

**Tim Golden** · Feb 14 '07, 01:25 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

billie wrote:

Another question, I'm sorry.
Do you got any idea about how to get permissions of a file/directory
given the username?
For example: I would like to know if C:\my_file.ext is readable/
writable by user 'x' or not.

This is an unfortunately messy question. The easiest
answer -- and I'm quite serious -- might be to have
the user *try* to read it and to catch the exception.

Quite apart from the mildly labyrinthine techniques for
determining object security, you face a potential race
condition: by the time you've tested and got your answer,
someone could have changed the permissions. Unlikely,
you'll admit, but possible enough to the try-except
approach attractive.

There are some examples of file security both in the
CHM which comes with the pywin32 extensions and in the
demos folder, on my machine:

c:\python24\lib \site-packages\win32\ demos\security

I was going to start explaining win32 security terms
in this reply, but perhaps I won't unless the try-it-and-see
approach advocated above doesn't work!

HTH somewhat
TJG

**Tim Golden** · Feb 14 '07, 01:45 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

Tim Golden wrote:

billie wrote:

>Another question, I'm sorry.
>Do you got any idea about how to get permissions of a file/directory
>given the username?
>For example: I would like to know if C:\my_file.ext is readable/
>writable by user 'x' or not.

>
This is an unfortunately messy question.

I'm sorry; that probably came out wrong. What I meant
was that, although the question was perfectly intelligible,
the answer is going to be more complex than you probably
expected ;)

TJG

**billie** · Feb 14 '07, 01:45 PM

Re: WindowsNT user authentication

On 14 Feb, 14:30, Tim Golden <m...@timgolden .me.ukwrote:

Tim Golden wrote:

billie wrote:

Another question, I'm sorry.
Do you got any idea about how to get permissions of a file/directory
given the username?
For example: I would like to know if C:\my_file.ext is readable/
writable by user 'x' or not.

>

This is an unfortunately messy question.

>
I'm sorry; that probably came out wrong. What I meant
was that, although the question was perfectly intelligible,
the answer is going to be more complex than you probably
expected ;)
>
TJG

No problem about that. ;)
I'll try to check demos folder then let you know something about it.
Thanks again.

WindowsNT user authentication

WindowsNT user authentication

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