How can I determine the user name that started a process if I know the process id (PID)?

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

Dear experts
Sorry it seems I have a blackout. I cannot find a way to get the user name under which a process is running and from which I know the PID. I googled for it, but without success.

N.B: PID I get by the help of CreateToolhelp32Snapshot.
And my thinking using OpenProcess and GetStartupInfo seems to be to naiv.

[Edit]
The tags seem to be not valid. I'm working with W32-API.
[/Edit]

Can you give me please an hint/idea?
Thank you very much in advance.

Posted 26-Jan-16 23:55pm

User 11060979

Updated 27-Jan-16 0:04am

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

Jochen Arndt 27-Jan-16 6:29am

Not a C++ solution but a quick one to check it:
Use the tasklist command (which might be also executed from code parsing the output):

tasklist /v /nh /fi "PID eq <pid>"

/v = verbose to include the user name
/nh = no headers
/fi = filter (here PID match)

[no name] 27-Jan-16 7:49am

Thank you for your tip, but this you can do much more easy with taskmanager :)
Thank you anyway for your attention.

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-27T00:04:00

Solution 1

Use this sequence of methods...
1. Get a handler for the process
OpenProcess function (Windows)[^]
2. Open a token - based on the process handler - to gain access to the info
OpenProcessToken function (Windows)[^]
3. Get the relevant info (use TOKENUSER flag)
GetTokenInformation function (Windows)[^]
4. Get user info
LookupAccountSid function (Windows)[^]

Posted 27-Jan-16 0:04am

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter

Updated 27-Jan-16 2:17am

v3

Comments

[no name] 27-Jan-16 6:06am

Wow, thank you a Million time for this speedy, short and clear answer. I trust in you and accept and 5 it.
Thank you again.

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 27-Jan-16 6:07am

You should check it first...

[no name] 27-Jan-16 7:46am

Now I asked for a hint/idea and you showed me the right way, even the final solution Looks Little bit different to your way. This works for me:

Given is PID of a propcess
a.) OpenProcess to get a process Handle
b.) OpenProcessToken to get a Token Handle to query process information
c.) GetTokenInformation to query data (by the help of the above Token Handle). In this case Sid.
d.) Finally with LookupAccountSid one gets the user Name

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 27-Jan-16 7:51am

Ops...Now I see that the first and second link accidentally point to the same method...The first of course should be OpenProcess...fixing it in the solution...

[no name] 27-Jan-16 7:58am

But the words you are using are a little bit misleading. It would be better to distinguish consequently between Process Handle and Tokan Handle.
Thank you anyway for help.

[no name] 27-Jan-16 12:37pm

... finally :laugh: about me .... because I experience that OpenProcess ends with ACCESS_DENIED while trying to get the information from session A in session B.