Get USER SID in a Service - delphi

I need to read a software license that is stored in a Registry key located under HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
I'm running in a service in the SYSTEM account, so I cannot read this key.
I discovered that this Registry key has an account in HKEY_USER, where I can read the information. But I need to find out the SID of the logged in user.
How do I find this from a service in Delphi?

Call LookupAccountName to get the SID belonging to a given username (and the domain it belongs to). ConvertSidToStringSid can be used to convert the SID to a String.
Alternatively use the Delphi Jedi Windows Security Code Library (JWSCL).

Related

Unable to send google container registry in docker image

I'm trying to send my first image to gcr(google container reg.) via local bash, but somehow I couldn't do it even though I added my current user as 'owner' to the project. In the last link that gave me an error, the following was written.
{"errors":[{"code":"UNAUTHORIZED","message":"Unauthorized access."}]}
Also, my ubuntu distribution ip that I use on wsl2 was banned by google on the grounds that I tried too much. This is my 2nd problem that I need to solve.
I encountered my problem in the first item through powershell on my local computer.
What should I do in this case?
The refusal to connect to GCP might be related to the IP ban that you mentioned, was there any specified length to the ban? Usually, an email is sent with more details about the ban. Otherwise, there is specific documentation dealing with authenticating to Container Registry. The documentation lists several authentication methods:
gcloud credential helper
Standalone credential helper
Access token
JSON key file
Which of these methods are you having issues with? The documentation lists the procedure to authenticate properly with each of these methods. Is the correct account configured? It could be a different account or a service account is being used instead.

Access OneDrive personal vault through API

Microsoft introduced a special folder in OneDrive (I only see it in a personal OneDrive account, not in OneDrive for Business) called "Personal Vault". I searched the documentation of MS Graph API but could not find this mentioned.
So my question is: is there any way to access this personal vault as a third-party app?
Same problem here.
Funny thing is that:
It does not appear in the root children
It appears if you call the delta API where you can see a folder with the
specialFolder attribute not null and whose specialFolder.name is
"vault". This specialFolder, though, has the deleted facet, with the
state set to "hardDeleted". If you extract the ID from the delta API
call and try to address the folder directly with
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/drive/items/{id}, however, you
get an access denied error

How do I allow all users (current users and new users to be created) to start,stop and read status of a service

I have a windows service that works fine with my application on the admin user, once I log into a non-admin user I need this user to be able to start,stop, and check the status of the service. I have used advapi32.dll library to be able to do this, but using this I am required to have the name of the users and the name of the service, so I would have to run this program every time a new user is added. I need a way to allow the service to communicate to all users, even newer users created after the service has been installed.
I have been trying to figure it out a way to do this by using Installshield service settings during installation. There is one field that you can create permissions, the only problem is that this is done using SDDL and it looks like this: O:<[%USERDOMAIN]>G:BAD:(D;OICI;GA;;;BG)(A;OICI;GRGWGX;;;<[%USERDOMAIN]>)(A;OICI;GA;;;BA)S:ARAI(AU;SAFA;FA;;;WD)
Does anybody knows a method to do this or can guide me through the SDDL if this is posible?
Thanks

Accepting Bitcoins on Heroku

From what I've read, conventional wisdom is to generate a new Bitcoin address for each payment you're going to receive. However, since Heroku's file system is read only, where would you store the keys for each new address? bitpiggy.herokuapp.com is running on Heroku and appears to accept Bitcoins. Does anyone have any idea how they accept and handle Bitcoins on the Heroku platform given that the file system is read only?
They appear to be using a 3rd party supplier, e.g. blockexplorer.com or blockchain.info, for Bitcoin services. See their "developer resources" page for the API they wrote to access those.
You could also create such a service yourself, just run it on EC2 or a rented server/VPS.

Best place to hide a key in the Windows Registry?

My Delphi program has a built-in protection mechanism to check for banned license keys on the Internet and displays a message to the user if a blacklisted key is found.
I'd like to store the blacklisted key in the registry, so if the user tries to re-enter it (and he/she is not connected to the Internet), it's not accepted.
What is the best way to hide an obfuscated entry in the Windows registry?
Thanks!
Edit: You guys have some good answers there, but I feel like I need to expand the question.
This is not mainstream software but a corporate one. Clients pre-pay one year and get a one-year license key for activation. The license key includes a machine ID and can't be used elsewhere.
The problem is that some clients tend not to pay in time or they don't pay at all. Since I don't want to bother with shorter than one year license keys (too much administrative overhead) I need a way to disable their licenses till they pay.
So the app now will connect to the Internet upon launch and check if their key is blacklisted. If it is, I need to disable access. In case they reinstall or block Internet access, I need to know if the key has been blacklisted.
Thus, I'm thinking it would be best to hide it in the registry. My users are not tech-savy enough to use registry tools to monitor the registry, but if I put it under HKLM/Software/MyCompany/MyProgram, some of them might do find it. So I need a place where they can't find it afterwards that it had been created. (Noone will be expecting it!)
Any ideas?
The eaysiest way to hide a key or a value is to create a key/value having '\0' inside of the name. You can do this wth respect of the native functions NtCreateKey (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff556468.aspx) NtSetValueKey (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff557688.aspx) which use UNICODE_STRING as parameters instead of LPCTSTR. You can read more about usage of native registry API in http://www.codeproject.com/kb/system/NtRegistry.aspx for example. A Delphi code you will find here http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3539.asp.
UPDATED: Because many people read this question I want to add some words to my answer. I want divide the part of the question which we can read also in the title "best place to hide a key in the Windows Registry" from the subject with license keys. Because I read some answers (written before me) which concerned almost only the part of license keys and read practically no answer on the question from the title I wrote me answer.
The subject with license key I find very complex. It depends on the licensing model choosed. It's important how to generate, to distribute (to install) and to verify the key. Is key should be hardware depended or not? It can be one per computer or one per computer group. The key generation, key installation or key verification can be either with respect of some online services (also from the internet) or without there. I can continue... There are a lot of aspects, advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.
So I decide to answer only on the main question from the title which is clear and have a separate interest. All other questions about license key should be discussed in my opinion in the separate question after clearing all requirements.
UPDATED 2 based on the updated question: It seems to me in your case would be better to use some scenario based on cryptographic signing of an activation ticket. For example the schema can looks like following:
You software installed on the client computer will need an activation. Before activation it can not work or work in very restricted form (for example only some menus needed for software activation are enabled).
You write a server component which will be used by client during the activation to generate the license key based of the activation request received from the client.
If a client pay for the software you include the information about the client's "machine ID" (in any form which you want) in the database on the server.
After starting of the activation process from the client software (either at the program start of from menu or in any other way like you want) it collects some information about the computer like computer name ("machine ID"), some serial numbers or some other information about hardware or operation system which can not be changed without a new activation. This information the software send to your server (it is the activation request).
The server verify that the the client with the "machine ID" payed for the software and is not yet activated. Then the server calculate the hash (SHA1, MD5 or some other) from the information send from the client and sign the respond with the server's private key (or servers certificate). The signed ticket server will be send back to the client. This ticket will play the role of licence key.
The server can add any additional information to the ticket before signing. For example it can add the information about the date till one the software should be valid (for example, current day plus one year). So the ticket which will be send back to the client can contain the hash of input activation information and any additional information, all what you want. Important is only that the information should be signed. In general you can include full client's request as clear text in the servers ticket instead of including of the hash, but the usage of the hash a) reduce the ticket size and b) makes the ticket a little more secure.
Every client have public key corresponds to the private key used by server for signing of the activation ticket. The client save the ticket received from the server during activation in any place in registry of in the file system.
Every next time if the client software will be started the software will read the saved activation ticket from the registry (or from the file system). Then the software collect the same information, which are used for generation of the activation ticket, calculate the hash and compare it with the hash from the saved ticket. It verify of cause the signature of the ticket with respect of the public key (or with respect of the server's certificate). Moreover the software can verify any other additional policy information from the ticket like the time till one the ticket is valid.
All written is a roughly schema only, but it is very simple and it is extensible. You need only study how use some simple cryptographic operation and implement there in your software.
As a option you can don't have a server online, but instead of that implement in the software (in menu for example) a possibility to generate the activation request and send it per email for example. Then you can offline (!!!) generate an activation ticket based of the server request and send the ticket back to the client also per email. A simple Reg-file which can be imported by double-click or some other simple import possibility in your software (cut & paste in the activation dialog) can end the process of the software activation.
I don't think that the registry is a good place to hide such info, because anyone can download and use the Process Monitor (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx) tool and see what your program does with the registry.
And thinking about this again. You will probably make users of your software unhappy if it will leave things in registry and other "secret" places on the user's hard drive. Locations like that are also easily discovered by tools that monitor what system functions your software calls.
As an alternative you could embed the banned keys in your application when you release new versions. This way the banned keys will be hidden in the application making it much harder for crackers to bypass the protection.
The downside of this is that a user can potentially run older version with a banned key with internet access blocked to your site, but if your software is actively developed with new features and bugfixes added, then nobody would want to run older versions. And if you are very paranoid you could release "updates" which update just the embedded banned key list.
But in the end no software protection scheme is perfect. If your software is popular enough there will always be a pirate cracker who will figure out your protection and make a patch or even a key generator.
If you really want to go that way, hash or encrypt the keys and then check the hashed or encrypted user key to those on the registry.
Be sure to check if there's any keys in the registry to be sure if the user didn't erased them.
It will be very challenging to achieve what you're trying to do, since a user can simply uninstall and re-install, and savvy users can wipe all traces of your app from the system (including the registry).
Other apps (like Windows, for example), instead of checking for a negative (banned key), instead check for a positive (good key). You "activate" the software once (when connected online) and this activation stores the "good key", which you can then check for whenever running the software (whether online or offline).
I'd suggest the second approach for you.
Note that there are ordinary end-consumer tools that monitor what applications write to the registry (like Cleansweep). This goes on API call level, so it will probably catch #0 workarounds too.
You could try to encrypt the whole shebang in a registry key, with something that uniquely identifies the machine (like a mac address) and a timestamp, to avoid that people can move the key to other machines. THen always require the presence of such key to startup, and demand to connect to internet for updates/activation if it is not there. (or the timestamp is very old)

Resources