fix(wpf): de-elevate when spawned by elevated explorer (NDI mDNS isolation)
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Observed behavior: on admin-user boxes with UAC effectively disabled, double-clicking the Start Menu / Desktop shortcut spawns TeamsISO with elevated File Explorer as parent. NDI Find then returns zero sources even when Teams is broadcasting — same exe spawned from any other parent (PowerShell, cmd, runas, etc.) discovers sources fine. Suspected window-station / desktop-handle inheritance quirk in NDI's mDNS layer; can't fix from inside the runtime.

Workaround: in OnStartup, if parent IS explorer.exe AND we're elevated AND we haven't already re-launched (--relaunched guard), re-spawn ourselves via 'runas /trustlevel:0x20000' to drop to medium integrity. Original process Shutdowns; only the medium child remains. Verified by reproducing the failure case in an elevated PowerShell, then watching the same runas command produce a working child (REST returns participants, log writes work).

Add PackageReference for System.Management (Win32_Process via ManagementObjectSearcher) so the parent-PID lookup compiles.
This commit is contained in:
Zac Gaetano 2026-05-16 11:36:52 -04:00
parent e01fa364e8
commit 191b2c5f52
2 changed files with 137 additions and 0 deletions

View file

@ -83,6 +83,23 @@ public partial class App : Application
{ {
base.OnStartup(e); base.OnStartup(e);
// Re-launch detection: when explorer.exe is the parent AND we're elevated,
// NDI Find returns zero sources — reproducible on this user's box and
// suspected to be a window-station / desktop-handle inheritance quirk
// that NDI's mDNS layer is sensitive to. The exact same exe spawned
// from any other parent (PowerShell, cmd, another non-explorer process)
// discovers sources fine. Re-spawn through runas /trustlevel:0x20000
// to drop to medium integrity and detach from explorer's process tree.
//
// We pass --relaunched on the re-spawn so we don't loop if the trustlevel
// demotion didn't take. CLI args that the operator passed (e.g.
// --apply-preset NAME) are forwarded verbatim to the relaunched child.
if (ShouldDeElevate(e.Args, out var relaunchArgs))
{
TryDeElevateAndExit(relaunchArgs);
return; // Shutdown happens inside TryDeElevateAndExit if the spawn succeeds.
}
// Crash diagnostics — wire the three exception channels WPF leaves open by // Crash diagnostics — wire the three exception channels WPF leaves open by
// default to a single handler that logs Fatal to Serilog (which has the // default to a single handler that logs Fatal to Serilog (which has the
// rolling-daily file sink at %LOCALAPPDATA%\TeamsISO\Logs) and then shows // rolling-daily file sink at %LOCALAPPDATA%\TeamsISO\Logs) and then shows
@ -160,6 +177,118 @@ public partial class App : Application
} }
} }
/// <summary>
/// Returns true when we need to re-spawn ourselves with a non-elevated
/// medium-integrity token. This is the case when:
/// <list type="number">
/// <item>We haven't already been relaunched (<c>--relaunched</c> guard
/// prevents infinite loops if the demotion didn't take).</item>
/// <item>The current process token has the Administrators group
/// elevated (UAC "split-token" — admin SID is present and active).</item>
/// <item>Our parent process is <c>explorer.exe</c> — that's the spawn
/// path that triggers the NDI mDNS-isolation bug. Launches from
/// PowerShell, cmd, or any other parent work fine even when
/// elevated, so we don't need to fight them.</item>
/// </list>
/// </summary>
private static bool ShouldDeElevate(string[] args, out string[] forwardArgs)
{
forwardArgs = args;
// Already relaunched once — don't loop.
if (Array.IndexOf(args, "--relaunched") >= 0)
{
// Strip the marker so it doesn't propagate further.
forwardArgs = args.Where(a => a != "--relaunched").ToArray();
return false;
}
// Not elevated — nothing to demote from.
try
{
using var identity = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();
var principal = new System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal(identity);
if (!principal.IsInRole(System.Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator))
return false;
}
catch { return false; }
// Check parent process; if anything but explorer.exe we leave well alone.
try
{
var parentName = TryGetParentProcessName();
if (!string.Equals(parentName, "explorer", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
return false;
}
catch { return false; }
return true;
}
/// <summary>
/// Look up our parent process's image name (without extension). Returns
/// null if it can't be determined (PID gone, denied, etc.).
/// </summary>
private static string? TryGetParentProcessName()
{
try
{
var pid = Environment.ProcessId;
using var search = new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher(
$"SELECT ParentProcessId FROM Win32_Process WHERE ProcessId={pid}");
foreach (var m in search.Get())
{
var ppid = Convert.ToInt32(m["ParentProcessId"]);
using var parent = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessById(ppid);
return parent.ProcessName;
}
}
catch { /* fall through */ }
return null;
}
/// <summary>
/// Re-launch TeamsISO via <c>runas.exe /trustlevel:0x20000</c>. The
/// trustlevel argument requests a medium-integrity restricted token —
/// even when the caller (us) is elevated, the spawned child runs at
/// medium. This detaches us from explorer's spawn quirks AND from the
/// elevation that was tripping NDI Find. We then <see cref="Application.Shutdown(int)"/>
/// the current process so only the medium-integrity child remains.
///
/// If the spawn fails for any reason (runas missing, permission denied,
/// etc.) we silently continue startup — the operator may still see the
/// "no ndi sources visible" state, but at least the app launches.
/// </summary>
private void TryDeElevateAndExit(string[] forwardArgs)
{
try
{
var exePath = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule?.FileName;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(exePath)) return; // can't relaunch what we can't find
var quotedExe = "\"" + exePath + "\"";
var forwarded = string.Join(" ", forwardArgs.Select(a => "\"" + a + "\""));
var trustArg = string.IsNullOrEmpty(forwarded)
? quotedExe + " --relaunched"
: quotedExe + " --relaunched " + forwarded;
var psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
{
FileName = "runas.exe",
Arguments = "/trustlevel:0x20000 " + trustArg,
UseShellExecute = false,
CreateNoWindow = true,
WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
};
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
}
catch
{
// Relaunch failed — let normal startup proceed. Worst case the operator
// sees the empty-state and has to launch differently.
return;
}
// Shutdown WITHOUT a value so OnExit handlers don't run a teardown for an
// engine that was never wired up.
Shutdown(0);
}
/// <summary> /// <summary>
/// Parse the supported CLI flags. Currently: /// Parse the supported CLI flags. Currently:
/// <c>--apply-preset NAME</c> — apply the named preset once participants /// <c>--apply-preset NAME</c> — apply the named preset once participants

View file

@ -25,6 +25,14 @@
<ItemGroup> <ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\TeamsISO.Engine\TeamsISO.Engine.csproj" /> <ProjectReference Include="..\TeamsISO.Engine\TeamsISO.Engine.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\TeamsISO.Engine.NdiInterop\TeamsISO.Engine.NdiInterop.csproj" /> <ProjectReference Include="..\TeamsISO.Engine.NdiInterop\TeamsISO.Engine.NdiInterop.csproj" />
<!--
System.Management gives us Win32_Process via ManagementObjectSearcher,
used in App.xaml.cs's ShouldDeElevate() to look up the parent process
name (we re-spawn ourselves via runas /trustlevel:0x20000 when the
parent is explorer.exe AND we're elevated — that combo triggers an
NDI mDNS-isolation bug that returns zero discovered sources).
-->
<PackageReference Include="System.Management" Version="8.0.0" />
</ItemGroup> </ItemGroup>
<!-- <!--