Rawether Use
By Non-Administrator Users
On Windows NT and Windows 2000

Remarks

On the Windows NT and Windows 2000 platforms non-administrator Rawether for Windows users will not be able to use the Win32 NDIS API unless special installation steps are performed.

Without these extra installation steps, non-administrator users will encounter an ACCESS DENIED error when trying to use the Win32 NDIS API.

Discussion

The Win32 NDIS API attempts to dynamically load and unload the supporting PCANDIS#.SYS protocol driver as it is needed. There are two separate operations associated with dynamic device driver "loading":

1. Creation Of The Driver Service Control Entry - Requires User With Administrator Privilege.
2. Starting Of A Driver Service - Can be done various ways.

There are similar steps associated with dynamic device driver unloading:

3. Stopping Of A Driver Service - Can be done various ways.
4. Deletion Of The Driver Service Control Entry - (Optional) Requires User With Administrator Privilege.

Under the Win32 NDIS Framework the W32N50 DLL implements the driver loading and unloading.

Rawether V5.00.13.46 and Prior Implementation

In these versions of Rawether to driver loading and unloading implementation was too simplistic. In particular, the W32N50 always performed Steps 1.) and 2.) as part of the W32N_OpenAdapter function and always performed steps 3.) and 4.) as part of the W32N_CloseAdapter function.

Since Step 1.) requires a user with administrator privileges, the operation could not be performed by a non-administrator user.

As a result of this simplistic implementation, non-administrator users could not use Rawether for Windows...

There is one workaround for this: Installation using the Network Control Panel Applet (NCAP). However, use of the NCPA is tedious.

Rawether V5.00.13.49 and Later Implementation

One of the key changes introduced with V5.00.13.49 is that Step 4.) is no longer performed. This means that the driver Service Control Entry, once created, is persistent. This opens up two clean methods to allow non-administrator users to use Rawether:

1. Automatic Start Of PCANDIS#.SYS Driver

   Once the basic PCANDIS# driver Service Control Entry has been created, an administrator can set the Start mode of the PCANDIS# driver to Automatic. If this is done, then the PCANDIS# driver will be automatically started under the local system account when the system is booted and will be available for all users.

   If this method is used the PCANDIS# driver will always be loaded in kernel memory. This artifact should not effect system performance.

2. Modification of PCANDIS#.SYS Discretionary Access List (DACL)

   Once the basic PCANDIS# driver Service Control Entry has been created, an administrator can modify the PCANDIS# Security DACL to allow non-administrator users to start and stop (load and unload) the driver. A sample utility, PCANUser.EXE, is provided that illustrates how to modify the DACL.

   If this method is used the PCANDIS# driver will be loaded and unloaded as needed - even by non-administrator users.

Understand that an administrator must be involved in initially installing Rawether for use by non-administrators. Only an administrator can create the initial driver Service Control Entry and modify the Start mode or Security DACL.

Status

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Last modified: December 31, 2007