[gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with a GPO

  • From: "Northwood, Ian" <Ian.Northwood@xxxxxx>
  • To: <gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 15:28:31 +0100

QAD - Quick And Dirty :)
 
The issue with querying the registry on the target is, as I mentioned, that 
it's only exposed for the currently logged-in user, e.g. 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group 
Policy\AppMgmt\[ProductCode]. We need to find out which packages got pushed 
onto a machine for all users, as the client's users do hot-desking. This means 
that a machine will get, for example, MS Project delivered to it if an 
appropriately permissioned user logs in to that machine. Then, when an audit 
agent runs (these things generally do a simple scan for known EXEs), it might 
identify 3 times as many installations as the client has licenses for. It fails 
to take account of hot-desk installs. This is the entire purpose of the script 
- to make sense of this mess!
 
So, we walk 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Managed\[UserSIDs]\Installer\Products\[ProductCodes],
 matching it against 
'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[ProductCodes]. Any 
which appear in the latter but not the former are assumed to be local installs 
(i.e. not pushed by GPO) and flagged as invalid, and possibly 
force-uninstalled. The managed stuff's Product Code is queried, the GPO found, 
the security-filtered group divined, then the user SID obtained earlier tested 
for membership of that group. Anomalies are then flagged in the report file 
produced (as we can't easily force-uninstal GPO-pushed apps in a timely manner).
 
Easy! LOL
 
PS
I've just been told I will probably need to handle an user/group/machine 
exception list. Great...I'll save that for v2, I think...



________________________________

        From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Darren Mar-Elia
        Sent: 08 October 2008 14:58
        To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: [gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with a GPO
        
        

        Ian-

        So, if I follow what you are doing, you are querying AD for all 
packageRegistration objects, querying their product codes and using that as a 
key to associate package to registry entry on the clients? Then you are 
determining what GPO that packageRegistration object is in by parsing the DN of 
that that object? 

         

        What is your 'QAD script'? Anyway, it sounds like you have found a 
solution. There is probably a better solution by using the registry metadata on 
the client to determine which GPO a package is part of and whether the client 
is getting that GPO, but you seem to have a way forward, so I won't mess with 
it J

         

        Darren

         

        From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Northwood, Ian
        Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 4:29 AM
        To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: [gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with a GPO

         

        The registry contains that info for the currently logged-in user only. 
Our requirement is for the script to walk the domain (or a selected OU) and 
interrogate each machine for its installed software, including what's been 
pushed out by GP. For locally installed software, we'll kick off a remote 
removal. For GPO-pushed stuff, all we can do is determine if user is a member 
of the group assocaited with the GPO. This latter requirement is why we need to 
find out which group is filtered on the GPO.

         

        Anyway, I've arrived at a solution:

         

        - query the AD for the ProductCode and get the container name(s), 
plural because there may be AD orphans containing the code. I'm researching a 
method to determine which GPO is the 'live' one.

        - parse that container name for the GPO's container name (is there a 
'method' to get that? I'm just looking for '{' then '}' and using what's in 
between!)

        - get the SecurityDescriptor details for the GPO

        - test if the trustee name returned is a group and, if so, add it to a 
dictionary

        - loop through the dictionary and test the account's membership of that 
group.

         

        It's a mess at the moment but at least I know I can get the info I 
need. Now all I need to do is shoe-horn my QAD script into the actual script 
which will do the work.

                 

________________________________

                From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Darren Mar-Elia
                Sent: 02 October 2008 16:29
                To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: [gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with a GPO

                If all you know is the product code, you will need to query 
every packageRegistration object in AD to look for that product code, and then 
from there you can derive the GPO name/id.  But I wonder if you really have to 
do that. I seem to remember that somewhere in the registry metadata on the 
client that you can make the link between product code and GPO. You should 
investigate that before going down the path of querying AD. I would check for 
you if I had a machine with a deployed package handy.

                 

                Darren

                 

                From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Northwood, Ian
                Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 7:51 AM
                To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: [gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with a GPO

                 

                Thanks, Darren, you're probably right.

                 

                I realise my error now. I actually don't know the GPO name (nor 
therefore its ID). So, to re-phrase my question: 

                 

                If I know the ProductCode (in all its forms) what query can I 
use to get the group associated with the GPO containing that ProductCode? I 
appreciate that there may be duplicate records but I can handle that as a 
separate issue.

                 

                Ian

                         

________________________________

                        From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Darren Mar-Elia
                        Sent: 02 October 2008 15:42
                        To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                        Subject: [gptalk] Re: Determining group associated with 
a GPO

                        Ian,

                        You probably missed the response we sent to this before 
you had re-subscribed. You can use the GPMC APIs to query the security on a 
GPO. This makes it very easy to get at that info. Let me know if that did not 
answer your question.

                         

                        Darren

                         

                         

                        From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Northwood, Ian
                        Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 7:34 AM
                        To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                        Subject: [gptalk] Determining group associated with a 
GPO

                         

                        Folks,

                         

                        As part of a licensing audit, I have been asked to 
build a script to interrogate installed software on machines. Easy enough. 
However, we want to be able to determine which apps were installed per-user by 
Group Policy and whether the user concerned is in the group associated with the 
package.

                         

                        How do I query AD to determine the group associated 
with the GPO, given that I know:

                         

                        - all the users who have had software pushed to them 
having logged into the machine (I loop through 
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Managed\[User's
 SIDs]\Installer\Products\[PackedProductCode])

                        - the GPO name and its GUID

                        - the ProductCode, its packed form and its octet/byte 
array form

                         

                        The idea is that we produce a list of accounts who 
appear in the registry as having had 'Package X' installed but who are not in 
the associated group.

                         

                        
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