Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications
From: Chris Adams <chris () improbable org>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 12:21:02 -0700
on 2001-07-17 12:11, Alun Jones at alun () texis com wrote:
At 11:58 AM 7/17/2001, Chris Adams wrote:on 2001-07-17 09:20, Justin Nelson at security () jm4n com wrote:Under Windows 2000 Pro, I made a copy of "notepad.exe" renamed to "winlogon.exe", and could not kill it via the Task Manager. Both the 'kill' command and the VC++ debugger were able to kill it.Task Manager is really inconsistent - I renamed a copy of notepad to winlogon.exe. If I start it and try to kill it through the "Applications" tab of the task manager, it will be killed as normal. If I try to kill it through the "Processes" tab, task manager won't let me.The answer here is that the "End Task" button on the "Applications" tab tries to send a WM_QUIT message to the foreground window. The "End Process" (note the different name) button on the "Processes" tab calls TerminateProcess() on the process. Task Manager _is_ being consistent - it's just that you don't seem to understand the difference between "Tasks" / "Applications" (really just windows with no parent) and "Processes" (which are true processes).
Whoa - can the flames, please. The reasons why this happen make sense but the user interface is inconsistent. That's the problem here - a non system task will be reported as a system task, even though it's not and can easily be terminated. The end process button will have different results depending on whether it checks its hardcoded process list before attempting to kill something. Chris
Current thread:
- W2k: Unkillable Applications Thomas Zehetbauer (Jul 16)
- Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications Chad Loder (Jul 16)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Kaido Karner (Jul 17)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Snow, Corey (Jul 16)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Kaido Karner (Jul 17)
- Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications Justin Nelson (Jul 17)
- Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications Chris Adams (Jul 17)
- Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications Alun Jones (Jul 17)
- Re: W2k: Unkillable Applications Chris Adams (Jul 17)
- Re[2]: W2k: Unkillable Applications Phaedrus (Jul 17)
- Re: Re[2]: W2k: Unkillable Applications Bronek Kozicki (Jul 18)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Kaido Karner (Jul 17)
- Re[2]: W2k: Unkillable Applications Dimitry Andric (Jul 17)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Andy Cristina (Jul 17)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications Toomas Kiisk (Jul 18)
- RE: W2k: Unkillable Applications David LeBlanc (Jul 19)