microsoft / microsoft/vscode-cpptools

Access Denied when attaching to administrator-run process

Open
#6,979 9 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

bug debugger
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
6.2k
Forks
1.7k
Avg merge
14h 46m
Merged PRs (30d)
61

Description

Issue Type: Bug


Steps:

  1. Run VSCode as administrator from the start menu.
  2. Launch your process as administrator, without debugging.
  3. Use "request": "attach" in your launch.json to select and attach to your process.

This fails with the error message:

Unable to start debugging. Failed to attach to process: Access is denied.

Note this works in Visual Studio, which also automatically restarts itself if it detects you're not running with the required privileges to attach.

A simular issue was reported in the now-closed #2881.


Extension version: 1.2.0
VS Code version: Code 1.53.1 (5d424b828ada08e1eb9f95d6cb41120234ef57c7, 2021-02-08T23:29:42.785Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18363

System Info
Item Value
CPUs Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6800K CPU @ 3.40GHz (12 x 3398)
GPU Status 2d_canvas: enabled
gpu_compositing: enabled
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
oop_rasterization: enabled
opengl: enabled_on
protected_video_decode: unavailable_off
rasterization: enabled
skia_renderer: enabled_on
video_decode: enabled
vulkan: disabled_off
webgl: enabled
webgl2: enabled
Load (avg) undefined
Memory (System) 31.91GB (23.80GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader no
VM 0%

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the failure using an administrator-run VS Code process, an administrator-run target process, and a launch.json attach request on Windows. Start by tracing the extension's attach flow and privilege handling; done means the documented administrator scenario can attach successfully or receives an appropriate elevation path. Check the related issue #2881 for prior context.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript, vscode
Domain
devtools, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.