Applescript Invoke Specific User and Password

applescriptcommand linepasswordterminal

I have a do shell script that I need to run in Applescript, but it needs to run as a different user. It is to be deployed into the student's network drive as a standalone application that the students can run when required.

The example code below is only for illustration.
This code works when I am logged in, because it's picking up my username (local admin account) on the computer and uses the password provided (not the actual password included).

do shell script "rm -rf /$HOME/Downloads/*" password "Password01" with administrator privileges

I have tried to specify a username with user "sdadmin" to the code and it won't work, it throws an error.

Is there a way to ask AppleScript to run a command with a specific user and password provided in the code like above?

Best Answer

Updated answer:

There is an Apple doc which shows the correct way of doing it. You was close.

(I have not tried it myself)

do shell script "rm -rf /$HOME/Downloads/*" user name "USERNAME" password "THEPASSWORD" with administrator privileges

From the doc:

How do I get administrator privileges for a command?

Use the administrator privileges, user name and password parameters like this:

do shell script "command" user name "me" password "mypassword" with administrator privileges user name and password are optional; if you omit the user name, do shell script assumes it to be the current user; if you omit the password, it will ask for a password when it runs. Once a script is correctly authenticated, it will not ask for authentication again for five minutes. As of Mac OS X 10.4, this grace period does not extend to any other scripts or to the rest of the system; manually calling sudo -k is unnecessary.

For security reasons, you may not tell another application to do shell script with administrator privileges. Put the command outside of any tell block, or put it inside a tell me block.

Bear in mind that administrator privileges allow you to change any file anywhere in the system. You can render your system unbootable or even erase the entire disk with a few well-placed commands, so exercise caution. Better yet, don’t use administrator privileges unless you absolutely have to. Unless you are doing system-level development, you should never need to change anything in /System — changing /Library should suffice.

Note: Using sudo(8) with with administrator privileges is generally unnecessary and creates security holes; simply remove the "sudo".

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2

*You can save the app as "run only" (Save an editable copy for yourself first)

( If you only save it as a Run Only even you will not be able to open it and edit it later on once you have closed the script window.)

Then use the File->Export menu which will give you the option in the save dialogue to save as "Run Only"

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Attempt to open main.scpt file in application package:

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A Run only will stop someone from opening the script embedded in the Application by double clicking on it to open it in Script Editor and discover your password. But there is a way of finding the user name and password from a Run Only and it is not that hard to figure out even for a casual user.

I WOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT PUTTING YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD IN THE APP.

UPDATE 3

A little idea to help if you must do this is to break up the password text by creating nonsensical variable name to hold it and jumble them.

When the code runs it will reassemble them in the correct order.

For example.

if the password is 88>0TpFpax

I will use:

    set T to "Tp"
    set Po to "88"
    set TC to "Fpax"
    set TEH to ">0"
do shell script "say blahbla" user name "markhunte" password (Po & TEH & T & TC as string) with administrator privileges

Notice that not only do the variable not mean anything or show any sense of order but the bits of password are also jumbled within them.

All until the code runs.

So even if they do stumble on how to do what I am talking about the password will not be assembled in any order that it can just be used.

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