Powershell SendKeys Access Denied When Invoked Remotely

Question

I'm testing a program that listens for key presses on remote machines, so I need to generate them somehow, and preferably only using powershell core.

I'm getting Access Denied (win32 exception or dotnetmethod exception) when I try to use SendKeys on a remote computer via invoke-command, even though credentials are supplied to the script with admin rights and it works fine locally.

I'm running many scripts in this way and this script is the only one thats fails (and it fails the same way on all operating systems)

e.g.

$script =
{    
    Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
    [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait($item);
}

invoke-command -computername $machine -scriptblock $script -credential $cred

SendInput looks like it might be a promising replacement but I haven't been able to find an example that works for me.

Do the remote machines have the same .net and PowerShell versions as your own environment? — Srb1313711, Apr 09 '17 at 16:58
At least some of them do, and they are all throwing the same error. — GhostSparkles, Apr 09 '17 at 17:16

GhostSparkles · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-11T17:29:42.953

3

Turns out the problem is due to not having access to a windows user session.

I solved it by creating a scheduled task on the remote machine and having that call the powershell script. This way the script runs in a user session.

Otherwise it seems to run in a gui-less session which cant call the keyboard and mouse APIs.

edited Apr 11 '17 at 17:29

answered Apr 11 '17 at 17:21

GhostSparkles

101
2
10

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 18 '18 at 05:33

I had similar issue sending keyboard keys over a remote session. To overcome this issue, i made use of PSexec tool. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec Copy the script you want to execute, to the remote machine and use PsExec tool to run the script from a remote machine.

Here is the syntax. I am running the script "testscript.ps1" located in C-drive of remote host from another windows machine using PsExec tool.

PsExec.exe \\RemoteHostName -u Domain\UserName -p -i Powershell -noExit -Command "& Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {C:\testscript.ps1;stop-Process $PID}

Powershell SendKeys Access Denied When Invoked Remotely

2 Answers2