PHP exec() command not working

Question

After hours and hours of trying and searching for an answer i coudn't get it working.

Windows Server 2012 R2

Plesk 12

IIS 8.5

The problem

My problem is: I want to execute this command in PHP. The command is necessary to reload the configs for filezilla, after creating a new user with an PHP script.

C:\Program Files (x86)\FileZilla Server\FileZilla Server.exe /reload-config

It does work when i try it directly in CMD. But in PHP if doens't somehow work. I tried so many things, that im going to try to give you all the manners i tried.

I tried to do this at the following ways:

Trial 1

$command = '"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\FileZilla Server\\FileZilla Server.exe" /reload-config'; 
exec( $command, $output, $return); 

print_r($output);
echo '<br/>' .$return;

Output:

Array ( ) 
0

Trial 2

$command = '"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\FileZilla Server\\FileZilla Server.exe" /reload-config'; 
system( $command, $output); 

print_r($output);

Output: 0

Trial 3

$command = 'C:\\"Program Files (x86)\\FileZilla Server\\FileZilla Server.exe" /reload-config'; 
exec( $command, $output, $return); 

print_r($output);
echo '<br/>' .$return;

Output: 0

Trial 4 (The only one that returns an error!)

exec( 'C:\\"Program Files (x86)\\FileZilla Server\\FileZilla Server.exe" /stop 2>&1', $output); 
print_r($output);

Output:

Array ( [0] => Toegang geweigerd. )

In english:

Array ( [0] => Access denied. )

Privileges:

In allmost all awnsers found they talked about privileges. I did following privileges:

Gave all web users and IUSR privileges to CMD.exe and FileZilla Server.exe, and tried to set the IIS authentication from anonymous to an Administrator account

Somebody said to try this:

echo '<pre>';
    system('set', $retval);
echo ' </pre>'; 

If i do that my output is: http://pastebin.com/SjzeQpJ0

If you guys want anymore details just ask. I hope you guys can figure it out for me. I tried to be as clear as possible. Thanks.

Finaly found the solution!!

---

If you encounter the same problem as i did, and you dont know how to fix this, follow this steps.

1. Login to the Remote of your server (if you have access to it) Open
2. Open the IIS manager
3. Select -> Application Pools node underneath the machine node (left panel)
4. Right click on the desired domainname -> Advanced settings
5. Scroll to Process Model -> Id
6. Click on the 3 dots
7. Check the Custom Account radio button
8. Fill in an existing administration account which has access to the remote desktop and of course its password
9. Press OK
10. Now go to the .exe or whatever file you want to access throught the exec command and
11. Right click on the file and select properties
12. Go to the security tab
13. Select Edit
14. Now grand full rights to the account you selected before. If its not listed than add it manualy by clicking on Add

Answer 1

Finaly found the solution!!

---

If you encounter the same problem as i did, and you dont know how to fix this, follow this steps.

1. Login to the Remote of your server (if you have access to it)
2. Open the IIS manager
3. Select -> Application Pools node underneath the machine node (left panel)
4. Right click on the desired domainname -> Advanced settings
5. Scroll to Process Model -> Identity
6. Click on the 3 dots
7. Check the Custom Account radio button
8. Fill in an existing administration account which has access to the remote desktop and of course its password
9. Press OK
10. Now go to the .exe or whatever file you want to access throught the exec command and
11. Right click on the file and select properties
12. Go to the security tab
13. Select Edit
14. Now grand full rights to the account you selected before. If its not listed than add it manualy by clicking on Add

Answer 2

There is a much safer way to do this I figured out by using the above and exploring some. All you need to do is enable "Load User Profile" and it will then have all the normal user permissions assigned by a regular user. Just got it working like this instead of giving administrative access:

1. Login to the Remote of your server (if you have access to it)
2. Open the IIS manager
3. Select -> Application Pools node underneath the machine node (left panel)
4. Right click on the desired domainname -> Advanced settings
5. Scroll to Process Model -> Id
6. Set Load User Profile = True

and working! specifically fixed Windows 2012 R2

Answer 3

1. Go to IIS
2. Click on Application Pool
3. Select the application pool -> Advance Settings
4. Under Popup -> Process Model -> Set Load User Profile to TRUE
5. And -> Process Model -> Identity -> Local System
6. This will act as a current user

Note: If current has high privileges over system, This will be high risk.