Failing dll injection - c++

Question

I'm in the process of making a security program for my network. One of it's instances is to check and monitor what api's and libraries are called. The dll to do that and the program that go along with it are already finished. But there is a problem that I cant seem to fix.
When trying to inject my dll into system processes (such as explorer.exe, my main test system process) with NtCreateThreadEx I get the return value: C0000022, it means something along the lines of: Status_Access_Denied (it returns in NTSTATUS, but DWORD will do)
I have no idea what to do, I'm running as Administrator, I raised my privileges, and used the proper functions, still I get c0000022
Here's the code I'm using to inject
#include "main.h"
typedef DWORD NTSTATUS;
struct NtCreateThreadExBuffer{
ULONG Size;
ULONG Unknown1;
ULONG Unknown2;
PULONG Unknown3;
ULONG Unknown4;
ULONG Unknown5;
ULONG Unknown6;
PULONG Unknown7;
ULONG Unknown8;
};
typedef NTSTATUS (WINAPI *LPFUN_NtCreateThreadEx)
(
OUT PHANDLE hThread,
IN ACCESS_MASK DesiredAccess,
IN LPVOID ObjectAttributes,
IN HANDLE ProcessHandle,
IN LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE lpStartAddress,
IN LPVOID lpParameter,
IN BOOL CreateSuspended,
IN ULONG StackZeroBits,
IN ULONG SizeOfStackCommit,
IN ULONG SizeOfStackReserve,
OUT LPVOID lpBytesBuffer
);
using namespace std;
//#define CREATE_THREAD_ACCESS (PROCESS_CREATE_THREAD | PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION | PROCESS_VM_OPERATION | PROCESS_VM_WRITE | PROCESS_VM_READ)
#define CREATE_THREAD_ACCESS ( PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS )
BOOL LoadDll(char *procName, char *dllName);
BOOL InjectDLL(DWORD dwProcessID, char *dllName);
BOOL LoadDll(char *dllName, DWORD dwProcID){
printf("Process Id to Inject: %d",dwProcID);
if(!dwProcID){
printf("No vailid PID\n");
return false;
}
FILE* FileCheck = fopen(dllName, "r");
if(FileCheck==NULL){
printf("\nUnable to inject %s", dllName);
return false;
}
fclose(FileCheck);
if(!InjectDLL(dwProcID, dllName)){
printf("injection failed\n");
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}
BOOL InjectDLL(DWORD dwProcessID, char *dllName){
HANDLE hProc;
HANDLE hToken;
char buf[50]={0};
LPVOID RemoteString, LoadLibAddy;
if(!dwProcessID)return false;
HANDLE hCurrentProc = GetCurrentProcess();
if (!OpenProcessToken(hCurrentProc,TOKEN_QUERY | TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES,&hToken)){
printf("OpenProcessToken Error:%d\n", GetLastError());
} else {
if (!RaisePrivleges(hToken, (char*)SE_DEBUG_NAME)){
printf("SetPrivleges SE_DEBUG_NAME Error:%d\n", GetLastError());
}
}
if (hToken)CloseHandle(hToken);
hProc = OpenProcess(CREATE_THREAD_ACCESS, FALSE, dwProcessID);
printf("\nHandle to process: %x\n", hProc);
if(!hProc){
printf("OpenProcess() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
}
LoadLibAddy = (LPVOID)GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32.dll"), "LoadLibraryA");
if(!LoadLibAddy){
printf("GetProcAddress() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
}
RemoteString = (LPVOID)VirtualAllocEx(hProc, NULL, strlen(dllName), MEM_RESERVE|MEM_COMMIT, PAGE_READWRITE);
if(RemoteString == NULL){
printf("VirtualAllocEx() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
}
printf("\nRemote address: %x\n", RemoteString);
if(WriteProcessMemory(hProc, (LPVOID)RemoteString, dllName, strlen(dllName), NULL) == NULL){
printf("WriteProcessMemory() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
}
/*
if(!CreateRemoteThread(hProc, NULL, NULL, (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)LoadLibAddy, (LPVOID)RemoteString, NULL, NULL)){
printf("CreateRemoteThread() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
}
*/
HMODULE modNtDll = GetModuleHandle("ntdll.dll");
if( !modNtDll )
{
printf("n failed to get module handle for ntdll.dll, Error=0x%.8x", GetLastError());
return 0;
}
LPFUN_NtCreateThreadEx funNtCreateThreadEx =
(LPFUN_NtCreateThreadEx) GetProcAddress(modNtDll, "NtCreateThreadEx");
if( !funNtCreateThreadEx )
{
printf("n failed to get function (NTCreateThreadEx) address from ntdll.dll, Error=0x%.8x\nTrying CreateRemoteThread api\n", GetLastError());
if(!CreateRemoteThread(hProc, NULL, NULL, (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)LoadLibAddy, (LPVOID)RemoteString, NULL, NULL)){
printf("CreateRemoteThread() failed: %d", GetLastError());
return false;
} else {
printf("CreateRemoteThread success!\n");
return true;
}
return 0;
}
NtCreateThreadExBuffer ntbuffer;
memset (&ntbuffer,0,sizeof(NtCreateThreadExBuffer));
DWORD temp1 = 0;
DWORD temp2 = 0;
HANDLE pRemoteThread = NULL;
ntbuffer.Size = sizeof(NtCreateThreadExBuffer);
ntbuffer.Unknown1 = 0x10003;
ntbuffer.Unknown2 = 0x8;
ntbuffer.Unknown3 = &temp2;
ntbuffer.Unknown4 = 0;
ntbuffer.Unknown5 = 0x10004;
ntbuffer.Unknown6 = 4;
ntbuffer.Unknown7 = &temp1;
ntbuffer.Unknown8 = 0;
NTSTATUS status = funNtCreateThreadEx(
&pRemoteThread,
0x1FFFFF,
NULL,
hProc,
(LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE) LoadLibAddy,
(LPVOID)RemoteString,
FALSE, //start instantly
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
&ntbuffer
);
printf("NTCreateThreadEx return: %x\n", status);
// Resume the thread execution
WaitForSingleObject(pRemoteThread, INFINITE);
//Check the return code from remote thread function
DWORD dwExitCode;
if( GetExitCodeThread(pRemoteThread, (DWORD*) &dwExitCode) )
{
printf("\n Remote thread returned with status = %d\n", dwExitCode);
}
CloseHandle(pRemoteThread);
CloseHandle(hProc);
return true;
}
BOOL RaisePrivleges( HANDLE hToken, char *pPriv ){
TOKEN_PRIVILEGES tkp;
tkp.PrivilegeCount = 1;
tkp.Privileges[0].Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED;
tkp.Privileges[0].Luid.HighPart = 0;
tkp.Privileges[0].Luid.LowPart = 0;
if (!LookupPrivilegeValue(NULL, pPriv, &tkp.Privileges[0].Luid)){
printf("LookupPrivilegeValue Error:%d\n", GetLastError());
return FALSE;
}
int iRet = AdjustTokenPrivileges(hToken, FALSE, &tkp, 0x10, (PTOKEN_PRIVILEGES)NULL, 0);
if (iRet == NULL){
printf( "AdjustTokenPrivileges Error:%d\n", GetLastError());
return TRUE;
} else {
iRet = GetLastError();
switch (iRet){
case ERROR_NOT_ALL_ASSIGNED:
printf("AdjustTokenPrivileges ERROR_NOT_ALL_ASSIGNED\n" );
return FALSE;
case ERROR_SUCCESS:
return TRUE;
default:
printf("AdjustTokenPrivileges Unknow Error:%d\n", iRet);
return FALSE;
}
}
}

Answer 1

1) If you're running on VISTA or later then you're possibly trying to inject into a 'protected process' from a 'non protected process'. See Process Security and Access Rights in MSDN. Non protected processes can't create threads in protected processes; though I must admit I'd expect the call to open process to fail when you request the inappropriate access rights rather than the subsequent create thread call to fail.
2) Why are you using NtCreateThreadEx() rather than simply calling CreateRemoteThread()?
3) This probably isn't the cause of your problem, but... You're failing to allocate memory for the null terminator in the string, you should be allocating strlen(dllName) + 1.
4) I assume that the process that is doing the injecting and the process that you're injecting into are both the same architecture, you're not running an x86 exe on x64 and expecting to inject into an x64 exe?

Answer 2

Since it's hard to find the right answer to this problem, I am posting even though the thread is old.
I was trying to inject into x64 service on Win7 x64 and kept running into same problems. My solution was:
Compile both the injector and injection dll as x64.
Instead of CreateRemoteThread & NtCreateThreadEx (both failing) use RtlCreateUserThread.

Answer 3

You must specify the full path to the injected DLL, otherwise it will not be found.