List local administrators with System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement doesn't retrieve domain users

Question

I'm trying to remotely list members of the local Administrators group. The following code returns only local accounts which are members of the admin group - no domain groups or individual accounts are returned at all (BLAH\Domain Admins or BLAH\yajohn, for instance).

Anyone have an idea?

      Public Function listLocalAdmins(ByVal machinename As String, ByVal creduname As String, ByVal credpass As String) As String
    Try
        Dim mctx As New PrincipalContext(ContextType.Machine, machinename, creduname, credpass)
        Dim lcladmins As GroupPrincipal = GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(mctx, IdentityType.Name, "Administrators")
        Dim pc As PrincipalCollection = lcladmins.Members
        Dim r As New StringBuilder
        For Each p As Principal In pc
            r.Append("Name:->" & p.Name.ToString & vbCrLf)
        Next
        Return r.ToString
    Catch ex As Exception
        Return ex.Message
    End Try
End Function

Thanks for any feedback.

Answer 1

I posted earlier, but found out it didn't resolve your issue. I was not able to use AccountManagement to do what you wanted. I was able to use DirectoryServices though, maybe this will help.

Imports System.DirectoryServices


Sub Main()
    'basic props'
    Dim computername As String = "computername"
    Dim username As String = "Domain1\account"
    Dim password As String = "password"

    'User to check if they are part of ADMIN group'
    Dim userToCheck As String = "usertocheck"

    'User to add/remove'
    Dim usertoAddRemove As String = "usertoaddremove"

    'get computer entry'
    Dim deComputer As DirectoryEntry = GetComputerEntry(computername, username, password)

    'get admin group info'
    Dim deGroup As DirectoryEntry = GetGroupByName(deComputer, "administrators")

    'get members'
    Dim groupMembers As List(Of DirectoryEntry) = GetGroupMembers(deGroup)

    'check if "UserToCheck" is part of admin group'
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("User {0} Found?: {1}", userToCheck, CheckIfUsernameIsInGroup(deGroup, userToCheck).ToString()))

    'get user to add/remove DN'
    Dim userDN As DirectoryEntry = New DirectoryEntry(String.Format("WinNT://{0}/{1},user", "DOMAIN1", usertoAddRemove))

    'add account'
    AddUserToGroup(deGroup, userDN)
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("User account {0} added to group {1}", usertoAddRemove, deGroup.Name))

    'remove account'
    RemoveUserFromGroup(deGroup, userDN)
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("User account {0} removed from group {1}", usertoAddRemove, deGroup.Name))

    Console.ReadLine()

End Sub

Public Function GetComputerEntry(ByVal Computername As String, ByVal Username As String, ByVal Password As String) As DirectoryEntry
    'create directory entry connection to the remote machine'
    Dim deComputer As New DirectoryEntry("WinNT://" + Computername + ",computer", Username, Password)
    deComputer.RefreshCache()

    Return deComputer
End Function

Public Function GetGroupByName(ByVal DE As DirectoryEntry, ByVal Groupname As String) As DirectoryEntry
    'get admin group info'
    Dim deGroup As DirectoryEntry = DE.Children.Find(Groupname, "group")

    Return deGroup
End Function

Public Function GetGroupMembers(ByVal deGroup As DirectoryEntry) As List(Of DirectoryEntry)
    Dim members As IEnumerable = deGroup.Invoke("members", Nothing)
    Dim r As New List(Of DirectoryEntry)()

    For Each o As Object In members
        Dim deMember As DirectoryEntry = New DirectoryEntry(o)

        r.Add(deMember)
    Next

    Return r
End Function

Public Function CheckIfUsernameIsInGroup(ByVal deGroup As DirectoryEntry, ByVal Username As String) As Boolean
    'first get group members'
    Dim u As List(Of DirectoryEntry) = GetGroupMembers(deGroup)

    'then check for name'
    Dim r = From c In u Where c.Name.ToUpper() = Username.ToUpper() Select c

    'return true/false if found'
    Return r.Count = 1
End Function

Public Sub AddUserToGroup(ByVal deGroup As DirectoryEntry, ByVal User As DirectoryEntry)
    deGroup.Invoke("Add", User.Path.ToString())
    deGroup.CommitChanges()
End Sub

Public Sub RemoveUserFromGroup(ByVal deGroup As DirectoryEntry, ByVal User As DirectoryEntry)
    deGroup.RefreshCache()
    deGroup.Invoke("Remove", User.Path.ToString())
    deGroup.CommitChanges()
End Sub