security - How to find out which account my ASP.NET code is running under?

Question

I am getting an 'Access to the path is denied" error message when running in debug mode. I have tried granting permissions to {MACHINENAME}ASPNET and to NETWORK SERVICE but this hasn't made any difference. I have also tried < impersonate = true /> using an admin account, this also made no difference. So how do I establish exactly which account is being used?

Answer 1

To find out which NT account your app is running under at any given time, do something like (in VB.NET):

    Dim User = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent.User
    Dim UserName = User.Translate(GetType(System.Security.Principal.NTAccount)).Value

When using ASP.NET, this account will match the identity of the application pool, which you configure using IIS Manager. Note that the anonymous IIS user isn't much involved with ASP.NET requests.