The best way to resolve display username by SID?

Question

I read a list of SIDs from the registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

How would one resolve the display username (e.g. DOMAIN\user, BUILT-IN\user) given the SID string in C#?

score 31 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 19 '08 at 05:59

31

Just found it on the pinvoke.net.

Alternative Managed API: Available in .Net 2.0:

using System.Security.Principal;

// convert the user sid to a domain\name
string account = new SecurityIdentifier(stringSid).Translate(typeof(NTAccount)).ToString();

answered Dec 19 '08 at 05:59

Dennis C

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This solution is not reliable in all situations. There are sometimes SIDs which cannot be translated and this will throw an exception. I've found LookupAccountSid() to be more reliable. – Brian Lyttle Dec 03 '09 at 17:13

Mitch Wheat · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-04T04:51:54.190

11

The Win32 API function LookupAccountSid() is used to find the name that corresponds to a SID.

LookupAccountSid() has the following signature:

BOOL LookupAccountSid(LPCTSTR lpSystemName, PSID Sid,LPTSTR Name, LPDWORD cbName,
                       LPTSTR ReferencedDomainName, LPDWORD cbReferencedDomainName,
                       PSID_NAME_USE peUse);

MSDN Ref.

Here's the P/Invoke reference (with sample code): http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/advapi32.LookupAccountSid

[DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
static extern bool LookupAccountSid (
  string lpSystemName,
  [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] byte[] Sid,
  StringBuilder lpName,
  ref uint cchName,
  StringBuilder ReferencedDomainName,
  ref uint cchReferencedDomainName,
  out SID_NAME_USE peUse);

edited Oct 04 '15 at 04:51

answered Dec 19 '08 at 03:46

Mitch Wheat

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Is there any other way to do it without using p/invoke in C#? – Dennis C Dec 19 '08 at 03:57
@DennisC you can do it without P/Invoke. Please see my answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7593005/convert-sid-to-username-in-c-sharp/7593200 – Eriawan Kusumawardhono Mar 21 '17 at 02:10
@EriawanKusumawardhono I guess you may not read the questions very well. Because they are exactly opposite API – Dennis C Mar 24 '17 at 16:29

The best way to resolve display username by SID?

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