How to get the current Windows user with ASP.NET Core RC2 MVC6 and IIS7

Question

I have an intranet site built in MVC6 using ASP.NET Core RC2. I want to get the Windows username of the person accessing the intranet site.

So if Jim goes to the intranet site I want the site to receive "Domain\Jim", while if Anne goes to the intranet site I want the site to receive "Domain\Anne".

Only Windows Authentication is enabled on my IIS server, Anonymous Authentication is disabled.

My site is set to use Windows authentication and to disable anonymous authentication.

<system.web>
    <authentication mode="Windows" />
    <authorization>
        <deny users="?"/>
    </authorization>
</system.web>

Through Debug I can use System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name, but that of course returns "IIS APPPOOL\SiteName" on the IIS server.

I found many examples from older version of ASP.NET using HttpContext, and I tried injecting that into my controller with the following but userName ends up null.

//Startup.cs
services.AddSingleton<IHttpContextAccessor, HttpContextAccessor>();

//HomeController.cs
public HomeController(IHttpContextAccessor _accessor)
{
    string userName = _accessor.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name;
}

What is the correct way to pass the Windows username to an intranet site in ASP.NET Core RC2 MVC6?

Yes. I disabled it with the following inside . I've updated my question with the block. — Kyle, Jul 06 '16 at 21:33
does your site have a login screen..? also do a google search there is information out there on how to do this. here is a freeB http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30701006/how-to-get-the-current-logged-in-user-id-asp-net-mvc6 — MethodMan, Jul 06 '16 at 21:43
@Kyle Perhaps this config will help http://stackoverflow.com/a/29500929/1663001 — DavidG, Jul 06 '16 at 21:49
First, upgrade to RTM. Second, learn what is ASP.NET Core at http://docs.asp.net The settings you put in web.config are useless, as they are not for ASP.NET Core at all. — Lex Li, Jul 06 '16 at 22:52
I have Googled this extensively @MethodMan, but unfortunately most answers are for older versions of ASP.NET, not Core. The result is that most solutions, including the one you linked, do not work in ASP.NET Core. There is neither access to the System.Web.Current path nor is there a User.GetUserId() method. — Kyle, Jul 07 '16 at 14:28
@DavidG I tried that config but it results in a 500 internal server error. Thank you though. — Kyle, Jul 07 '16 at 14:28
Please, don't use MVC6 tags anymore. It's for a future version of ASP.NET MVC based on the old webstack (MVC5). ASP.NET Core is a complete new and incompatible, portable version based on .NET Core. Use [tag:asp.net-core-mvc] and/or [tag:asp.net-core] tags instead and your question is more likely to be found by people who can help you with the issue — Tseng, Jul 08 '16 at 11:45
Has anyone has any luck with asp.net core and IIS to be able to read the subject? I have tried a lot of options I read but did not get it to work. — vanthome, Oct 30 '16 at 12:26
I can't get it to work when published to IIS either. I'm hoping someone can get this also. — Daniel Jackson, Jun 05 '18 at 13:47
Did you solve this.. my issue... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58120576/asp-net-core-get-user-not-working-when-deployed-to-iis-and-launch-in-browser — Ziggler, Sep 26 '19 at 18:31

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 16 '19 at 06:33

19

Might help someone who are still looking for. Per documentation from MS https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/http-context?view=aspnetcore-2.2 , add the HttpContextAccessor in ConfigureServices method (startup.cs) Pass this httpcontextaccessor into the controller and access the logged in user.

I followed this and I was able to get the logged in Windows Authenticated user even after deploying the core website to IIS.

Here are the code snippets

In Startup.cs (under ConfigureServices method) add the line

services.AddHttpContextAccessor();

Then in your controller file, add following piece of necessary code lines. The code below is a sample.

public class YourController : Controller
{
  private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;
  private readonly string _user;
  public YourController(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)
  {
    _httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;
    _user = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name;
  }
}

edited Dec 16 '19 at 06:33

Ramin Mohammaddoost

3
2

answered Feb 16 '19 at 09:39

Jabez

795
9
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I suggest this answer to be flagged as the correct answer to help many like me who spent a day looking for a solution. I had the same issue as in question, even after following all .net core related instructions. However, his answer, to inject HttpContextAccessor, works perfectly. – m.othman May 13 '19 at 14:23
My issue... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58120576/asp-net-core-get-user-not-working-when-deployed-to-iis-and-launch-in-browser – Ziggler Sep 26 '19 at 18:31
4

How come the user is NULL? – user7849697 Nov 28 '19 at 09:27
1

in Properties/launchSettings, you may need to make your key/value pairs look like this: "windowsAuthentication": true, "anonymousAuthentication": false, – Josh Robinson Feb 22 '21 at 18:18
How can I use this _user var in a custom (authrization) attribute? [Authorize("PRIVILE", _user)] => CS0182 An attribute argument must be a constant expression, typeof expression or array creation expression of an attribute parameter type – Helmut Mar 11 '22 at 09:27

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '17 at 18:02

8

For anyone else using Windows Authentication on an Intranet app, who just wants to be able to retrieve info about a user, it's simpler that you might think.

In your controller, this line will grab the user name of the current user in DOMAIN\username form.

var userId = this.User.Identity.Name;

I spent some time looking through the other answers before realizing that most of them assumed I was implementing Individual accounts to be authenticated against AD, not out of the box Windows Authentication.

answered Feb 03 '17 at 18:02

Jonathan Leitner

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2
6

3

HI, if you run the Application from Visual Studio in Debug mode, "this.User.Identity.Name" should have a value, or it only Works under IIS? I am doing an Angular 5 App, on my Controllier I am having null.... – Diego Mar 28 '18 at 13:34
3

Yes @Diego I'm having the same issue. The above works when debugging application from Visual Studio but after publishing to IIS with Windows Auth enabled, the above comes back null. If anyone can text the above and confirm that it works after being published then I will change my vote and it will help myself very much. Thanks. – Daniel Jackson Jun 05 '18 at 13:46
I amusing that line in IIS to get the username I can't access the server right now to check setup, but if memory serves the biggest thing that helped me get this setup was setting the app pool to run on a domain account. – Jonathan Leitner Jun 09 '18 at 04:22
My issue.. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58120576/asp-net-core-get-user-not-working-when-deployed-to-iis-and-launch-in-browser – Ziggler Sep 26 '19 at 18:32

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 23 '17 at 17:14

0

Using var userId = this.User.Identity.Name; worked for me. My app is running on an intranet and all I was looking to do is get the user's login Id from Windows. I didn't need to store the user's information as that is already being stored in Active Directory.

edited Oct 23 '17 at 17:14

maxshuty

9,708
13
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answered Oct 23 '17 at 16:34

Delroy

1
1

3

Works for me until I publish to IIS. – Daniel Jackson Jun 05 '18 at 13:46
Same here.. I publish to IIS and it did not work.. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58120576/asp-net-core-get-user-not-working-when-deployed-to-iis-and-launch-in-browser – Ziggler Sep 26 '19 at 18:32

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:14

0

ServiceSecurityContext.Current?.PrimaryIdentity

answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:14

Christian Findlay

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Looks like this requires `ASP.NET Core` 3+ – Serj Sagan Feb 28 '20 at 07:02

How to get the current Windows user with ASP.NET Core RC2 MVC6 and IIS7

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