run powershell as administrator from python

You need to nest powershell.exe calls:

• An outer call that calls PowerShell’s Start-Process cmdlet with -Verb RunAs, which allows running any executable with elevation.

• Since what you want to run with elevation is a .ps1 script, it must be called via powershell.exe, the Windows PowerShell CLI, as in your own attempt, except that you explicitly need to incorporate a Set-Location call to ensure that the script runs in the same working dir. as the caller (C:WindowsSystem32 is the default in Windows PowerShell when Start-Process -Verb RunAs is used).

  • If you don’t need this, or if you’re using pwsh.exe, the CLI of the cross-platform PowerShell (Core) 7+ edition (which now retains the working dir. by default), the inner call can be simplified to:
  • powershell.exe -Args '-noprofile -file D:Cyber_securityPythonlogin.ps1'

# See bottom section if you also want to get the exit code of 
# the elevated process.
p = subprocess.Popen(
  [
    "powershell.exe", 
    "-noprofile", "-c",
    r"""
    Start-Process -Verb RunAs -Wait powershell.exe -Args "
      -noprofile -c Set-Location `"$PWD`"; & D:Cyber_securityPythonlogin.ps1
      "
    """
  ],
  stdout=sys.stdout
)
p.communicate()

Note:

• Running a process with elevation:

  • involves an interactive UAC confirmation / credentials prompt that cannot be bypassed (unless UAC is turned off, which would be ill-advised)
  • invariably runs in a new window.
  • prevents direct capture of the elevated process’ output streams; you’ll have to redirect to (temporary) files instead, which you can do with Start-Process‘
    -RedirectStandardOutput / -RedirectStandardError parameters.

• CLI parameters -noprofile and -c were added: -noprofile suppresses loading of PowerShell’s profiles, and -c (-Command) explicitly indicates that what follows are PowerShell commands to execute.

• -Wait was added to the Start-Process call above so as to make the outer powershell.exe call wait for the elevated process to exit before continuing.

• You don’t strictly need powershell.exe + Start-Process -Verb RunAs for launching an elevated process, but it is the most convenient option.

  • A Python-based solution is possible, but involves fairly complex use of the WinAPI – see this blog post
  • Note that while you can technically use runas.exe /user:Administrator utility to create an elevated session, doing so (a) only works with precisely that account, i.e. the built-in account named Adminstrator, and that account is often disabled in practice (it is disabled by default).

• An alternative approach would be to modify the .ps1 file to self-elevate on demand (or use a helper .ps1 file that does that) – see this answer

Variation that also gets the exit code of the elevated process:

If your .ps1 script uses the exit statement in order to deliberately report a (process) exit code that signals success vs. failure and you want to query that exit code, a bit more work is needed:

• Start-Process -PassThru switch outputs a process-information object representing the newly launched process, whose .ExitCode property reports the process exit code (after termination).

• Due to how the -c / -Command CLI parameter works, the inner powershell.exe call must use exit $LASTEXITCODE explicitly to relay the script’s exit code as the elevated process’ exit code.

p = subprocess.Popen(
  [
    "powershell.exe", 
    "-noprofile", "-c",
    r"""
    exit (
      Start-Process -Verb RunAs -PassThru -Wait powershell.exe -Args "
        -noprofile -c Set-Location `"$PWD`"; & C:UsersjdoeDesktoppgpg.ps1; exit `$LASTEXITCODE
      "
    ).ExitCode
    """
  ],
  stdout=sys.stdout
)
p.communicate()

print('Terminated with exit code ' + str(p.returncode))