Frequently Asked Questions

Expand All

• How does Privilege Authority elevate application permissions?
  • Privilege Authority uses elevation “rules” to define applications that require administrative or special privileges to execute. When a rule is applied, the Privilege Authority client raises the privilege level of the target application. The application executes with the additional privileges specified in the rule.
• How can I create Privilege Authority rules?
  • Rules are easily created with the Rules Wizard in the Privilege Authority console. Rules can also be downloaded from the community supported Rules Exchange, which allows users to share rules.
• Can I elevate every application from a specific publisher?
  • Privilege Authority Professional can create an elevation rule based on a specific application publisher’s digital certificate, allowing you to automatically elevate every application from that publisher.
• What operating systems does the client support? What operating systems does the console require?
  • The Privilege Authority client and console can run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 as well as Server 2003 and Server 2008 and 2008 R2.
• Does Privilege Authority Console have to be running to enforce privilege elevation of client machines?
  • Once a rule has been created and deployed to a client machine, the Privilege Authority agent has to be running for the rule to be enforced on the client machine. The Privilege Authority console does not have to be running for rules to be enforced.
• What are the installation prerequisites for Privilege Authority?
  • There are no prerequisites for the client application. The Privilege Authority console requires the Group Policy Management Console and .NET Framework 3.5.
• How long does it take to set up? Does it require me to install software on my desktops?
  • The console installs in minutes. The Privilege Authority client agent must be installed on any computers that you want to run elevation rules. The client is easily installed via Group Policy or through a tool like ScriptLogic Desktop Authority.
• How can I identify which users in my domain have local admin rights?
  • You can download a free 30-day trial of ScriptLogic’s Security Explorer tool to search your network for users and computers with local admin rights. With a paid license you can export the list of local admins and computer names to a CSV file and remove local admin rights.
    
    

    For more information on using Security Explorer to find users with local admin rights, please refer to this knowledge base article.  

• Can I run the Privilege Authority Community and Professional versions at the same time in my environment?
  • Please see our licensing page for details.
• Do I have to buy licenses for all employees, or can I buy licenses for only those who need privileges?
  • Please see our licensing page for details.
• Does Privilege Authority offer reporting capabilities?
  • Privilege Authority offers single-click reports and the ability to generate custom reports with SQL-based third party reporting tools. Single-click reports include:
    
    • A list of all privilege elevation events occurring across all managed client machines
    • A usage summary of privilege elevation rules and the clients to which privileges are deployed
    • A detailed record of each deployed rule
• Does Privilege Authority support custom reporting? If so, would ScriptLogic provide the data definitions for the tables?
  • Yes, Privilege Authority supports custom reports. You can use SQL-based third party tools to create custom reports. ScriptLogic has published the schema of the central repository where PA stores all the activities so customers can create custom reports based on their needs. The schema can be found in Privilege Authority’s admin guide.
• What are the prerequisites for using Privilege Authority’s Reporting feature?
  • While setting up Privilege Authority’s reporting capability you can either point it to a pre-existing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database or choose for the setup process to download and deploy Microsoft SQL Express 2008.
• Why should I buy Privilege Authority Professional edition?
  • The professional edition offers critical capabilities needed to manage your organization’s privilege elevation policies. Capabilities include:
    
    • Access to ScriptLogic Technical Support
    • Validation Logic: the flexibility to deploy privilege elevation policies with significantly fewer changes to group policy objects (See Validation Logic for details)
    • Single-click reports within the console and the flexibility to run custom reports.
    
    For a complete list of features available only in the Professional edition, refer to the version comparison chart.
• How can I find out which edition of Privilege Authority I have installed?
  • You can determine the edition of Privilege Authority by choosing the option: “Help-> About” available within the menu of the Privilege Authority Console.
• How is the Community edition of Privilege Authority supported?
  • Problems can be posted to the technical support forum on the Privilege Authority Community website. Here, members offer advice and suggestions for resolving problems. Privilege Authority Community edition does not include technical support from ScriptLogic.
• Does Privilege Authority support virtual desktops like those managed by Quest vWorkspace or Citrix Xen Desktop?
  • Yes. Privilege Authority supports physical and virtual Windows desktops.
• Can I define privilege elevation policies for Windows platform functionality? For instance, can I define a privilege that permits changes to network settings in the Device Manager?
  • Yes. Privilege Authority allows you to define privilege elevation policies that will allow non-admin users to change network settings and work within the Device Manager. Please refer to the Rules Exchange on the Privilege Authority’s community website to see similar rules. You can import any of these rules into your console and use them in your environment.
• Does the client need to be updated regularly?
  • Although limited, fixes and scheduled updates are periodically made. The client agent can be updated through Group Policy or any software deployment solution such as Desktop Authority.
• Can Privilege Authority elevate software privileges based on hash, path, publisher and wildcards?
  • Yes. Please refer to product features list for details.
• Do client machines have to be connected to the network to enforce the privilege policies?
  • No. Client machines do not have to be connected to a network to enforce the deployed privilege policies, but they have to be connected to the corporate network to recieve privilege policies through Group Policy. Once a client machine receives a rule, it does not have to stay on the network to enforce the policy.