Legacy Win32 Ownership Tool

A low-level utility to force-change file ownership using direct Windows API calls.

📖 About

This project is a technical demonstration of interacting with the Windows Security Subsystem using Visual Basic 6.0. It solves a specific administrative limitation: while the native takeown command only allows a user to take ownership for themselves, this tool enables an administrator to assign ownership to any arbitrary user or group by manually elevating process privileges.

✨ Key Features

• Privilege Escalation: Programmatically enables SeRestorePrivilege to allow ownership assignment.
• Direct API Integration: Uses advapi32.dll to manipulate Security Identifiers (SIDs) and Security Descriptors.
• Zero Dependencies: A standalone executable that does not require the .NET runtime.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: Visual Basic 6.0
• APIs: Win32 API (Advapi32, Kernel32)
• Platform: Windows XP / Windows Server 2003 Legacy Enviornment

🚀 Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a local copy of the project up and running.

Prerequisites

• Visual Basic 6.0 IDE (to compile from source).
• Administrative privileges (required to adjust token privileges).

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/abanta1/own.git

2. Navigate to the project directory

   cd own

3. Open Own.vbp in the VB6 IDE.

4. Go to File > Make Own.exe

💡 Usage

\\ example usage
own.exe C:\Path\To\Folder,Username