ASP.NET process identity does not have read permissions to the global assembly cache

6 Jan 2006 6:24 AM

Michael Neumann

I'm trying to set up a test environment for an ASP.NET site on a Windows XP
Pro box. I installed IIS5.1 and then .Net V2.

I put up a web site that contains just a simple Default.aspx "hello world"
page. When I try to connect, I get the "Server Unavailable" page. Plain HTML
pages are served with no problems.

Looking at the Event Viewer Application section I see two error entries:

aspnet_wp.exe (PID: 1676) stopped unexpectedly.

Failed to execute the request because the ASP.NET process identity does
not have read permissions to the global assembly cache. Error:
0x80070005 Access is denied.

I have checked the permissions, the ASPNET account has read on C:\, and Read
& Execute on C:\Windows with "inherit below." I turned off the GAC "Cache
Viewer" shell extension and checked the security on the folders in the GAC,
the permissions were inheriting correctly. I added "Write" to the GAC
folders manually.

None of this made any difference. I tried adding ASPNET to the
Administrators group and restarting IIS, still the same error. I've
reinstalled .Net a couple of times with no change.

I'm having trouble figuring out what the error really means. The process
list contains aspnet_wp running under the ASPNET account even though it
"stopped unexpectedly."

In an attempt to run the worker process under System, I tried modifying the
machine.config processModel element userName/password attributes in the
CONFIG folder and restarting IIS. This didn't make any difference either,
and the aspnet_wp process still shows as running under ASPNET. I'm new to
ASP.NET so I'm not sure if that's normal.

I've been able to get ASP.NET working on a couple of similar machines with
no problems, but I'm not sure what to do in this case. I don't want to
flatten the machine unless I have to.

Anyone out there familiar with this error or know any ways to solve it?

Thanks,

Mike N.

6 Jan 2006 1:48 PM

Yuan Ren[MSFT]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to MSDN newsgroup!

Based on my experience, the current problem was caused by the ASPNET
account not having the correct permissions on the system. I suggest you
perform below steps:

1 Using aspnet_regiis -u;
2 Delete the ASPNET account;
3 Using aspnet_regiis -i;

If the problem still occurs, please change the <processModel> tag to have
the userName run as SYSTEM. If the application works fine after
modification, I recommend you grant the ASPNET account's permissions listed
in the following article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/ht
ml/SecNetHT01.asp

Then, please changing userName back in <processModel> tag and check whether
the problem still occurs.

I hope the above information helps, if you have any questions or concerns,
please do not hesitate to let me know. I am standing by to help you.

Regards,

Yuan Ren [MSFT]
Microsoft Online Support