Is there ms Windows tcp/udp/icmp traceroute implementation without admin rights required?

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I was trying to find traceroute program implementation for MS Windows that can be used by regular user (with no admin rights) and I could not find any. Those I could find (like tracetcp or nmap) require PCAP library and in order to install winpcap I think administration rights are required.

I don't know much about Windows internals but I'm wondering what is the 'magic' behind. If tracert shipped by MS with Win OS works fine for regular user (but it can use ICMP only) then is there any issue (technical limitation) with setting TTL for TCP/UDP packet by regular user and receiving respective response on the socket such as:

  • ICMP: TTL expired in transit
  • UDP: port unreachable
  • and probably few others (like TCP RST, ICMP host unreachable etc)?

So basically:

  • if there is no issue why there is no reasonable traceroute implementation for windows?
  • if there is a technical limitation for TCP/UDP then why original MS ICMP traceroute works fine for non admin users?

I know that the most popular linux traceroute with -T option (for using SYN probes) requires root priviliges too but I'm assuming it's just because it does not want to complete full TCP handshake and sending RST after receiving SYN-ACK may be restricted for root. Anyway as longs as TTL can be set by reqular user (for UDP it seems to work fine) then I would imagine TCP traceroute completing full TCP handshake should be possible to implement for non root linux users? And by the way ICMP traceroute also needs admin rights because of using RAW sockets but surprisingly for Windows it does not seem to be an issue.

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windowssocketstcpudptraceroute

1 Answers

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votes

Sadly, the simple answer to your question is "no, there is no native way to do that on a Windows box".

I am a bit unsure about your specific usecase, but one route to go is evaluate if Power Shell has more functionality to help you out. Jose Baretto from Microsoft wrote an article about Power Shell equivalents for common networking commands. You can find it here:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/josebda/2015/04/18/windows-powershell-equivalents-for-common-networking-commands-ipconfig-ping-nslookup/

Failing that, your only option is (as you mention yourself) 3rd party tools, and you'll be hard press to find one that doesn't require elevated privileges.