Windows Sessions

Interactive

  • An interactive session is initiated by a user authenticating to a local or domain system by entering their credentials.

  • It can be initiated by logging in directly to the system, by requesting a secondary logon session using runas, or through an RDP connection

Non-Interactive

  • Non-interactive sessions are initiated by non-interactive accounts, they don't require credentials

  • There are 3 types of non-interactive accounts :

    • LocalSystem Account

    • Local Service Account

    • Network Service Account

  • These accounts are used by the OS to start/stop services during boot or to run scheduled tasks.

Account
Description

Local System Account

Also known as the NT AUTHORITY\\SYSTEM

account, this is the most powerful account in Windows systems. It is

used for a variety of OS-related tasks, such as starting Windows

services. This account is more powerful than accounts in the local

administrators group.

Local Service Account

Known as the NT AUTHORITY\\LocalService

account, this is a less privileged version of the SYSTEM account and

has similar privileges to a local user account. It is granted limited

functionality and can start some services.

Network Service Account

This is known as the NT AUTHORITY\\NetworkService

account and is similar to a standard domain user account. It has

similar privileges to the Local Service Account on the local machine. It

can establish authenticated sessions for certain network services.

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