ASP.NET Impersonation and Principals

Every now and then I write a simple app to remind myself of what the principals are for the various impersonate config options. Maybe in the future I'll remember to look here.

Assumptions:

• VRoot requires authentication (anonymous disabled)
• VRoot's App Pool identity using NETWORK SERVICE
• "IEUser" is the end user
• "ImpersonatedUser" is the user config'd in the identity element

Scenario	Page User	Thread CurrentPrincipal	WindowsIdentity
impersonate=false	IEUser	IEUser	NETWORK SERVICE
impersonate=true; userName not set	IEUser	IEUser	IEUser
impersonate=true; userName set	IEUser	IEUser	ImpersonatedUser

So, the identity of System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity is the only one that changes. Page.User should typically be used for IsInRole checks.