Windows installer appears to write a temp file to c:\metasploit-framework.zip without admin escalation

[busterb]

See rapid7/metasploit-framework#11560 (comment) , since the installer was changed to use the fastzip method, it fails when executed as a regular user, even if UAC asks for escalation ahead of time. This appears to be because the temp file that gets extracted is placed in c:\ which the installer does not have privileges for unless you run the MSI from an administrator prompt in the first place.

I wonder if the .zip file could be placed in a standard %TEMP location instead.

[CORS1ER]

Could it be possible that fastzip requires a buffer when generating a file output? (see https://github.com/sasq64/fastzip/blob/master/src/fastzip.cpp) the requirement could be larger than the previous method. I had low free space at the time, approx 5GB. Another user mentioned the same thing...

I have had hit and miss with executing from elevated PS or similar.

I presume the code would handle the exception by outputting to another partition/drive with the appropriate free space. I say this because my installation was output to D:\ despite C:\ being selected, similar to another user

Then, the bug in the fixzip code does not allow the modification of the %PATH env var (speculation). This needed to be manually updated after copying the source from D:\ to C:\

[busterb]

That could be it, it hadn't occurred to me to try it with lower disk space available as well.

[buffcode]

I have 72 GB available and still reveice the same error as rapid7/metasploit-framework#11560 (comment). Patching registry did not help, starting msiexec with /a immediately fails with error 2203