Changing username when connecting to Ghidra server

[flux1on]

Currently, Ghidra seems to default to using your current account name when connecting to a Ghidra server instance even if you specify the -u option in the server.conf file.

[ghost]

That is the correct option. Be sure you order and number the config parameters:

wrapper.app.parameter.1=-a0
wrapper.app.parameter.2=-u
wrapper.app.parameter.3=${ghidra.repositories.dir}

[flux1on]

I was originally testing it without any authentication (no -a option). Does the -u option only work if you have some form of authentication?

[ghost]

No authentication avoids the prompting, so no way to enter a different name.

[flux1on]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

[wyattearp]

Should anyone else come across this, what's happening internally is that the Ghidra client is selecting the System.getProperty('user.name') from the JVM and using that as a default for authentication. You can see an example of this here:

ghidra/Ghidra/Framework/Utility/src/main/java/ghidra/util/SystemUtilities.java

Line 137 in 21893b1

userName = getCleanUserName(System.getProperty("user.name"));

If you're in need of a workaround (let's say you're authenticating across computer domains for some reason), you can manually modify the ./support/launch.properties to override this value as follows:

# ... 
# ...
# ... 

# Set default encoding to UTF8
VMARGS=-Dfile.encoding=UTF8

# Set locale (only en_US is supported)
VMARGS=-Duser.country=US
VMARGS=-Duser.language=en
VMARGS=-Duser.variant=

# add a new JVM defined argument to overwrite System.getProperty('user.name')
VMARGS=-Duser.name=wyattearp

Tested and functions on Ghidra 11.2.1 with basic authentication - your mileage might vary.