STOP Msg: 0xC000021a as Application Terminates

When starting a console application (a Windows NT Service can qualify as a console application) that starts another console application, an access violation occurs in CSRSS.EXE when the second application terminates.

This results in the following error message:

This problem is exposed by a console application (typically a service) which has the following behavior:

• They start new applications using LogonUser() followed by CreateProcessAsUser(). The allows a child process to be started with a different security context than the parent.
• The parent application has a console window, and the child application is started in a way as to share the same console window (i.e. when using CreateProcessAsUser, the dwCreationFlags did not specify the use of CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE).

A change in WINSRV.DLL for Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 4 prevents a process from inheriting the window station and desktop of its parent process, if the child process was started in a different logon context. CreateProcessAsUser is used to start new applications under a new logon context.

As a result of this change, the application started has NO window station or desktop defined because it is trying to use the Console of its parent which is not permitted.

A problem in WINSRV.DLL (used by CSRSS.EXE) assumed that a desktop would always be defined. This caused an Access Violation when the WINSRV.DLL attempted to access the desktop while cleaning up resources owned by the process, as the process terminated.

The problem in WINSRV.DLL has been corrected for the case where no desktop has been created.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):