Combining Get-ACL results into 1 object - powershell

Question

Please excuse my beginner level powershell.
I want to be able to combine the results of different results of Get-ACL into one object that'll later be exported
At the very basic level all I want is to combine different results of different folders for code below:
$test = (get-acl $path).Access | select -ExpandProperty IdentityReference
This gives me a result of:
Value
-----
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
BUILTIN\Administrators
Etc
Etc
I want an object that will be like some thing like this (plus more columns, about 4-5 total):
Folder1 Folder2
----- -------
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
BUILTIN\Administrators BUILTIN\Administrators
Etc Etc
Etc Etc
I tried exploring building a custom object, but I couldn't find a way to list the objects values properly like my first results
$Custom = New-Object PSObject
$Custom | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name Folder1 -value $test.value
Gives me:
Folder1
-------
{NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, BUILTIN\Administrators, etc, etc ...}
How can I handle this to give me a result like the first object and then in turn add more to the custom object?
Thanks in advance,
Lou

Answer 1

Based on your description, I think what you need is simply a collection of objects, i.e., $aclObjectList
This script captures a collection where each object is the type of object returned by get-acl. I do this just so I can show you the path property of each object to demonstrate that each object is for one of the three folders involved
Then, the script loops through the array of get-acl objects and outputs the path and IdentityReference of each
If you want to export a single object, then export $aclObjectList
cls
#define and declare an array. A System.Collections.ArrayList can be big and is fast
$aclObjectList = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
$aclObjectList.clear()
$path = "C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 1"
$aclObject = (get-acl $path)
$aclObjectList.Add($aclObject) | Out-Null
$path = "C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 2"
$aclObject = (get-acl $path)
$aclObjectList.Add($aclObject) | Out-Null
$path = "C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 3"
$aclObject = (get-acl $path)
$aclObjectList.Add($aclObject) | Out-Null
foreach ($aclObject in $aclObjectList)
{
write-host ($aclObject.Path)
$aclAccessObject = $aclObject.Access | select -ExpandProperty IdentityReference
foreach ($aclAccessItem in $aclAccessObject)
{
write-host ("item=" + $aclAccessItem.Value)
}
write-host
}
Output is:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 1
item=BUILTIN\Administrators
item=NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
item=BUILTIN\Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 2
item=BUILTIN\Administrators
item=NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
item=BUILTIN\Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 3
item=BUILTIN\Administrators
item=NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
item=BUILTIN\Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
item=NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users
By the way, the datatype of the object returned by get-acl is a System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity. You can see this by, e.g., piping one of the $aclObject variables to Get-Member:
$aclObject | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Access CodeProperty System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCollection Access{get=GetAccess;}
CentralAccessPolicyId CodeProperty System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier CentralAccessPolicyId{get=GetCentralAccessPolicyId;}
CentralAccessPolicyName CodeProperty System.String CentralAccessPolicyName{get=GetCentralAccessPolicyName;}
Group CodeProperty System.String Group{get=GetGroup;}
Owner CodeProperty System.String Owner{get=GetOwner;}
Path CodeProperty System.String Path{get=GetPath;}
Sddl CodeProperty System.String Sddl{get=GetSddl;}
AccessRuleFactory Method System.Security.AccessControl.AccessRule AccessRuleFactory(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identityReference, int accessMask, bool isInherited...
AddAccessRule Method void AddAccessRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
AddAuditRule Method void AddAuditRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAuditRule rule)
AuditRuleFactory Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuditRule AuditRuleFactory(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identityReference, int accessMask, bool isInherited, ...
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetAccessRules Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCollection GetAccessRules(bool includeExplicit, bool includeInherited, type targetType)
GetAuditRules Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCollection GetAuditRules(bool includeExplicit, bool includeInherited, type targetType)
GetGroup Method System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference GetGroup(type targetType)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetOwner Method System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference GetOwner(type targetType)
GetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm Method byte[] GetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm()
GetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm Method string GetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm(System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlSections includeSections)
GetType Method type GetType()
ModifyAccessRule Method bool ModifyAccessRule(System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlModification modification, System.Security.AccessControl.AccessRule rule, [ref] bool modi...
ModifyAuditRule Method bool ModifyAuditRule(System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlModification modification, System.Security.AccessControl.AuditRule rule, [ref] bool modified)
PurgeAccessRules Method void PurgeAccessRules(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identity)
PurgeAuditRules Method void PurgeAuditRules(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identity)
RemoveAccessRule Method bool RemoveAccessRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
RemoveAccessRuleAll Method void RemoveAccessRuleAll(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
RemoveAccessRuleSpecific Method void RemoveAccessRuleSpecific(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
RemoveAuditRule Method bool RemoveAuditRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAuditRule rule)
RemoveAuditRuleAll Method void RemoveAuditRuleAll(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAuditRule rule)
RemoveAuditRuleSpecific Method void RemoveAuditRuleSpecific(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAuditRule rule)
ResetAccessRule Method void ResetAccessRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
SetAccessRule Method void SetAccessRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule rule)
SetAccessRuleProtection Method void SetAccessRuleProtection(bool isProtected, bool preserveInheritance)
SetAuditRule Method void SetAuditRule(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAuditRule rule)
SetAuditRuleProtection Method void SetAuditRuleProtection(bool isProtected, bool preserveInheritance)
SetGroup Method void SetGroup(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identity)
SetOwner Method void SetOwner(System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference identity)
SetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm Method void SetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm(byte[] binaryForm), void SetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm(byte[] binaryForm, System.Security.AccessControl.AccessContr...
SetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm Method void SetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm(string sddlForm), void SetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm(string sddlForm, System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlSectio...
ToString Method string ToString()
PSChildName NoteProperty string PSChildName=Folder 1
PSDrive NoteProperty PSDriveInfo PSDrive=C
PSParentPath NoteProperty string PSParentPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Temp\topFolder
PSPath NoteProperty string PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Temp\topFolder\Folder 1
PSProvider NoteProperty ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
AccessRightType Property type AccessRightType {get;}
AccessRuleType Property type AccessRuleType {get;}
AreAccessRulesCanonical Property bool AreAccessRulesCanonical {get;}
AreAccessRulesProtected Property bool AreAccessRulesProtected {get;}
AreAuditRulesCanonical Property bool AreAuditRulesCanonical {get;}
AreAuditRulesProtected Property bool AreAuditRulesProtected {get;}
AuditRuleType Property type AuditRuleType {get;}
AccessToString ScriptProperty System.Object AccessToString {get=$toString = "";...
AuditToString ScriptProperty System.Object AuditToString {get=$toString = "";...