Whitelisting IP using appcmd.exe in powershell? - powershell

Question

I am running this script to whitelist IP using appcmd.exe.
import-module WebAdministration
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
$Form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$Form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(600,400)
$type="Allow"
function SaveConfig
{
if($Dropdownbox.text -eq "allow"){
$allowed = "true"
}
else{
$allowed = "false"
}
$outputbox.text = "IP " + $ip.text + " is Whitelisted for the URL " + $url.text + " with subnet mask as " + $mask.text + ". " + "User wants to " + $Dropdownbox.text + " this."
<# $url = "capitaliq/ciqdotnet/clientadmin/clientmgr.html"
$ip = "192.168.1.1" #>
$url.text
Set-Location "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv"; .\appcmd.exe set config "$url.text" -section:system.webServer/security/ipSecurity /+"[ipAddress='$ip.text',allowed='True',subnetMask='$mask.text']" /commit:apphost
$ip.text
$url.text = ""
$ip.text = ""
$dropdownbox.text = ""
}
function close{
$Form.close()
}
$url_label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$url_label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,20)
$url_label.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,20)
$url_label.Text = "Please enter the URL"
$Form.Controls.Add($url_label)
$url = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$url.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,50)
$url.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(260,60)
$Form.Controls.Add($url)
$ip_label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$ip_label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,110)
$ip_label.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,20)
$ip_label.Text = "Please enter the IP address"
$Form.Controls.Add($ip_label)
$ip = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$ip.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,140)
$ip.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(260,60)
$Form.Controls.Add($ip)
$DropDownBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$DropDownBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,80)
$DropDownBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(180,20)
$DropDownBox.DropDownHeight = 400
$Form.Controls.Add($DropDownBox)
$wksList=#("Allow","Deny")
foreach ($wks in $wksList)
{
$DropDownBox.Items.Add($wks)
}
$mask_label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$mask_label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,170)
$mask_label.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,20)
$mask_label.Text = "Please enter the Subnet Mask"
$Form.Controls.Add($mask_label)
$mask = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$mask.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,200)
$mask.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(260,60)
$mask.Text="255.255.255.0"
$Form.Controls.Add($mask)
$Button = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$Button.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(40,230)
$Button.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(110,50)
$Button.Text = "Save"
$Button.Add_Click({SaveConfig})
$Form.Controls.Add($Button)
$Button = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$Button.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(170,230)
$Button.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(110,50)
$Button.Text = "Close"
$Button.Add_Click({Close})
$Form.Controls.Add($Button)
$outputBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$outputBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(350,50)
$outputBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(200,200)
$outputBox.MultiLine = $True
$outputBox.ReadOnly= $True
$Form.Controls.Add($outputBox)
$Form.Add_Shown({$Form.Activate()})
[void] $Form.ShowDialog()
For some reason, this line of the code is not getting executed:
Set-Location "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv"; .\appcmd.exe set config "$url.text" -section:system.webServer/security/ipSecurity /+" [ipAddress='$ip.text',allowed='True',subnetMask='$mask.text']" /commit:apphost
attached is the image which shows that script is only setting location to desired and nothing else. $url.text and $ip.text before and after this line is not getting executed as well.

Answer 1

It most certainly executes appcmd.exe, you just don't see the output from the Click event since it's running in its own scope.
Your appcmd.exe most likely fails because you attempt to expand $ip.text inside a double-quoted string. The parser will convert the entire $ip object to a string and concatenate the literal string ".text", resulting in the following appcmd.exe argument:
/+" [ipAddress='System.Windows.Forms.TextBox, Text: .text',allowed='True',subnetMask='System.Windows.Forms.TextBox, Text: .text']"
Enclose $ip.Text and $mask.Text in a subexpression ($()) instead:
.\appcmd.exe set config "$($url.Text)" -section:system.webServer/security/ipSecurity /+" [ipAddress='$($ip.Text)',allowed='True',subnetMask='$($mask.Text)']" /commit:apphost