Expect and Spawn with PowerShell - powershell

Is there any way to do expect and spawn with powershell.
I have to parse a CLI program with powershell which is asking for password is there any way to input this password via powershell.
In perl or python even in bash you can use expect/spawn
Is there any solution in powershell ?

One way to do this would be to create a text file with the encrypted password one time, then call this file as the password in as many scripts as necessary.
Create the password file once:
$pwd = Read-Host 'Enter password for encrypting:' -AsSecureString | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Out-File -Path 'C:\SpecialFiles\CLIPassword.txt'
Then you can use it whenever it's needed:
$pass = (Get-Content -Path 'C:\SpecialFiles\CLIPassword.txt' | ConvertTo-SecureString)
$creds = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList (<insert CLI UserName>, $pass)
Then when you need to supply the username and password to your script, you simply pipe
$creds | <command>
or if the command supports the -Credential parameter
<command> -Credential $creds
If your command needs the user name and password entered separately, you can do that by specifying the property name:
<command> -UserName $creds.UserName -Password $creds.Password

You can use Read-Host to prompt the user for input. See here for more information.
$pass = Read-Host 'What is your password?' -AsSecureString
$decodedpass = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pass))
I'm sure what you want to do with spawn, but you can execute other scripts or executables by just calling them
.\MyOtherScript.ps1

Related

Invoke New-LocalUser command with a variable as the password

I'd like to have a script that creates a local user based on choices from the user.
I currently do it by putting the command in a variable then I invoke it.
$pw = Read-Host "Enter password" -AsSecureString
$command = "New-LocalUser -Name $name -Password $pw $accountparam $accexpiredate $passwordparam $pwexpiredate $canchangepwparam"
iex $command
Everything is working fine except the password, the command fails with the following error :
Unable to convert the "System.Security.SecureString" value from the "System.String" type to the "System.Security.SecureString" type
If I remove the password parameter and let PowerShell automatically ask it then it works, but I'd like to manually ask it.
Can someone help me ?
Well I fixed it, here is the solution in case someone is asking himself the same question and finds this
$command = "New-LocalUser -Name $name -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString '$pw' -AsPlainText -Force) $accountparam $accexpiredate $passwordparam $pwexpiredate $canchangepwparam"

Add username and password to Powershell script

I'm trying to create a powershell script to allow my kids to reboot my Raspberry Pi from their Windows computer if need be. I've tested everything and have gotten it to work, but the only hitch is that it's prompting for a username and password. I realize the line that's doing it is:
New-SSHSession -ComputerName "myPi" -Credential (Get-Credential)
I've done some searching, but I can't seem to figure out if it's possible to replace the "(Get-Credential)" section to automatically enter the username/password.
And yes, I'm aware of the security risks. They could do much more damage to the Windows machine than they could ever do on the Pi, and the settings on the Pi are very easily restored, so no worries from my end.
Something like this should work:
$user = "someuser"
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "somepassword" -AsPlainText -Force
$creds = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $user,$pass
New-SSHSession -ComputerName "myPi" -Credential $creds
You could also call a file that has the password encrypted in it. Note this can only be decrypted by the account it was generated on on the computer it was generated on.
$pass = "Password"
$Username = "Username"
$outfile = "c:\filelocation.xml"
$secureStringPwd = $pass | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList ($Username,$secureStringPwd)
$credential | Export-CliXml -Path $OutFile
Addressing Bill.
Correct, hard coding the password in the script is bad practice. Below is how I would change the first portion.
The above came from a custom script that's purpose was to create many cred accounts off a input json is why I wrote it that way.
$outfile = "c:\filelocation.xml"
Get-Credential | export-clixml -path $OutFile
You then can call the file in your script like so but this has to be done on the same user and computer that the creds file was generated on.
$Creds = Import-Clixml -Path "c:\file.xml"
New-SSHSession -ComputerName "myPi" -Credential $creds
Good point Edited -argumentlist.
Another option could be to do a 1 time setup with get-credential then convert the password to plaintext using convertfrom-securestring and then in the file you can take your password plaintext secure string and so something similar to the other answers:
$user = "someuser"
$pass = "YOUR LONG PASSWORD GUID FROM ABOVE" | convertTO-securestring
$creds = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $user,$pass
New-SSHSession -ComputerName "myPi" -Credential $creds
This lets you do a one time setup, but avoids having multiple files or having your password appear in a readable way in the script.
If you go this way you need to do the setup FROM the account that will run the script ON the machine that will run the script, because it uses those for the encryption as far as I know.

Encrypting password or workaround

I am bit of a lazy guy, so I have created a script that opens many applications for me. Works fine as ISE opened with Administrator credentials, also opens apps with admin creds, however some of them need a different credentials.
Is it possible, to make powershell remember typed in password each time I log in and open it? (I know that variables are stored only till ps is opened)
Thing is - I cannot store a visible password in profile/text file or in a script, as this is a jump server used by many people. Is it somehow possible to type a password once, make PS encrypt it and each time I will open PS, it will decrypt it and use? or any workaround possible around this?
edit with code:
It's the only part I would like to change
$currentPW = "some password"
$credentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("domain\username",$CurrentPW)
start "c:\application.exe" -credential $credentials
It kinda works but it would require me, to input the password everytime I log in to device, so I could go for option like:
$currentPW = read-host "Provide your password"
$credentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("domain\username",$CurrentPW)
start "c:\application.exe" -credential $credentials
but this would require me to input the password each time I log in to system and open PS as it does not remember variables after restart.
So...is it even possible to make this work?^^
You can use ConvertTo-SecureString to encrypt the password using the users account key, then save this secure string to a file to load at a later time.
This assumes you are the only one with access to the logon account (not an account with shared credentials), as anyone who can logon as the account can decrypt the file.
$username = "domain\username"
$passwordFile = "C:\folder\EncryptedPassword.txt"
#if password file exists: populate $securePwd from file contents
If (Test-Path $passwordFile) {
$pwdTxt = Get-Content $passwordFile
$securePwd = $pwdTxt | ConvertTo-SecureString
}
#if no file: prompt for password, create file and populate $securePwd
Else {
$password = Read-Host "Provide your password"
$securePwd = $password | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$securePwd | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Set-Content $passwordFile
}
$credentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $username, $securePwd
Start-Process "c:\application.exe" -Credential $credentials
If you have PowerShell 3.0 or newer, you can also combine Get-Credential with Export-CliXml to export a PSCredential object as an XML file. Example:
Get-Credential | Export-CliXml "C:\XML Files\credential.xml"
You can then import the credentials using Import-CliXml. Example:
$credential = Import-CliXml "C:\Xml Files\credential.xml"
Note that the password is encrypted using DPAPI, so you can only import the credentials using Import-CliXml on the same computer using the same user account that was used to export the credentials using Export-CliXml.

How can I silently run a remote PowerShell command without having to hard code my password?

I am trying to run:
Invoke-Command -Computer $computer -ScriptBlock {...}
But I get the error "Access is denied" winrm error and I am hesitant to use the following:
Invoke-Command -Computer $computer -Credential $cred -ScriptBlock {...}
where $cred is:
$username = "John Doe"
$password = "ABCDEF"
$secstr = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.SecureString
$password.ToCharArray() | ForEach-Object {$secstr.AppendChar($_)}
$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -
argumentlist $username, $secstr
It has to be run remotely and it must be silent. So I can't have the PSCredential pop up window mid script.
Can someone please show me or point me to a document that will lead me to a possible solution?
Thank you in advance.
One thing that you can do is encrypt the password and save it to disk. Then you can read that file, and convert the encrypted password to a secure string and make a credential object from that. Mind you, this must be done with the account that will be used to run the script.
'$uper$secret1' | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Set-Content .\AccountPass.txt
That will save your password to disk in a text file. If you open the text file it will look something like:
01000000d08c9ddf0115d1118c7a00c04fc297eb01000000b584d55e9c47c942904dd30531d3ad070000000002000000000003660000c0000000100000003060266c3c4333a41e7f0e92176fb3d50000000004800000a000000010000000a2c8bbb2a3666c092004bb5e66fd440320000000636a413a6905789e0f3521cea3d8703405897cd5948da955192bcccd08990ffc1400000068c1
5f8ac088ef0972dfce7d5a20ff3bbcdac4cc
Now, the account that created the file will be the only one that can decrypt it, but that account can then run:
$Password = Get-Content .\AccountPass.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$Creds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("$env:UserDomain\$env:UserName",$Password)
Now you have a credential object, without having to save a password in plaintext. As mentioned, the only account that can decrypt the password in the text file is the one that generated the text file, and the text file will have to be updated whenever the password is changed.

How do I encrypt a password using command line arguments?

I need a way to encrypt a password using a command line argument while in the console without prompting via Get-Credential. Example:
.\Script.ps1 -User Blah -Password ********
I have tried several different methods, using the type securestring and trying to pass Read-Host into the parameter but everything so far continue to display clear text in the console.
Here is what I have tried.
param (
[string]$user,
[securestring]$password)
param (
[string]$user,
[string]$password = $(Read-Host -AsSecureString))
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Suppose your password is thePassword.
You cannot just do .\Script.ps1 -user "Blah" -password "thePassword" and expect the thePassword to become ***********.
Here are some of the things you can do.
First, make sure your parameter types are correct. The reason your second parameter set does work is that you made the type of $password a [String]. Instead, your parameter list should look like the following.
param(
[String]$user,
[SecureString]$password = $(Read-Host -AsSecureString)
)
Now, with this code, if you do the following, it will fail.
.\Script.ps1 -user "Blah" -password "thePassword"
This is because "thePassword" is [String] and not [SecureString].
If you want to actually be able to pass the password into the script, you can create the [SecureString] outside calling the script, or have a wrapper script that calls Script.ps1, or a few other ways. For example...
# Doing it Manually in two lines
$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString
.\Script.ps1 -user "Blah" -password $password
OR
# Doing it Manually in one line
.\Script.ps1 -user "Blah" -password $(Read-Host -AsSecureString)
OR
# Taking advantage of the Default Value for $password
.\Script.ps1 -user "Blah"
# Will automatically prompt for $password upon executing
OR
# Doing it in a Wrapper Script
# You can save the following in a separate script
# OR you can add it to Script.ps1 itself
$user = Read-Host "Enter Username"
$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString "Enter Password"
.\Script.ps1 -user $user -password $password
Thanks, from your comments I think I understand your issue better now.
You want to invoke a script from the command line and provide a masked password parameter, without waiting for it to prompt you.
Unfortunately, there is no way to do this.
Your second parameter block that uses Read-Host -AsSecureString will work as long as you don't supply -password at all. The script will then prompt you for the password and it will be masked.
But this is basically the same as using Get-Credential.