![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() > creds Get-Credential Enter your credentials. It has to be noted none of the illustrated methods is bullet proof but, once again, it is better than storing sensitive information in clear text.Īmong the methods illustrated I find last one easier to implement as encrypted passwords can be centrally stored on a file and sourced from multiple scripts using the correct one for the application or service that script needs to connect to.Īll the functions used in the post are available through my IT-ToolBox module. The GetNetworkCredential() method returns a password property in a clear string format. Notice below that the password shows as, which indicates the password encrypt worked well. The -Credentials parameter opens a dialog window. Now that you know the secret’s name run the command below to retrieve the secret’s value. New-PSDrive -Name K -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \\server\share -Credential 'Administrator'. After you run the command, PowerShell will prompt you to enter a password. The trick here is to understand that a credential object (a username and password) is one secret. User: username1 Password for user username1: > creds.GetNetworkCredential (). The PSCredential object is one object that contains two pieces of information. In the article we have seen different approaches to store passwords in PowerShell scripts while not saving them in clear text. The following command maps a network share using the Administrator account. The GetNetworkCredential () method returns a password property in a clear string format. # Define Credentials $userName = 'admin' $securePwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String ( New-StringDecryption -EncryptedString 'kvKHaoJytKOhWVSLRwpaAb4jBDz0i/s4yUdlhFKpNi0=' ) -AsPlainText -Force # Create the credential object $credentialObject = New-Object -TypeName -ArgumentList $userName, $securePwd # Code here Closing Notes This is what I usually use in my automation scripts to avoid having too many files lying around and it implies storing the password directly in the script code, yes that’s not a typo, as it is encrypted.įirst of all encrypt the string with the following command after importing the New-StringEncryption function Note: If you are curious about the last remark I suggest reading more about Data Protection API or for something more technical you can refer to this article Use an Encrypted String in Scriptįull Disclosure: Before I describe this method let me clarify I am not the original author of the code used to do the encryption/decryption part, I simply downloaded it, refined a bit and adapted to my needs. Additionally, as credentials are encrypted using DAPI, only the user who created the encrypted credentials on the original machines will be able to access/decrypt them. Last point is specifically important as it can become impractical if the same script needs to run on multiple machines. If we need to run the same script on multiple machines we will need to create multiple Secure.txt files one for each machine on which the script will run.A malicious user can still run the script and authenticate as the user admin if he gets physical access to the machine.There are couple of points to keep in mind when using this approach # Define Credentials $userName = 'admin' $passwordText = Get-Content 'C:\SomeDir\Secure.txt' # Convert to secure string $securePwd = $pwdTxt | ConvertTo-SecureString # Create credential object $credObject = New-Object -ArgumentList $userName, $securePwd As you can see here, although you set a plain text password, Get-Secret returns the secret as a secure string. Taking this a step further we can save the secure string to a file that is then sourced in our script, here’s an example: Inspecting content of the $secureString variable after converting it with the ConvertFrom-SecureString we will see PowerShell create long string of random characters similar to this 1204890d04c9ddf0115d1….d3d491bb6d740864117a090d11, shortened for convenience, which is what internally PowerShell uses. Store Encrypted password in an external fileĪs seen in the previous example when creating a PSCredential object we need to specify a SecureString object as argument created with the ConvertTo-SecureString cmdlet. It is pretty obvious why this should never be used in production, anybody who has access to our code would be able to easily read username password which are conveniently written in the code. # Define Credentials $userName = 'admin' $userPassword = 'mySuperSecurePassword' # Crete credential Object $secureString = $userPassword | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force $credentialObejct = New-Object -ArgumentList $userName, $secureString ![]()
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