Powershell Security at Enterprise Customers

TL;DR; (“too long; didn’t read”)

There are some people who don´t have the time to read the whole text – if you are familiar with the topic the text in bold includes the most important points and is just for you.

The most important points to enforce Powershell Security is to use the newest Versions (OS and Powershell), use whitelisting and enforcing the usage of the ConstrainedLanguageMode and establish a good rights structure with frequent centralized logging and validate all the new features coming with the new Windows 10 Versions. And now in more detail:

Continue reading

PSConfAsia 2016 SessionMaterial

psconfasia16.jpg

Hi together,

i have been the last days in Singapore at the PSConfAsia 2016 and had 3 Sessions:

  • Powershell GUI with XAML
  • PS Centralised Repo Server
  • Setting up JEA effectively

It has been a great event with great speakers. Here i attached my material of my 3 slots for the interested ones 😉  here

Video material is going to follow.

Best regards,

David

 

 

LogFileParser 0.2 – Good to know!

1

Hi there,

as i described in my previous post here, i created a LogFileParser and did some work on it.

Download: https://github.com/ddneves/LogFileParser


First of all i want to show you some of my findings in this project, which i did not all foresee:

Findings:

  • following first line is much faster than second one (even more for big files):
$t = (Get-Content -Path $Path -ReadCount 1000).Split([Environment]::NewLine)
$t = Get-Content -Path $Path
  • Performance for the parsing loop
    StreamReader with While <<<< Foreach() << Foreach-Object < piped Functions (fastest by 20% vs. Foreach-Object)
  • Parallelizing with e.g. Invoke-Parallel did not work out till now
    • it was not as fast as i expected  (10-30%) and brought some memory problems with larger or multiple files
  • Filtering Performance
    • Where-Object {}  << .Where{} (fastest) Take look here
  • Classes in Powershell are fun!
  • Overriding ToString() in some classes makes sense and creates better overviews
    • ToString() is called, when you list the class up – for Example:
      Listing up a list of ParsedLogFile would show { ParsedLogFile, ParsedLogFile}
      To give the user an better overview you override ToString in ParsedLogFile:
    #Overriding ToString to show the LogFilenames in the overview
    [string] ToString()
    {
        return ($this.LogFilePath).ToString()
    }

and now you see a list of the filepaths.

  • Generic Lists with classes work!
     $this.ParsedLogFiles = New-Object -TypeName System.Collections.Generic.List``1[ParsedLogFile]
    
  • Export-CliXML for self made nested classes works.
    • But be careful – the object you get after importing it again is a deserialized object, which can not be casted to its previous class. But you can work easily with it by not using any datatype.
      2.JPG

 


New stuff:

Continue reading

LogFileParser – Classes and Enums

Hi together,

i created a LogFileParser (continuation from here), which can handle till now 4 different LogFileTypes:
SCCM-Logs
DISM
CBS
Upgrade-Logs

It´s written for Powershell v5, because it makes use of classes and i wanted to show you, how you can work with enums and classes.

Here is how you can make use of it: (can be found in Examples.ps1)

1.JPG

3.JPG

4.JPG

1.JPG

Download: https://github.com/ddneves/LogFileParser

Its code is written with Powershell classes which can be easily extended with additional helper functions or new LogFileTypes.

I integrated also a helper function to retrieve a range of cells before and after defined cell rownumbers. I used it to gather all rows, which contain “*error*” and all the 20(x) rows before and after for a whole file.

#requires -Version 5

<#	
        .NOTES
        ===========================================================================
        Created on:   	07.08.2016
        Created by:   	David das Neves
        Version:        0.1
        Project:        LogAnalyzer
        Filename:       LogFileParser.ps1
        ===========================================================================
        .DESCRIPTION
        Parses Logfiles into the class ParsedLogFile, which is integrated in the class LogFileParser
#> 


## Enumeration of the LogFileTypes
enum LogFileTypes { 
    SCCM
    CBS   
    Upgrade
    DISM
}
   
## Class of the LogParser which can open n logfiles
class LogFileParser
{
    #region Props

    # Generic List of all parsed LogFiles of Type "ParsedLogfile" (Class)
    [System.Collections.Generic.List``1[ParsedLogFile]] $ParsedLogFiles

    # FilePath
    [String] $LogFilePath
    
    #endregion

    #region Funcs

    # Constructor
    LogFileParser($LogFilePath)
    {            
        # Constructor Code
        if (Test-Path $LogFilePath)
        {       
            $allLogFiles = Get-ChildItem $LogFilePath -Filter *.log -Recurse
            $this.ParsedLogFiles = New-Object -TypeName System.Collections.Generic.List``1[ParsedLogFile]
            $this.LogFilePath = $LogFilePath
            foreach ($file in $allLogFiles)
            {                
                $fileType = Get-LogFileType $file.Name  
                $this.ParsedLogFiles.Add([ParsedLogFile]::new($file.FullName, $fileType))   
            }            
        }
        else
        {
            Write-Error -Message 'Path was not reachable. Please verify your Path.'
        }    
    }
    #endregion
}

class ParsedLogFile
{
    #region Props

    #Hidden variable for the keys in the logfile.
    hidden [string[]] $ColumnNames

    # FilePath of the parsed log.
    [string] $LogFilePath
   
    #The parsed logging data.
    $ParsedLogData

    #LogFileType for this file
    [LogFileTypes] $LogFileType

    #endregion

    #region Funcs

    ## standard constructor
    ## LogFileType SCCM is set
    ParsedLogFile($LogFilePath)
    {        
        $this.LogFileType = [LogFileTypes]::SCCM
        $this.LogFilePath = $LogFilePath
        $this.LogFileType = $this.LogFileType
        $this.Init()
    }

    ## Constructr with LogFileType
    ParsedLogFile($LogFilePath, $LogFileType)
    {     
        $this.LogFilePath = $LogFilePath
        $this.LogFileType = [LogFileTypes]$LogFileType
        $this.Init()
    }

    ## Initialization of class and log
    hidden Init()
    {        
        if (Test-Path -Path $this.LogFilePath)
        {            
            # Constructor Code
            $this.LogFilePath = $this.LogFilePath
            Write-Host -Object "Parsing LogFile $($this.LogFilePath) with LogfileType $($this.LogFileType)."
            $actualParsedLog = Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path $this.LogFilePath -LogFileType $this.LogFileType
            Write-Host -Object 'Parsing done.'
            $this.ParsedLogData = $actualParsedLog.Log
            $this.ColumnNames = $actualParsedLog.Keys
        }
        else
        {
            Write-Error -Message "Path was not reachable. Please verify your Path: $($this.LogFilePath)."
        }   
    }

    # Returns the column Keys
    [string[]] GetColumnNames()
    {
        return $this.ColumnNames
    }

    # Returns lines with errors
    [int[]] GetLinesWithErrors()
    {
        $LinesWithErrors = ($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
            $_.Entry -like '*error*'
        }
        return $LinesWithErrors
    }

    # Returns lines with errors
    [int[]] GetLinesWithErrorsHeuristic()
    {
        $LinesWithErrors = (($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
                $_.Entry -like '*error*'
        }).RowNum
        $RowList = Get-RowNumbersInRange $LinesWithErrors
        $ShowingRows = ($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
            $_.RowNum -in $RowList
        }
        return $LinesWithErrors
    }

    # Returns lines with errors
    # Overload with Range
    [int[]] GetLinesWithErrorsHeuristic([int]$Range)
    {
        $LinesWithErrors = (($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
                $_.Entry -like '*error*'
        }).RowNum
        $RowList = Get-RowNumbersInRange $LinesWithErrors -Range $Range
        $ShowingRows = ($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
            $_.RowNum -in $RowList
        }
        return $LinesWithErrors
    }
    
    # Returns lines with errors
    [int[]] GetRowNumbersWithErrors()
    {
        $LinesWithErrors = (($this.ParsedLogData).Where{
                $_.Entry -like '*error*'
        }).RowNum
        return $LinesWithErrors  
    }
    #endregion
}



function Get-RowNumbersInRange
{
    <#
            .Synopsis
            Get-RowNumbersInRange
            .DESCRIPTION
            Heuristic method, which returns a list of all transmitted rowlines addiing a number of lines n ($Range) before and after.
            .EXAMPLE
            $rowsWithErrors = 21,345,456
            $allRowsToSHow = Get-RowNumbersInRange -RowNumbers $rowsWithErrors -Range 10 
    #>
    [CmdletBinding()]    
    Param
    (
        #Previous calculated set of rowNumbers.
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true,
                ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true,
        Position = 0)]
        $RowNumbers,

        [Parameter(Mandatory = $false,                   
        Position = 1)]
        [int]$Range = 20
    )
    Begin
    { }
    Process
    {
        $allShowingRowNumbers = New-Object -TypeName System.Collections.Generic.List``1[Int]
        foreach ($rowNum in $RowNumbers)
        {
            $min = $rowNum - $Range
            $max = $rowNum + $Range

            for ($x = $min; $x -lt $max; $x += 1) 
            {
                $allShowingRowNumbers.Add($x)
            }
        }        
        $allShowingRowNumbers
    }
    End
    { }
}


function Get-LogFileType
{
    <#
            .Synopsis
            Get-LogFileType
            .DESCRIPTION
            Returns the type of the transmitted LogFile.
            .EXAMPLE       
            $LogFileType = Get-LogFileType -LogFileName 'dism.log'
    #>
    [CmdletBinding()]    
    Param
    (
        #Name of the logFile
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true,
                ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true,
        Position = 0)]
        $LogFileName
    )
    Begin
    { }
    Process
    {
        switch ($LogFileName)
        {
            #DISM
            {
                $_ -like 'dism*'
            }     
            {
                [LogFileTypes]::DISM 
                break
            }

            #Upgrade
            {
                $_ -like 'setupact*'
            } 
            {
                [LogFileTypes]::Upgrade
                break
            }
            {
                $_ -like 'setuperr*'
            } 
            {
                [LogFileTypes]::Upgrade
                break
            }

            #CBS
            {
                $_ -like 'cbs*'
            }      
            {
                [LogFileTypes]::CBS
                break
            }
                  
            #SCCM
            default                
            {
                [LogFileTypes]::SCCM
            }
        }
    }
    End
    { }
}

function Get-RegExParsedLogfile
{
    <#
            .SYNOPSIS
            Returns a ordered hashtable list for a log by using Regex.
            .DESCRIPTION
            The Regular Expression splits a single line of the log file into named keys.
            This is used for a whole log file and a ordered hashtable list is returned.
            .EXAMPLE
            $parsedLogFile = Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path 'c:\windows\CCM\ccmexec.log' -LogFileType SCCM | Out-GridView
            .EXAMPLE
            Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path 'c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log' -LogFileType CBS | Out-GridView
            .EXAMPLE
            cls 
            $parsedLogFile = Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path 'c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log' 
            $parsedLogFile.Log.Line | Where-Object { $_ -like '*error*' }
            The Logfile is written into the hastable with the integrated key "Line".
            You can filter these with where.
            .EXAMPLE
            $rx = '(?<Date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})\s+(?<Time>(\d{2}:)+\d{2}),\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s+(?<Component>\w+)\s+(?<Message>.*)$'
            $parsedLogFile = Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path 'c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log' -RegexString $rx
            $parsedLogFile.Keys    
            .EXAMPLE
            $rx='<!\[LOG\[(?<Entry>.*)]LOG]!><time="(?<Time>.*)\.\d{3}-\d{3}"\s+date="(?<Date>.*)"\s+component="(?<Component>.*)"\s+context="(?<Context>.*)"\s+type="(?<Type>.*)"\s+thread="(?<Thread>.*)"\s+file="(?<File>.*):(?<CodeLine>\d*)">' 
            $parsedLogFile = Get-RegExParsedLogfile -Path 'c:\windows\CCM\ccmexec.log' -RegexString $rx
    #>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param
    (
        #Contains the log file destination.
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
        [System.String]
        $Path = 'c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log',
        
        #Contains the RegEx with named keys
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $false, Position = 1)]
        [System.String]
        $RegexString = '(?<Line>.*)$',
        
        #ValidateSet of the differenct preconfigured LogFileTypes               
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $false, Position = 2)]
        [LogFileTypes]$LogFileType = 'SCCM',

        #Filter
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $false, Position = 3)]
        [System.String]
        $GatherOnlyLinesWhichContain = '' 
    )
    
    $t = (Get-Content -Path $Path -ReadCount 1000).Split([System.Environment]::NewLine)

    if ($GatherOnlyLineWhichContain)
    {
        $t = $t| Select-String $GatherOnlyLinesWhichContain
    }    

    [regex]$rx = $RegexString

    # for each LogFileType a different Regex-String is used to parse the log.
    switch ($LogFileType)
    {
        'SCCM'       
        { 
            $rx = '<!\[LOG\[(?<Entry>.*)]LOG]!><time="(?<Time>.*)\.\d{3}-\d{3}"\s+date="(?<Date>.*)"\s+component="(?<Component>.*)"\s+context="(?<Context>.*)"\s+type="(?<Type>.*)"\s+thread="(?<Thread>.*)"\s+file="(?<File>.*):(?<CodeLine>\d*)">' 
            break
        }
        'CBS'        
        { 
            $rx = '(?<Date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})\s+(?<Time>(\d{2}:)+\d{2}),\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s+(?<Component>\w+)\s+(?<Message>.*)$'
            break
        }
        'Upgrade'
        {
            $rx = '(?<Date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})\s+(?<Time>(\d{2}:)+\d{2}),\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s{1,17}(\[(?<ErrorCode>\w*)\])?(?<Component>\s\w+)?\s+(?<Message>.*)'
            break
        }
        'DISM'
        {            
            $rx = '(?<Date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})\s+(?<Time>(\d{2}:)+\d{2}),\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s{1,18}(?<Component>\w+)?\s+(?<Message>.*)'
            break
        }
        
        default      
        {
            Write-Error -Message 'Not Type has been set or found.'
        }
    }        
        
  
    [string[]]$names = 'RowNum'  
    $names += $rx.GetGroupNames() | Where-Object -FilterScript {
        $_ -match '\w{2}'
    } 
    
    [long]$rowNum = 0   
    $data = $t | ForEach-Object -Process  {
        $rx.Matches($_) | ForEach-Object -Process {
            $match = $_
            $names | ForEach-Object -Begin {
                $hash = [Ordered]@{}
               # $thisDate = $null
            } -Process {
                if ($_ -eq 'RowNum')
                {
                    $rowNum += 1
                    $hash.Add($_, $rowNum) 
                }
                elseif ($_ -eq 'Thread')
                {                    
                    $hash.Add($_, [int]($match.groups["$_"].Value)) 
                }
                else
                {
                    $hash.Add($_, $match.groups["$_"].Value)
                }                
            } -End {
                $thisDate=[datetime]($hash.Date + ' ' + $hash.Time)
                $hash.Add('DateTime', $thisDate)                
                [PSCustomObject]$hash
            }
        }
    }    
    $object = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
    $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Keys -Value $names
    $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Log -Value $data 
    $object    
}

 

I hope, you like it.

 

Best regards,

David

Who’s afraid of PowerShell security?

Hello together,

many people are afraid of using Powershell remoting, because they think it is very unsafe.

Just take a moment and read this:

The improvements in WMF 5.0 (or WMF 4.0 with KB3000850) make PowerShell the worst tool of choice for a hacker when you enable script block logging and system-wide transcription. Hackers will leave fingerprints everywhere, unlike popular CMD utilities. For this reason, PowerShell should be the only tool you allow for remote administration. These features allow you to answer the classic questions who, what, when, where, and how for activities on your servers.

Technet Link



PowerShell Remoting Security Considerations

New security documentation from the PowerShell team. This is a start, and it will continue to be updated. Give this link to your InfoSec people who need more information.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/setup/winrmsecurity

PowerShell ♥ the Blue Team

Whitepaper by Lee Holmes “Scripting Security and Protection Advances in Windows 10” (PowerShell 5).

Give this to your InfoSec people, your manager, and your grandmother. Then implement it.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/2015/06/09/powershell-the-blue-team/


Best regards,

David

PSConfEU – Interviews – Material

Hi all,

some time passed since my last update, but now i am arriving with a whole bunch of demo scripts for everyone.

I have been at the PSConfEU and had two speaking slots there:

  • PS-Repo Server
  • Deep Dive XAML-GUIs in PS

My good friend Sebstian Klenk, Technical Evangelist Microsoft, did two interviews in german with me and summed everything up in his blog.

There you can get also the material of my sessions and more – i recommend the demo Scripts of the GUI Session-  but keep in mind that not all of the examples were written by me but i personally did not want to keep them out.

Interview/Blog: PS-Repo-Server

Material – PS-Repo-Server

Interview/Blog: Deep Dive XAML-GUIs in PS

Material Deep Dive XAML-GUIs in PS

Greetings,

David

PS – CleanUp HDD

Hello together,

today i want to show you a simple but effective method to cleanup your HDD. This will also remove the installation data of previous installations and may prompt therefore for authorization. Run it with admin rights.

CleanUp.png

More information here

Set-Location 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\'

foreach ($item in $(Get-ChildItem).PSPath)
{
    if (-not (Get-ItemProperty -Path $item -Name 'StateFlags1234'))
    {
        New-ItemProperty -Path $item -Name 'StateFlags1234' -Value 2
    }
}

cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1234 

Greetings,

David

PS – RegEx and parsing log files – the nice way

Hello together,

today i want to show you a nice grab of the usage of Regular Expressions. Many people do not like Regex. Je – at the beginning these statements look like hieroglyphs but it will get better with the time.

First i will start with some trivial explanations how RegEx can be used in Powershell and will dive then deeper into more complex structures and lastly parsing log files giving us a nicely looking hash table with really nice features.

Continue reading

PS OpenFileDialog

Hello together,

here a simple smart function to show an open file dialog:

function Show-OpenFileDialog
{
    <#
            .SYNOPSIS
            Shows up an open file dialog.
            .EXAMPLE
            Show-OpenFileDialog
    #>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, Position=0)]
        [System.String]
        $Title = 'Windows PowerShell',
        
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, Position=1)]
        [Object]
        $InitialDirectory = "$Home\Documents",
        
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, Position=2)]
        [System.String]
        $Filter = 'PowerShell-files|*.ps1|Everything|*.*'
    )
    
    Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework
    
    $dialog = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog
    $dialog.Title = $Title
    $dialog.InitialDirectory = $InitialDirectory
    $dialog.Filter = $Filter
    if ($dialog.ShowDialog())
    {
        $dialog.FileName
    }
    else
    {
        Throw 'Nothing selected.'    
    }
}

Show-OpenFileDialog

Have fun with it!

Greetings,

David