Basic authentication is a method where the client sends the username and password encoded in Base64 as part of the request header. It’s important to note that while easy to implement, basic authentication is not secure by itself and should always be used over HTTPS to protect the credentials.

PowerShell’s Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet makes it straightforward to perform REST API requests. To use basic authentication, you’ll need to include an authorization header with your request. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

First, you need to encode your username and password in Base64. This can be done easily in PowerShell:

# Define your username and password
$username = "your_username"
$password = "your_password"

# Combine username and password
$pair = "$username:$password"

# Encode the combined string in Base64
$encodedCredentials = [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair))

# Create the authorization header
$headers = @{
    Authorization = "Basic $encodedCredentials"
}

With the credentials encoded and the authorization header set, you can now use Invoke-RestMethod to make the authenticated request. Here’s an example:

# Define the API endpoint URL
$url = "https://api.example.com/data"

# Make the request with the authorization header
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers $headers -Method Get

# Output the response
$response

Putting it all together, here is the complete example code:

# Step 1: Encode credentials
$username = "your_username"
$password = "your_password"
$pair = "$username:$password"
$encodedCredentials = [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair))
$headers = @{
    Authorization = "Basic $encodedCredentials"
}

# Step 2: Make the REST API request
$url = "https://api.example.com/data"
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers $headers -Method Get

# Output the response
$response

Benefits

• Ease of Use: Basic authentication is simple to set up and use, making it suitable for quick tests and simple integrations.
• Compatibility: It is widely supported across different platforms and programming languages.

Best Practices

• Use HTTPS: Always use HTTPS to encrypt the credentials and protect them from being intercepted.
• Avoid Hardcoding Credentials: Store credentials securely and avoid hardcoding them in scripts. Use secure methods like environment variables or secure credential stores.
• Rotate Credentials Regularly: Regularly update and rotate credentials to minimize security risks.

Using Invoke-RestMethod with basic authentication in PowerShell is a straightforward process that involves encoding your credentials and setting the appropriate headers. While convenient, always ensure you are following best practices to keep your credentials secure. Happy scripting!

By following this guide, you can easily integrate basic authentication into your PowerShell scripts and interact with REST APIs securely and efficiently.

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Step 1: Load the Web.config File

Firstly, you will need to load the Web.config file into PowerShell. You can accomplish this using the XmlDocument class.

[xml]$webConfig = Get-Content 'C:\path\to\web.config'

Step 2: Navigate to the appSettings Section

Once the Web.config file is loaded, navigate to the appSettings section to access the key-value pairs. Utilize the SelectNodes method to get all the add elements under the appSettings section.

$appSettings = $webConfig.Configuration.appSettings.add

Step 3: Create an Array to Store Key-Value Pairs

Before iterating through the appSettings, create an array to store the key-value pairs.

$keyValuePairs = @()

Step 4: Extract Key-Value Pairs

Iterate over each added element, create a customized PowerShell object for each key-value pair, and add each object to the array.

foreach ($setting in $appSettings) {
    $obj = New-Object PSObject
    $obj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Key" -Value $setting.Key
    $obj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Value" -Value $setting.Value
    $keyValuePairs += $obj
}

Step 5: Export Key-Value Pairs to a CSV File

Finally, use the Export-Csv cmdlet to write the key-value pairs to a CSV file.

$keyValuePairs | Export-Csv -Path 'C:\path\to\output.csv' -NoTypeInformation

Using PowerShell, you can extract appSettings from a Web.config file and export them to a CSV file with just a few lines of code. This approach provides a straightforward way to manage and analyze your application configurations. The script can be further customized or wrapped into a reusable function, making it a versatile tool for configuration management in .NET applications.

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Unlike the traditional command-line interface (CLI) like the Command Prompt, PowerShell’s flexibility comes from its ability to work with objects and data streams. By utilizing cmdlets, users can perform operations on data objects directly, making it easier to manipulate and manage information. Moreover, PowerShell offers the capability to create and execute scripts, enabling users to automate intricate processes and repetitive tasks efficiently.

However, before harnessing the full potential of PowerShell commands and scripts, one must navigate the concept of execution policies. These policies dictate the level of trust PowerShell places in various scripts and configurations. Understanding and managing these policies ensures a secure and controlled environment for executing scripts and commands. Whether it’s for automating routine tasks, managing systems at scale, or extracting insights from data, Windows PowerShell serves as an indispensable platform that empowers users to achieve efficient and streamlined operations within the Windows environment.

Here are the top 100 PowerShell commands to use and everyone should master:

The post Top 100 Essential PowerShell Commands: Your Must-Know Cheat Sheet appeared first on TEKSpace Blog.

Encoding to base64 string:

$encoded  = [Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("test"))write-output $encoded

Output:

dGVzdA==

Decoding base64 string:

$decoded = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($encoded))write-output $decoded

Output:

test

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To make life easier, I have checked my PowerShell code on Github. Feel free to download them and modify them to your needs.

In this tutorial, I will go over how to get resource groups from Azure REST API. One of the basic CRUD operations, I will perform.

Create a file called Get-AzureResourceGroup.ps1. Let’s create the required variables. Make sure to fill in the required variables from your Azure subscription.

Variables

# Variables
$TenantId = "" # Enter Tenant Id.
$ClientId = "" # Enter Client Id.
$ClientSecret = "" # Enter Client Secret.
$Resource = "https://management.core.windows.net/"
$SubscriptionId = "" # Enter Subscription Id.

Once you have updated the above required values. Let’s make a first REST call to get access token.

We will use the below URL to make a REST call to get access token.

POST https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenantId}/oauth2/token

Request Access Token

Add the following code to your PowerShell script after variables.

$RequestAccessTokenUri = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$TenantId/oauth2/token"

$body = "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$ClientId&client_secret=$ClientSecret&resource=$Resource"

$Token = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri $RequestAccessTokenUri -Body $body -ContentType 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'

Write-Host "Print Token" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Output $Token

After you have retrieved the access token, we will use that to authorize Azure REST methods.

Get Resource groups

To retrieve all resource groups in Azure. We will use the below URL.

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourcegroups?api-version=2017-05-10

Enter below code to Get-AzureResourceGroup.ps1.

# Get Azure Resource Groups
$ResourceGroupApiUri = "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$SubscriptionId/resourcegroups?api-version=2017-05-10"

$Headers = @{}

$Headers.Add("Authorization","$($Token.token_type) "+ " " + "$($Token.access_token)")

$ResourceGroups = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $ResourceGroupApiUri -Headers $Headers

Write-Host "Print Resource groups" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Output $ResourceGroups

The above line of code should return all the resource groups from an Azure subscription.

Below is the full script and output.

# Variables
$TenantId = "" # Enter Tenant Id.
$ClientId = "" # Enter Client Id.
$ClientSecret = "" # Enter Client Secret.
$Resource = "https://management.core.windows.net/"
$SubscriptionId = "" # Enter Subscription Id.

$RequestAccessTokenUri = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$TenantId/oauth2/token"

$body = "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$ClientId&client_secret=$ClientSecret&resource=$Resource"

$Token = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri $RequestAccessTokenUri -Body $body -ContentType 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'

Write-Host "Print Token" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Output $Token

# Get Azure Resource Groups
$ResourceGroupApiUri = "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$SubscriptionId/resourcegroups?api-version=2017-05-10"

$Headers = @{}

$Headers.Add("Authorization","$($Token.token_type) "+ " " + "$($Token.access_token)")

$ResourceGroups = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $ResourceGroupApiUri -Headers $Headers

Write-Host "Print Resource groups" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Output $ResourceGroups

Output:

The post Access Azure REST API using PowerShell appeared first on TEKSpace Blog.

Download and install Windows SDK.

Once you have downloaded and installed Windows SDK. Go to SDK folder by executing the below command.

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x64

Generate Root CA

Now, we will generate a root certificate. We will use the root ca certificate to bind with client certificate later in this article.

makecert -sky exchange -r -n "CN=MyRootCert" -pe -a sha256 -len 2048 -ss Root

The above command will generate root ca and load it in Trusted Root Certificate -> Certificates folder.

Create client certificate

makecert.exe -n "CN=client.example.com" -pe -sky exchange -m 96 -ss My -in "MyRootCert" -is root -a sha256

The above command will create client certificate called client.example.com with MyRootCert binded together and load it in Personal -> Certificates folder under your user profile.

NOTE: If you have Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 OS. You can use native PowerShell cmdlets to generate self-signed certificates.

The post Generate Self-Signed certificate in Windows 7 appeared first on TEKSpace Blog.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to convert a certificate from .pfx to base64.

Open PowerShell as an administrator.

Now that we have a PowerShell console opened. Let’s first load the content into a variable.

$pfx_cert = get-content 'c:\certificate.pfx' -Encoding Byte

The above command will load the content with byte encoding. If you print $pfx_cert in the PowerShell console, you will see random numbers. In order to convert to base64 format, we will use system namespace from Windows system.

To convert a certificate in base64, execute the below command.

$base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($pfx_cert)

The above command will save it in $base64 variable, and now you can use this variable or output it to a file depending on your scenario.

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