How to view the value of a Secure.string variable

Hello,

I am asking a user to enter their password for use in a script. I am saying
$password = Read-Host "Enter Password" - asSecureString

This now puts it into a SecureString variable. When I call the variable, it
just returns System.Security.SecureString. Does anyone know how to extract
the actual string from the variable?

Thanks,
Flea#
--
http://fleasharp.blogspot.com/

Try this

function GetSecurePass ($SecurePassword) {
$Ptr = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToCoTaskMemUnicode($SecurePassword)
$pwd = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringUni($Ptr)
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ZeroFreeCoTaskMemUnicode($Ptr)
$pwd
}

GetSecurePass $password

Brandon Shell
---------------
Blog: http://www.bsonposh.com/
PSH Scripts Project: www.codeplex.com/psobject

F> Hello,
F>
F> I am asking a user to enter their password for use in a script. I am
F> saying $password = Read-Host "Enter Password" - asSecureString
F>
F> This now puts it into a SecureString variable. When I call the
F> variable, it just returns System.Security.SecureString. Does anyone
F> know how to extract the actual string from the variable?
F>
F> Thanks,
F> Flea#

$password = Read-Host "Enter Password" -asSecureString

[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($password))

--
Kiron

You've missed the opening parenthesis


-----
Shay Levi
$cript Fanatic
http://scriptolog.blogspot.com

Last post had a typo:

[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($password))

--
Kiron

-----
Shay Levi
$cript Fanatic
http://scriptolog.blogspot.com

Thanks Shay.

--
Kiron

That worked perfectly, thanks Kiron.
--
http://fleasharp.blogspot.com/


"Kiron" wrote:

On Jan 29, 12:20*am, Brandon Shell [MVP] <a_bshell.m...@xxxxxx>
wrote: To keep in mind, $pwd is the built-in variable containing the path to
the current working directory, so if you use this variable name, it
overwrites the $pwd automatic variable.

-aleksandar
http://powershellers.blogspot.com

Duh... I usually used $password so I just change to $pwd when I pasted without
thinking. Good catch.

Brandon Shell
---------------
Blog: http://www.bsonposh.com/
PSH Scripts Project: www.codeplex.com/psobject

a> On Jan 29, 12:20 am, Brandon Shell [MVP] <a_bshell.m...@xxxxxx>
a> wrote:
a> a> To keep in mind, $pwd is the built-in variable containing the path to
a> the current working directory, so if you use this variable name, it
a> overwrites the $pwd automatic variable.
a>
a> -aleksandar
a> http://powershellers.blogspot.com