Vista - read-host -assecurestring problem

I want to be able to type in a password and have it masked with ****, but I
need it to be in plain-text in the script I'm using. So I tried the following:

$SecurePassword = read-host -AsSecureString "Type in your new password"
$PlainPassword = ConvertFrom-SecureString $SecurePassword
write-host "Plain Text Password = " $PlainPassword

When I run this, instead of getting a plain-text version of the password, I
get a long string of numerals. Granted I'll not simply just post the password
to the user, but for the sake of example the above snippet shows my point and
problem.

The problem I have with using read-host without the -assecurestring is
two-fold:
1. Anyone can see what you type in
2. What you type into read-host is stored in the command history, so you can
just "up-arrow" and see what was last typed into read-host.

I want to prevent people from looking over one's shoulder and not have the
value stored in the command history.

So what do I need to do in order for powershell to use read-host
-assecurestring and yet be able to use the plain-text value of the password
later in the script.

On Jun 5, 11:54*am, GodOfLions <GodOfLi...@xxxxxx>
wrote:Hi,

SecureString objects are part of the deeper operating system rather
than something PowerShell invented, so there are a few hoops to jump
through and apologies if I don't explain this but it's a bit hairy.

Function ConvertTo-PlainText( [security.securestring]$secure ) {
$marshal = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]
$marshal::PtrToStringAuto( $marshal::SecureStringToBSTR($secure) )
}

usage:

ps > $s = read-host -assecurestring "password?"
password?: ****
ps > convertto-plaintext $s
test

Hope this helps,

- Oisin

PowerShell MVP
http://www.nivot.org/