Hi,

I'm using Powershell to generate MBSAcli scan strings. Been working
great forever, till today!

Turns out that a username on a particular box was as shown
below...this was causing
Invoke-Expression to crash out with a "cannot index into a null array"
error.

I mean, what were the chances of someone picking a username the same
as a powershell array?

Set-Location "C:\Pro* Fil*\Micro*Bas*"
[string]$username = '$User[5]'
[string]$password = 'mypassword'
$path = "C:\test.txt"
$target = "myhost"
$con = ".\mbsacli /target $target /u $username /p $password /nd /n "
"IIS+OS+SQL" " /catalog " "C:\MBSACatalog\wsusscn2.cab" " > $path"



Invoke-Expression $con

Seems like the Powershell parser is interpreting $user[5] as an array,
not a simple string value while execute the invoke-expression cmdlet
and trying to index into it.

Would be grateful for any suggestions for how to deal with this in an
elegant way.

Thanks,
Stuart

Thats it! Superb. Thanks Jaykul, it never occurred to me that
the invoke-expression cmdlet was also unwrapping. Must watch out
for that.

Many thanks,
Stuart



On 3 Nov, 13:32, "Jaykul" <Jay...@xxxxxx> wrote:

> It's because your variable actually gets unwrapped when you put it into
> $con, and then again by Invoke-Expression. *You should be able to avoidthe
> first unwrapping by single-quoting it:
>
> $con = '.\mbsacli /target $target /u $username /p $password /nd /n '
>
> --
> Joel "Jaykul" Bennetthttp://HuddledMasses.org/
> qotd: However, never daunted, I will cope with adversity in my traditional
> manner ... sulking and nausea. -- Tom K. Ryan
>
> "Kryten" <Kryte...@xxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> news:634dd4cc-83a2-42d1-9cb5-f39ab5eeb531@xxxxxx
>
>
>

> > Hi,

>

> > I'm using Powershell to generate MBSAcli scan strings. Been working
> > great forever, till today!

>

> > Turns out that a username on a particular box was as shown
> > below...this was causing
> > Invoke-Expression to crash out with a "cannot index into a null array"
> > error.

>

> > I mean, what were the chances of someone picking a username the same
> > as a powershell array?

>

> > Set-Location "C:\Pro* Fil*\Micro*Bas*"
> > [string]$username = '$User[5]'
> > [string]$password = 'mypassword'
> > $path = "C:\test.txt"
> > $target = "myhost"
> > $con = ".\mbsacli /target $target /u $username /p $password /nd /n "
> > "IIS+OS+SQL" " /catalog " "C:\MBSACatalog\wsusscn2.cab" " > $path"

>

> > Invoke-Expression $con

>

> > Seems like the Powershell parser is interpreting $user[5] as an array,
> > not a simple string value while execute the invoke-expression cmdlet
> > and trying to index into it.

>

> > Would be grateful for any suggestions for how to deal with this in an
> > elegant way.

>

> > Thanks,
> > Stuart- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -