Hacking For Beginners – Manthan Desai

What is in a path?

2010

The first default security measure that you will encounter is that fact that PowerShell won ’t run scripts that are in thecurrent folder. This is so that malicious scripts attempting to intercept cmdlets and command names will fail.

For example, if you wanted to run a script named Example.ps1 from the C:\scripts folder, you would need to include thefull path to the script, even if you were in the C:\scripts folder within PowerShell. Figure 1 illustrates what happens whenyou just try to run Example.ps1 without a path.

Figure 1: Scripts must include the path to the script to run successfully

Now, look at what happens when you run the script including the path to the script, as shown in Figure 2.

Why am I Restricted?

Another default setting that is directly related to security is the fact that all scripts must be run interactively. This is asecurity measure that ensures that PowerShell scripts cannot be executed from a script based virus. This means that youmust be at the PowerShell interface and run the script in real time for it to function.

This default setting is associated with the Execution Policy setting within PowerShell. The Execution Policy by default is setto Restricted, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The Execution Policy by default is set to Restricted to secure the execution of remote PowerShell scripts

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