Remote Administration With PowerShell 3.0 Sessions–Part 2: Limited User, Power User and Administrator Groups
In my last post we talked about PowerShell Session Configurations and specifically about the new RunAs functionality in PowerShell 3.0. But there’s some other incredibly cool and powerful functionality within session configurations – Session Configuration Files. You can see the full beta documentation on Session Configuration Files on TechNet but I am going to focus on a few specific features.
ModulesToImport and VisibleCmdlets
When you create a new PSSessionConfiguration file you can specify what modules to import and more specifically what cmdlets, aliases, types etc… will be visible to the user. Using this functionality we can create PSSessions that will only allow specific users to do very specific actions such as starting or stopping a VM. In the example below I create a configuration that will only allow users to use the Get-VM* cmdlet along with Start-VM and Stop-VM.
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile -Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemoteLimitedUser.pssc `
-SessionType RestrictedRemoteServer `
-LanguageMode RestrictedLanguage `
-ModulesToImport Hyper-V `
-VisibleCmdlets @("Get-VM*", "Start-VM", "Stop-VM") `
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name "HyperVRemoteLimitedUser" `
-Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemoteLimitedUser.pssc `
-SessionType DefaultRemoteShell -AccessMode Remote
When a remote users connects to this session they will only be able to use cmdlet’s meting those specifications…
PS C:\> $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName 37-4611K2615L -ConfigurationName HyperVRemoteLimitedUser
PS C:\> Enter-PSSession $session
[37-4611K2615L]: PS>get-vm
Name State CPUUsage(%) MemoryAssigned(M) MemoryDemand(M) MemoryStatus Uptime Status ReplicationState
---- ----- ----------- ----------------- --------------- ------------ ------ ------ ----------------
Test Off 0 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled
Test3 Off 0 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled
[37-4611K2615L]: PS>new-vm
The term 'New-VM' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the
spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (New-VM:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
[37-4611K2615L]: PS>get-host
The term 'Get-Host' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the
spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Get-Host:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
[37-4611K2615L]: PS>Get-VMSwitch
Name SwitchType NetAdapterInterfaceDescription
---- ---------- ------------------------------
External External Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver
Creating Multiple Configurations For Different Users
In my last post I provided a handy script New-SSDLForAdGroup to use with Register-PSSessionConfiguration. Combining that with PSSessionConfigurationFiles – I’m going to create three different session types depending on the user.
Function New-SSDLForADGroup
{
param(
[String]$GroupName = [String]::Empty
)
try {
#retreave the default SSDL as a base
$defaultSSDL = (Get-Item WsMan:\localhost\service\rootSDDL).Value
$isContainer = $false
$isDS = $false
$SecurityDescriptor = New-Object -TypeName `
Security.AccessControl.CommonSecurityDescriptor `
$isContainer, $isDS, $defaultSSDL
#remove the default groups (Administrators and Interactive User)
while($SecurityDescriptor.DiscretionaryAcl.Count -gt 0)
{
$ssdl = $SecurityDescriptor.DiscretionaryAcl[0]
$SecurityDescriptor.DiscretionaryAcl.RemoveAccess(
[System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlType]::Allow,
$ssdl.SecurityIdentifier,
$ssdl.AccessMask,
$ssdl.InheritanceFlags,
$ssdl.PropagationFlags) | Out-Null
}
#get the SID for the specified Group and add it to the SSDL
$AdminGroup = New-Object Security.Principal.NTAccount $GroupName
$AdminGroupSid = $AdminGroup.Translate(`
[Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]).Value
$SecurityDescriptor.DiscretionaryAcl.AddAccess(
[System.Security.AccessControl.AccessControlType]::Allow,
$AdminGroupSid,
268435456, #full control all operations
[System.Security.AccessControl.InheritanceFlags]::None,
[System.Security.AccessControl.PropagationFlags]::None) | Out-Null
return $SecurityDescriptor.GetSddlForm("All")
}
catch [Exception] {
Write-Error -Message "Failed To Generate SSDL (review inner exception):`n $_.Message" `
-Exception $_.Exception
}
}
$HyperVRemoteAdminRunAs = Get-Credential "hyper-v\HyperVRemoteCommands"
#Limited Users
$ssdlForSession = New-SSDLForADGroup -GroupName "hyper-v\LimitedUsers"
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile -Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemoteLimitedUser.pssc `
-SessionType RestrictedRemoteServer `
-LanguageMode RestrictedLanguage `
-ModulesToImport Hyper-V `
-VisibleCmdlets @("Get-VM*", "Start-VM", "Stop-VM") `
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name "HyperVRemoteLimitedUser" `
-Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemoteLimitedUser.pssc `
-SessionType DefaultRemoteShell -AccessMode Remote `
-NoServiceRestart -Force `
-SecurityDescriptorSddl $ssdlForSession `
-RunAsCredential $HyperVRemoteAdminRunAs
#PowerUsers
#Only use the cmdlet's in the allowed modules
$moduleList = @("Hyper-V")
$cmdLets = $null
foreach ($Module in $moduleList)
{
Import-Module $Module
$Mod = Get-Module $Module
$cmdLets += $Mod.ExportedCmdlets.Keys
}
$ssdlForSession = New-SSDLForADGroup -GroupName "hyper-v\hv-PowerUsers"
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile -Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemotePowerUser.pssc `
-SessionType RestrictedRemoteServer `
-LanguageMode RestrictedLanguage `
-ModulesToImport $moduleList `
-VisibleCmdlets ([Array]$cmdLets)
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name "HyperVRemotePowerUser" `
-Path C:\psSessions\HyperVRemotePowerUser.pssc `
-SessionType DefaultRemoteShell -AccessMode Remote `
-NoServiceRestart -Force `
-SecurityDescriptorSddl $ssdlForSession `
-RunAsCredential $HyperVRemoteAdminRunAs
#ServerAdmins
$ssdlForSession = New-SSDLForADGroup -GroupName "hyper-v\hv-admins"
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name "HyperVServerAdmin" `
-SessionType DefaultRemoteShell -AccessMode Remote `
-NoServiceRestart -Force `
-SecurityDescriptorSddl $ssdlForSession `
-RunAsCredential $HyperVRemoteAdminRunAs
Restart-Service -Name WinRM –Force
Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
https://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb
Comments
- Anonymous
August 26, 2014
Hello, I have been able to get Remote PowerShell up and running with a configuration file just fine. I created my own module that has a function like: Function Get-Name { $Name = Read-Host "Enter Name" $Name } This function works like it is supposed to when I remote into the system using a local user account. What I'd like to do now is change the function to: Function Get-Name { $Name = Read-Host "Enter Name" $Name Write-EventLog –LogName Application –Source “Get-name” –EntryType Information –EventID 13 –Message “Someone asked for a name...” } The problem I am running into is that it says Write-EventLog is not a valid cmdlet. Is there something I have to do to make this a valid cmdlet? Thanks, Brian