[powershell] How to get all groups that a user is a member of?

PowerShell's Get-ADGroupMember cmdlet returns members of a specific group. Is there a cmdlet or property to get all the groups that a particular user is a member of?


I fixed my mistake: Get-Member should be Get-ADGroupMember.

This question is related to powershell active-directory powershell-2.0

The answer is


Get-QADUser -SamAccountName LoginID | % {$_.MemberOf } | Get-QADGroup | select name


Studying all comments presented gave me a starting point (thanks for such) but left me with several unresolved issues. As result here is my answer. The code snippet provided does a little more than what is asked for but it provides helpful debugging info.

[array] $script:groupsdns = @()
function Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive() 
{
  Param( [string] $dn, [int] $level = 0, [array] $groups = @() )

  #if(($groupsdns | where { $_.DistinguishedName -eq $dn }).Count -ne 0 ) { return $groups } # dependency on next statement
  #$groupsdns += (Get-ADObject $dn -Properties MemberOf) # Get-ADObject cannot find an object with identity
  if ($script:groupsdns.Contains($dn)) { return $groups }
  $script:groupsdns += $dn
  $mo = $Null
  $mo = Get-ADObject $dn -Properties MemberOf # Get-ADObject cannot find an object with identity
  $group = ($dn + " (" + $level.ToString())
  if ($mo -eq $Null) { $group += "!" }
  $group += ")"
  $groups += $group
  foreach( $groupdn in $mo.MemberOf )
  {
    $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $groupdn -level ($level+1) -groups $groups
  }
  if ($level -le 0) 
  { 
    $primarygroupdn = (Get-ADUser -Identity $dn -Properties PrimaryGroup).PrimaryGroup 
    $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $primarygroupdn -level ($level+1) -groups $groups
  }
  return $groups
}
$adusergroups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $aduser.DistinguishedName
$adusergroups | ft -AutoSize | `
              Out-File -Width 512 Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive.txt #-Append #-Wrap # | Sort-Object -Property Name

A more concise alternative to the one posted by Canoas, to get group membership for the currently-logged-on user.

I came across this method in this blog post: http://www.travisrunyard.com/2013/03/26/auto-create-outlook-mapi-user-profiles/

([ADSISEARCHER]"samaccountname=$($env:USERNAME)").Findone().Properties.memberof

An even better version which uses a regex to strip the LDAP guff and leaves the group names only:

([ADSISEARCHER]"samaccountname=$($env:USERNAME)").Findone().Properties.memberof -replace '^CN=([^,]+).+$','$1'

More details about using the [ADSISEARCHER] type accelerator can be found on the scripting guy blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/08/24/use-the-powershell-adsisearcher-type-accelerator-to-search-active-directory.aspx


I use this simple oneliner to recursively search all the groups a user is member of:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $UserName | foreach-object { Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_.SamAccountName | select SamAccountName }

To filter the groups to find out if user is member of a specific group i use this:

if ( Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $UserName | foreach-object { Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_.SamAccountName | select SamAccountName } | where-object {$_.SamAccountName -like "*$Groupname*"} ) { write-host "Found" } else { write-host "not a member of group $Groupname" }

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership USERLOGON | select name


Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Get-ADUser -SearchBase "OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=local" -Filter * | foreach-object {
write-host "User:" $_.Name -foreground green
    Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_.SamAccountName | foreach-object {
        write-host "Member Of:" $_.name
    }
}

Change the value of -SearchBase to reflect the OU you need to list the users from :)

This will list all of the users in that OU and show you which groups they are a member of.


Get-Member is not for getting user's group membership. If you want to get a list of groups a user belongs to on the local system, you can do so by:

$query = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_Account.Name='DemoUser1',Domain='DomainName'} WHERE ResultRole=GroupComponent ResultClass=Win32_Account"

Get-WMIObject -Query $query | Select Name

In the above query, replace DemoUser1 with the username you want and the DomainName with either your local computer name or domain name.


Use:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | select name | export-CSV username.csv

This pipes output of the command into a CSV file.


I wrote a PowerShell function called Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive. It accepts the DSN of a user, computer, group, or service account. It retrieves an initial list of groups from the account's memberOf attribute, then recursively checks those group's memberships. Abbreviated code is below. Full source code with comments can be found here.

function Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive( ) {

    Param(
        [string] $dsn,
        [array]$groups = @()
    )

    $obj = Get-ADObject $dsn -Properties memberOf

    foreach( $groupDsn in $obj.memberOf ) {

        $tmpGrp = Get-ADObject $groupDsn -Properties memberOf

        if( ($groups | where { $_.DistinguishedName -eq $groupDsn }).Count -eq 0 ) {
            $groups +=  $tmpGrp           
            $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive $groupDsn $groups
        }
    }

    return $groups
}

# Simple Example of how to use the function
$username = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter a username"
$groups   = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive (Get-ADUser $username).DistinguishedName
$groups | Sort-Object -Property name | Format-Table

No need for long scripts when it is a simple one liner..

QUEST Command

(Get-QADUser -Identity john -IncludedProperties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf

MS AD Command

(GET-ADUSER –Identity john –Properties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf

I find the MS AD cmd is faster but some people like the Quest ones better..

Steve


The below works well:

get-aduser $username -Properties memberof | select -expand memberof

If you have a list of users:

$list = 'administrator','testuser1','testuser2'
$list | `
    %{  
        $user = $_; 
        get-aduser $user -Properties memberof | `
        select -expand memberof | `
        %{new-object PSObject -property @{User=$user;Group=$_;}} `
    }

When you do not have privileges to consult other member groups but you do have the privilege to consult group members, you can do the following to build a map of which user has access to which groups.

$groups = get-adgroup -Filter * | sort name | select Name
$users = @{}
foreach($group in $groups) {
    $groupUsers = @()
    $groupUsers = Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $group.Name | Select-Object SamAccountName
    $groupUsers | % {
        if(!$users.ContainsKey($_.SamAccountName)){
            $users[$_.SamAccountName] = @()
        }
        ($users[$_.SamAccountName]) += ($group.Name)
    }
}

With user input and fancy output formatting:

[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True)] 
Param( 
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)] 
    [String]$UserName 
) 
Import-Module ActiveDirectory 
If ($UserName) { 
    $UserName = $UserName.ToUpper().Trim() 
    $Res = (Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $UserName | Measure-Object).Count 
    If ($Res -GT 0) { 
        Write-Output "`n" 
        Write-Output "$UserName AD Group Membership:" 
        Write-Output "===========================================================" 
        Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $UserName | Select-Object -Property Name, GroupScope, GroupCategory | Sort-Object -Property Name | FT -A 
    } 
}

It is just one line:

(get-aduser joe.bloggs -properties *).memberof

end of :)


This should provide you the details for current user. Powershell not needed.

whoami /groups


I couldn't get the following to work for a particular user:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username

It threw an error that I was not willing to troubleshoot.

I did however come up with a different solution using Get-ADUser. I like it a bit better because if you don't know the account name then you can get it based off of a wildcard on the user's actual name. Just fill in PartOfUsersName and away it goes.

#Get the groups that list of users are the member of using a wildcard search

[string]$UserNameLike = "*PartOfUsersName*" #Use * for wildcards here
[array]$AccountNames = $(Get-ADUser -Filter {Name -like $UserNameLike}).SamAccountName

ForEach ($AccountName In $AccountNames) {
Write-Host "`nGETTING GROUPS FOR" $AccountName.ToUpper() ":"
(Get-ADUser -Identity $AccountName -Properties MemberOf|select MemberOf).MemberOf|
    Get-ADGroup|select Name|sort name
    }

Huge props to schmeckendeugler and 8DH for getting me to this solution. +1 to both of you.


To get it recursive, you can use:

<# 
    .SYNOPSIS   
        Get all the groups that a user is MemberOf.

    .DESCRIPTION
        This script retrieves all the groups that a user is MemberOf in a recursive way.

    .PARAMETER SamAccountName
        The name of the user you want to check #>

Param (
    [String]$SamAccountName = 'test',
    $DomainUsersGroup = 'CN=Domain Users,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=net'
)


Function Get-ADMemberOf {
    Param (
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline)]
        [PSObject[]]$Group,
        [String]$DomainUsersGroup = 'CN=Domain Users,CN=Users,DC=grouphc,DC=net'
    )
    Process {
        foreach ($G in $Group) {
            $G | Get-ADGroup | Select -ExpandProperty Name
            Get-ADGroup $G -Properties MemberOf| Select-Object Memberof | ForEach-Object {
                Get-ADMemberOf $_.Memberof
            }
        }
    }
}


$Groups = Get-ADUser $SamAccountName -Properties MemberOf | Select-Object -ExpandProperty MemberOf
$Groups += $DomainUsersGroup
$Groups | Get-ADMemberOf | Select -Unique | Sort-Object

Old school way from CMD:

net user mst999 /domain 

(GET-ADUSER –Identity USERNAME –Properties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf

Get-Member is a cmdlet for listing the members of a .NET object. This has nothing to do with user/group membership. You can get the current user's group membership like so:

PS> [System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Groups | 
         Format-Table -auto

BinaryLength AccountDomainSid    Value
------------ ----------------    -----
          28 S-1-5-21-...        S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-513
          12                     S-1-1-0
          28 S-1-5-21-...        S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-1010
          28 S-1-5-21-...        S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-1003
          16                     S-1-5-32-545
...

If you need access to arbitrary users' group info then @tiagoinu suggestion of using the Quest AD cmdlets is a better way to go.


Get group membership for a user:

$strUserName = "Primoz"
$strUser = get-qaduser -SamAccountName $strUserName
$strUser.memberof

See Get Group Membership for a User

But also see Quest's Free PowerShell Commands for Active Directory.

[Edit: Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership command is included in Powershell since v2 with Windows 2008 R2. See kstrauss' answer below.]


   Get-ADUser -Filter { memberOf -RecursiveMatch "CN=Administrators,CN=Builtin,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com" } -SearchBase "CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com"  -SearchScope Base
                  ## NOTE: The above command will return the user object (Administrator in this case) if it finds a match recursively in memberOf attribute. 

If you cannot get Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership to work for you could try logging in as that user then use.

$id = [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
$groups = $id.Groups | foreach-object {$_.Translate([Security.Principal.NTAccount])}
$groups | select *

First, import the activedirectory module:

import-module activedirectory

Then issue this command:

Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $group | foreach-object {
    Write-Host $_.SamAccountName
}

This will display the members of the specified group.


Putting this here for future reference. I'm in the midst of an email migration. I need to know each user account and its respective group membership, and also I need to know each group and its respective members.

I'm using the code block below to output a CSV for each user's group membership.

Get-ADUser -Filter * |`
  ForEach-Object { `
    $FileName = $_.SamAccountName + ".csv" ; `
    $FileName ; `
    Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_ | `
      Select-Object -Property SamAccountName, name, GroupScope, GroupCategory | `
        Sort-Object -Property SamAccountName | `
          Export-Csv -Path $FileName -Encoding ASCII ; `
  }

The export process for the groups and their respective members was a little convoluted, but the below works. The output filenames include the type of group. Therefore, the email distribution groups I need are/should be the Universal and Global Distribution groups. I should be able to just delete or move the resulting TXT files I don't need.

Get-ADGroup -Filter * | `
 Select-Object -Property Name, DistinguishedName, GroupScope, GroupCategory | `
  Sort-Object -Property GroupScope, GroupCategory, Name | `
   Export-Csv -Path ADGroupsNew.csv -Encoding ASCII

$MyCSV = Import-Csv -Path .\ADGroupsNew.csv -Encoding ASCII

$MyCSV | `
 ForEach-Object { `
  $FN = $_.GroupScope + ", " + $_.GroupCategory + ", " + $_.Name + ".txt" ; `
  $FN ; `
  Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $_.DistinguishedName | `
   Out-File -FilePath $FN -Encoding ASCII ; $FN=""; `
  }

This is the simplest way to just get the names:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership "YourUserName"

# Returns distinguishedName : CN=users,OU=test,DC=SomeWhere GroupCategory : Security GroupScope : Global name : testGroup objectClass : group objectGUID : 2130ed49-24c4-4a17-88e6-dd4477d15a4c SamAccountName : testGroup SID : S-1-5-21-2114067515-1964795913-1973001494-71628

Add a select statement to trim the response or to get every user in an OU every group they are a user of:

foreach ($user in (get-aduser -SearchScope Subtree -SearchBase $oupath -filter * -Properties samaccountName, MemberOf | select samaccountName)){ Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $user.samaccountName | select name}


Single line, no modules necessary, uses current logged user:

(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher("(&(objectCategory=User)(samAccountName=$($env:username)))")).FindOne().GetDirectoryEntry().memberOf

Kudos to this vbs/powershell article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730963.aspx


While there are many excellent answers here, there is one which I was personally looking for that was missing. Once I figured it out - I thought I should post it in case I want to find it later, or it actually manages to help someone else at some point:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | Format-Table -auto

A second approach for presenting this is to specify the individual columns you are interested in eg:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | select name, GroupScope, GroupCategory

This gives all the AD groups the username belongs to - but also presents all of the default properties of each group formatted nicely as a table.

The key benefit this gives you is you can see at a glance which are distribution lists, & which are Security groups. You can further see at a glance which are Universal, which are DomainLocal & which are Global.
Why would you care about this last bit?

  • Universal group is a security or distribution group that contains users, groups, and computers from any domain in its forest as members. You can give universal security groups rights and permissions on resources in any domain in the forest.
  • Global group is a group that can be used in its own domain, in member servers and in workstations of the domain, and in trusting domains. In all those locations, you can give a global group rights and permissions and the global group can become a member of local groups. However, a global group can contain user accounts that are only from its own domain.
  • Domain local group is a security or distribution group that can contain universal groups, global groups, other domain local groups from its own domain, and accounts from any domain in the forest. You can give domain local security groups rights and permissions on resources that reside only in the same domain where the domain local group is located.

Almost all above solutions used the ActiveDirecotry module which might not be available by default in most cases.

I used below method. A bit indirect, but served my purpose.

List all available groups

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Group

And then list the groups the user belongs to

[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Groups

Comparison can then be done via checking through the SIDs. This works for the logged in user. Please correct me if I am wrong. Completely new to PowerShell, but had to get this done for a work commitment.


Examples related to powershell

Why powershell does not run Angular commands? How do I install the Nuget provider for PowerShell on a unconnected machine so I can install a nuget package from the PS command line? How to print environment variables to the console in PowerShell? Check if a string is not NULL or EMPTY The term 'ng' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet VSCode Change Default Terminal 'Connect-MsolService' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet Powershell Invoke-WebRequest Fails with SSL/TLS Secure Channel Install-Module : The term 'Install-Module' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet Change directory in PowerShell

Examples related to active-directory

Powershell: A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument "xxx" How to switch to another domain and get-aduser How can I verify if an AD account is locked? Powershell script to see currently logged in users (domain and machine) + status (active, idle, away) Querying Windows Active Directory server using ldapsearch from command line How to list AD group membership for AD users using input list? Import-Module : The specified module 'activedirectory' was not loaded because no valid module file was found in any module directory What are CN, OU, DC in an LDAP search? PowerShell script to return members of multiple security groups How do I get specific properties with Get-AdUser

Examples related to powershell-2.0

Extract the filename from a path Out-File -append in Powershell does not produce a new line and breaks string into characters Using PowerShell to remove lines from a text file if it contains a string PowerShell The term is not recognized as cmdlet function script file or operable program Can't install nuget package because of "Failed to initialize the PowerShell host" Powershell script to see currently logged in users (domain and machine) + status (active, idle, away) How to export data to CSV in PowerShell? powershell is missing the terminator: " PowerShell script to check the status of a URL How to upgrade PowerShell version from 2.0 to 3.0