Convert a secure string to plain text

Question

I m working in PowerShell and I have code that successfully converts a user entered password into plain text    SecurePassword   Read-Host -AsSecureString   Enter password    convertfrom-securestring   out-file C  Users tmarsh Documents securePassword txt   I ve been tried several ways to convert it back  but none of them seem to work properly  Most recently  I ve tried with the following    PlainPassword   Get-Content C  Users tmarsh Documents securePassword txt   convert the SecureString object to plain text using PtrToString and SecureStringToBSTR  BSTR    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   SecureStringToBSTR  PlainPassword   PlainPassword    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   PtrToStringAuto  BSTR   Runtime InteropServices Marshal   ZeroFreeBSTR  BSTR   this is an important step to keep things secure   This gives me an error as well    Cannot convert argument  s   with value   01000000d08c9ddf0115d1118c7a00c04fc297eb0100000026a5b6067d53fd43801a9ef3f8ef9e43000000000200000000000366000 0c0000000100000008118fdea02bfb57d0dda41f9748a05f10000000004800000a000000010000000c50f5093f3b87fbf9ee57cbd17267e0a10000000833d1d712cef01497872a3457bc8 bc271400000038c731cb8c47219399e4265515e9569438d8e8ed   for  SecureStringToBSTR  to type  System Security SecureString    Cannot convert the  01000000 d08c9ddf0115d1118c7a00c04fc297eb0100000026a5b6067d53fd43801a9ef3f8ef9e430000000002000000000003660000c0000000100000008118fdea02bfb57d0dda41f9748a05f10 000000004800000a000000010000000c50f5093f3b87fbf9ee57cbd17267e0a10000000833d1d712cef01497872a3457bc8bc271400000038c731cb8c47219399e4265515e9569438d8e8 ed  value of type  System String  to type  System Security SecureString    At C  Users tmarsh Documents Scripts Local Admin Script PlainTextConverter1 ps1 14 char 1    BSTR    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   SecureStringToBSTR  PlainPassw                                                                                              CategoryInfo            NotSpecified          MethodException       FullyQualifiedErrorId   MethodArgumentConversionInvalidCastArgument  Cannot find an overload for  PtrToStringAuto  and the argument count   1   At C  Users tmarsh Documents Scripts Local Admin Script PlainTextConverter1 ps1 15 char 1    PlainPassword    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   PtrToStringAuto  BSTR                                                                                              CategoryInfo            NotSpecified          MethodException       FullyQualifiedErrorId   MethodCountCouldNotFindBest  Cannot convert argument  s   with value      for  ZeroFreeBSTR  to type  System IntPtr    Cannot convert null to type  System IntPtr    At C  Users tmarsh Documents Scripts Local Admin Script PlainTextConverter1 ps1 16 char 1    Runtime InteropServices Marshal   ZeroFreeBSTR  BSTR   this is an important ste                                                                    CategoryInfo            NotSpecified          MethodException       FullyQualifiedErrorId   MethodArgumentConversionInvalidCastArgument  Password is   01000000d08c9ddf0115d1118c7a00c04fc297eb0100000026a5b6067d53fd43801a9ef3f8ef9e430000000002000000000003660000c0000000100000008118fdea02bfb57d0dda41f97 48a05f10000000004800000a000000010000000c50f5093f3b87fbf9ee57cbd17267e0a10000000833d1d712cef01497872a3457bc8bc271400000038c731cb8c47219399e4265515e9569 438d8e8ed   Does anyone know of a way that will work for this

User · Answer

In PS 7  you can use ConvertFrom-SecureString and -AsPlainText      UnsecurePassword   ConvertFrom-SecureString -SecureString  SecurePassword -AsPlainText   https   docs microsoft com en-us powershell module microsoft powershell security ConvertFrom-SecureString view powershell-7 parameters  ConvertFrom-SecureString             -SecureString   lt SecureString gt              -AsPlainText               lt CommonParameters gt

User · Answer

The easiest way to convert back it in PowerShell   System Net NetworkCredential   new      SecurePassword  Password

User · Answer

You may also use PSCredential GetNetworkCredential       SecurePassword   Get-Content C  Users tmarsh Documents securePassword txt   ConvertTo-SecureString  UnsecurePassword    New-Object PSCredential  user   SecurePassword  GetNetworkCredential   Password

User · Answer

You are close  but the parameter you pass to SecureStringToBSTR must be a SecureString   You appear to be passing the result of ConvertFrom-SecureString  which is an encrypted standard string   So call ConvertTo-SecureString on this before passing to SecureStringToBSTR    SecurePassword   ConvertTo-SecureString  PlainPassword -AsPlainText -Force  BSTR    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   SecureStringToBSTR  SecurePassword   UnsecurePassword    System Runtime InteropServices Marshal   PtrToStringAuto  BSTR

[powershell] Convert a secure string to plain text

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