PowerShell - Decode System.Security.SecureString to readable password

Question

I want to decode the password from a System.Security.SecureString to a readable password.

$password = convertto-securestring \"TestPassword\" -asplaintext -f         


        

Answer 1

For a "System.Net.NetworkCredential" object, all you need to do is read the String password.

$password = convertto-securestring "TestPassword" -asplaintext -force
$credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("TestUsername", $password, "TestDomain")
$credentials.Password
TestPassword

$credentials | gm

TypeName: System.Net.NetworkCredential

Name           MemberType Definition
----           ---------- ----------
Equals         Method     bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetCredential  Method     System.Net.NetworkCredential GetCredential(uri uri, str
GetHashCode    Method     int GetHashCode()
GetType        Method     type GetType()
ToString       Method     string ToString()
Domain         Property   string Domain {get;set;}
Password       Property   string Password {get;set;}
SecurePassword Property   securestring SecurePassword {get;set;}
UserName       Property   string UserName {get;set;}

If you end up with a PSCredential object, from an interactive command like Get-Credential use

$credentials=Get-Credential
$credentials.GetNetworkCredential().UserName
TestUsername
$credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Domain
TestDomain
$credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Password
TestPassword

See http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/03/26/decrypt-powershell-secure-string-password.aspx for details.

Note: I used PS 4 for this example.