This happens because this assembly was developed in .NET Framework, and not brought to .NET (core). Although there are multiple alternatives to achieve the same result, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to show the Power in PowerShell, and port this method from C#.<\/p>\n
Method<\/h2>\n
We are going to get this method’s code by using an IL decompiler. C# is compiled to an Intermediate Language<\/strong>, which allows us to decompile it. The tool I’ll be using is Once installed, open Once loaded, expand the System.Web<\/strong> assembly tree, and the System.Web.Security<\/strong> namespace. Inside System.Web.Security<\/strong>, look for the Membership<\/strong> class, click on it, and the decompiled code should appear on the right pane.<\/p>\n Scroll down until you find the GeneratePassword<\/strong> method, and expand it.<\/p>\n Now the fun begins. Let’s do this using PowerShell tools only, means we’re not going to copy the Membership<\/strong> class and method. We are going to create a function, and keep the variable names the same, so it’s easier for us to compare.<\/p>\n Now enough C#, let get to scripting.<\/p>\n For this, we are going to use the Advanced Function<\/strong> template, from Visual Studio Code. I’ll name the main function This method takes as parameter two integer numbers, let’s create them in the Now let’s focus on the These are the two properties, in our case variables, that we need to create.<\/p>\n Let’s create them as global variables, to be used across our functions if necessary.<\/p>\n This is what the method looks like:<\/p>\n Pretty simple method, with one parameter, only the operator’s name needs to change. Let’s use an inline function:<\/p>\n This is what the C# method looks like:<\/p>\n This one is a little more extensive, but it’s pretty much only string manipulation. The interesting part of this method though, is the parameter matchIndex<\/strong>. Note the With these, our In this stage we build the function itself. Since we’re using attributes to check the parameters, the first two First let’s declare the variables used in the main function body, and inside the main loop. This gives us the opportunity to analyze our choices.<\/p>\n Note that in our pursuit to stay true to the method’s layout, we are including extra declarations. Although this could be avoided, in some cases it helps with script readability. Plus, if you have experience with any programming language, this will feel familiar.<\/p>\n Right after that, we have a The next session is going to manage our number of non-alphanumeric characters. It does that by generating random symbol characters and replacing values in the array we filled in the previous loop.<\/p>\n Now all that’s left is to create a string from the character array, and check if it’s safe with If our Now all that’s left is to call our function:<\/p>\n I hope you had as much fun as I had building this function. With this new skill, you can improve your scripts’ complexity and reliability. This also makes you more comfortable to write your own modules, binary or not.<\/p>\n Thank you for going along.<\/p>\n Happy scripting!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post shows how to port a C# method into PowerShell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62334,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2],"tags":[83,89,87,88,3],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-powershell","category-powershell-community","tag-automation","tag-c","tag-password","tag-portability","tag-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" This post shows how to port a C# method into PowerShell<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ILSpy<\/code>, and can be found on the Microsoft Store<\/a>.<\/p>\nGetting the Code<\/h2>\n
ILSpy<\/code>, click on File<\/strong> and Open from GAC…<\/strong>. On the search bar, type System.Web<\/strong>, select the assembly, and click Open<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"File](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/69\/2023\/05\/File-OpenFromGAC-1.png\")
![\"Open](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/69\/2023\/05\/OpenFromGACMenu-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Membership](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/69\/2023\/05\/MembershipClass-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"GeneratePassword](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/69\/2023\/05\/GeneratePasswordMethod-1.png\")
<\/p>\nPorting to PowerShell<\/h2>\n
\n
public static string GeneratePassword(int lenght, int numberOfNonAlphanumericCharacters)<\/code> \n\n
\n
System.Web.CrossSiteScriptingValidation.IsDangerousString(string s, out int matchIndex)<\/code><\/li>\nSystem.Web.CrossSiteScriptingValidation.IsAtoZ(char c)<\/code><\/li>\nchar[] punctuations<\/code>, from System.Web.Security.Membership<\/strong><\/li>\nchar[] startingChars<\/code>, from System.Web.CrossSiteScriptingValidation<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMain function<\/h3>\n
New-StrongPassword<\/code>, but you can name it as you like, just remember using approved verbs.<\/p>\nparam()<\/code> block. The first two if<\/code> statements are checks to ensure both parameters are within acceptable range. We can accomplish the same with parameter attributes.<\/p>\nfunction New-StrongPassword {\n\n [CmdletBinding()]\n param (\n\n # Number of characters.\n [Parameter(\n Mandatory,\n Position = 0,\n HelpMessage = 'The number of characters the password should have.'\n )]\n [ValidateRange(1, 128)]\n [int] $Length,\n\n # Number of non alpha-numeric chars.\n [Parameter(\n Mandatory,\n Position = 1,\n HelpMessage = 'The number of non alpha-numeric characters the password should contain.'\n )]\n [ValidateScript({\n if ($PSItem -gt $Length -or $PSItem -lt 0) {\n $newObjectSplat = @{\n TypeName = 'System.ArgumentException'\n ArgumentList = 'Membership minimum required non alpha-numeric characters is incorrect'\n }\n throw New-Object @newObjectSplat\n }\n return $true\n })]\n [int] $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters\n\n )\n\n begin {\n\n }\n\n process {\n\n }\n\n end {\n\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nUtilities<\/h3>\n
Begin{}<\/code> block, and create those utility methods, and properties.<\/p>\nProperties<\/h4>\n
private static char[] startingChars = new char[2] { '<', '&' };\nprivate static char[] punctuations = \"!@#$%^&*()_-+=[{]};:>|.\/?\".ToCharArray();<\/code><\/pre>\n[char[]]$global:punctuations = @('!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')', '_',\n '-', '+', '=', '[', '{', ']', '}', ';', ':', '>', '|',\n '.', '\/', '?')\n[char[]]$global:startingChars = @('<', '&')<\/code><\/pre>\nGet-IsAtoZ<\/h4>\n
private static bool IsAtoZ(char c)\n{\n if (c < 'a' || c > 'z')\n {\n if (c >= 'A')\n {\n return c <= 'Z';\n }\n return false;\n }\n return true;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nfunction Get-IsAToZ([char]$c) {\n if ($c -lt 'a' -or $c -gt 'z') {\n if ($c -ge 'A') {\n return $c -le 'Z'\n }\n return $false\n }\n return $true\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nGet-IsDangerousString<\/h4>\n
internal static bool IsDangerousString(string s, out int matchIndex)\n{\n matchIndex = 0;\n int startIndex = 0;\n while (true)\n {\n int num = s.IndexOfAny(startingChars, startIndex);\n if (num < 0)\n {\n return false;\n }\n if (num == s.Length - 1)\n {\n break;\n }\n matchIndex = num;\n switch (s[num])\n {\n case '<':\n if (IsAtoZ(s[num + 1]) || s[num + 1] == '!' || s[num + 1] == '\/' || s[num + 1] == '?')\n {\n return true;\n }\n break;\n case '&':\n if (s[num + 1] == '#')\n {\n return true;\n }\n break;\n }\n startIndex = num + 1;\n }\n return false;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nout<\/code> keyword, this means this parameter is passed as reference. We could skip this parameter altogether, because is not used in our case, but this is a perfect opportunity to exercise the PSReference<\/strong> type.<\/p>\nfunction Get-IsDangerousString {\n\n param([string]$s, [ref]$matchIndex)\n\n # To access the referenced parameter's value, we use the 'Value' property from PSReference.\n $matchIndex.Value = 0\n $startIndex = 0\n\n while ($true) {\n $num = $s.IndexOfAny($global:startingChars, $startIndex)\n if ($num -lt 0) {\n return $false\n }\n if ($num -eq $s.Length - 1) {\n break\n }\n $matchIndex.Value = $num\n\n switch ($s[$num]) {\n '<' {\n if (\n (Get-IsAToZ($s[$num + 1])) -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '!') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '\/') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '?')\n ) {\n return $true\n }\n }\n '&' {\n if ($s[$num + 1] -eq '#') {\n return $true\n }\n }\n }\n $startIndex = $num + 1\n }\n return $false\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nBegin{}<\/code> block looks like this:<\/p>\nBegin {\n [char[]]$global:punctuations = @('!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')', '_',\n '-', '+', '=', '[', '{', ']', '}', ';', ':', '>', '|',\n '.', '\/', '?')\n [char[]]$global:startingChars = @('<', '&')\n\n function Get-IsAToZ([char]$c) {\n if ($c -lt 'a' -or $c -gt 'z') {\n if ($c -ge 'A') {\n return $c -le 'Z'\n }\n return $false\n }\n return $true\n }\n\n function Get-IsDangerousString {\n\n param([string]$s, [ref]$matchIndex)\n\n $matchIndex.Value = 0\n $startIndex = 0\n\n while ($true) {\n $num = $s.IndexOfAny($global:startingChars, $startIndex)\n if ($num -lt 0) {\n return $false\n }\n if ($num -eq $s.Length - 1) {\n break\n }\n $matchIndex.Value = $num\n\n switch ($s[$num]) {\n '<' {\n if (\n (Get-IsAToZ($s[$num + 1])) -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '!') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '\/') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '?')\n ) {\n return $true\n }\n }\n '&' {\n if ($s[$num + 1] -eq '#') {\n return $true\n }\n }\n }\n $startIndex = $num + 1\n }\n return $false\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nMain Function Body<\/h3>\n
if<\/code> statements are ignored. After that, we have a single do-while<\/code> loop. In this loop, we are going to use tools from the System.Security.Cryptography<\/strong> library, so let’s import it.<\/p>\nAdd-Type -AssemblyName System.Security.Cryptography\n\n# If you get 'Assembly cannot be found' errors, load it with partial name instead.\n[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Security.Cryptography')<\/code><\/pre>\n# Explicitly declaring the output 'text' to match the method. We can skip this delaration.\n# Same for the 'matchIndex'\n$text = [string]::Empty\n$matchIndex = 0\ndo {\n $array = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Byte[]' -ArgumentList $Length\n $array2 = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Char[]' -ArgumentList $Length\n $num = 0\n\n # This stage could be done in 3 ways. We could use 'New-Object' and imediately call\n # 'GetBytes' on it, we could use the class constructor directly, and call 'GetBytes'\n # on it: [System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider]::new().GetBytes(),\n # or we could instantiate the 'RNGCryptoServiceProvider' object using one of the\n # previous methods, and call 'GetBytes' on it. Since we're using PowerShell tools the\n # most we can, and we want to stay true to the method, let's use the first option.\n # [void] used to suppress output.\n [void](New-Object -TypeName 'System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider').GetBytes($array)\n\n # Note that when passing a variable as reference to a function parameter, we need to\n # cast it to 'PSReference'. The parentheses are necessary so the parameter uses the\n # object, and not use it as a string.\n} while ((Get-IsDangerousString -s $text -matchIndex ([ref]$matchIndex)))<\/code><\/pre>\nfor<\/code> loop, which will choose each character for our password. It does this with a series of mathematical operations, and comparisons.<\/p>\nfor ($i = 0; $i -lt $Length; $i++) {\n $num2 = [int]$array[$i] % 87\n if ($num2 -lt 10) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](48 + $num2)\n continue\n }\n if ($num2 -lt 36) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](65 + $num2 - 10)\n continue\n }\n if ($num2 -lt 62) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](97 + $num2 - 36)\n continue\n }\n $array2[$i] = $global:punctuations[$num2 - 62]\n $num++\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nif ($num -lt $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters) {\n $random = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Random'\n\n # Generating only the characters left to complete our parameter specification.\n for ($j = 0; $j -lt $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters - $num; $j++) {\n $num3 = 0\n do {\n $num3 = $random.Next(0, $Length)\n } while (![char]::IsLetterOrDigit($array2[$num3]))\n $array2[$num3] = $global:punctuations[$random.Next(0, $global:punctuations.Length)]\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nGet-IsDangerousString<\/code>.<\/p>\n$text = [string]::new($array2)<\/code><\/pre>\ntext<\/code> is safe, we return it and the function reaches end of execution. Our finished function looks like this:<\/p>\nfunction New-StrongPassword {\n\n [CmdletBinding()]\n param (\n\n # Number of characters.\n [Parameter(\n Mandatory,\n Position = 0,\n HelpMessage = 'The number of characters the password should have.'\n )]\n [ValidateRange(1, 128)]\n [int] $Length,\n\n # Number of non alpha-numeric chars.\n [Parameter(\n Mandatory,\n Position = 1,\n HelpMessage = 'The number of non alpha-numeric characters the password should contain.'\n )]\n [ValidateScript({\n if ($PSItem -gt $Length -or $PSItem -lt 0) {\n $newObjectSplat = @{\n TypeName = 'System.ArgumentException'\n ArgumentList = 'Membership minimum required non alpha-numeric characters is incorrect'\n }\n throw New-Object @newObjectSplat\n }\n })]\n [int] $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters\n\n )\n\n Begin {\n [char[]]$global:punctuations = @('!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')', '_',\n '-', '+', '=', '[', '{', ']', '}', ';', ':', '>', '|',\n '.', '\/', '?')\n [char[]]$global:startingChars = @('<', '&')\n\n function Get-IsAToZ([char]$c) {\n if ($c -lt 'a' -or $c -gt 'z') {\n if ($c -ge 'A') {\n return $c -le 'Z'\n }\n return $false\n }\n return $true\n }\n\n function Get-IsDangerousString {\n\n param([string]$s, [ref]$matchIndex)\n\n $matchIndex.Value = 0\n $startIndex = 0\n\n while ($true) {\n $num = $s.IndexOfAny($global:startingChars, $startIndex)\n if ($num -lt 0) {\n return $false\n }\n if ($num -eq $s.Length - 1) {\n break\n }\n $matchIndex.Value = $num\n\n switch ($s[$num]) {\n '<' {\n if (\n (Get-IsAToZ($s[$num + 1])) -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '!') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '\/') -or\n ($s[$num + 1] -eq '?')\n ) {\n return $true\n }\n }\n '&' {\n if ($s[$num + 1] -eq '#') {\n return $true\n }\n }\n }\n $startIndex = $num + 1\n }\n return $false\n }\n }\n\n Process {\n Add-Type -AssemblyName 'System.Security.Cryptography'\n\n $text = [string]::Empty\n $matchIndex = 0\n do {\n $array = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Byte[]' -ArgumentList $Length\n $array2 = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Char[]' -ArgumentList $Length\n $num = 0\n [void](New-Object -TypeName 'System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider').GetBytes($array)\n\n for ($i = 0; $i -lt $Length; $i++) {\n $num2 = [int]$array[$i] % 87\n if ($num2 -lt 10) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](48 + $num2)\n continue\n }\n if ($num2 -lt 36) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](65 + $num2 - 10)\n continue\n }\n if ($num2 -lt 62) {\n $array2[$i] = [char](97 + $num2 - 36)\n continue\n }\n $array2[$i] = $global:punctuations[$num2 - 62]\n $num++\n }\n\n if ($num -lt $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters) {\n $random = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Random'\n\n for ($j = 0; $j -lt $NumberOfNonAlphaNumericCharacters - $num; $j++) {\n $num3 = 0\n do {\n $num3 = $random.Next(0, $Length)\n } while (![char]::IsLetterOrDigit($array2[$num3]))\n $array2[$num3] = $global:punctuations[$random.Next(0, $global:punctuations.Length)]\n }\n }\n\n $text = [string]::new($array2)\n } while ((Get-IsDangerousString -s $text -matchIndex ([ref]$matchIndex)))\n }\n\n End {\n return $text\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nResult<\/h3>\n
![\"New-StrongPassword\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell-community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/69\/2023\/05\/Result-1.png\")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
Links<\/h2>\n
\n