XML in PowerShell

Penetration testing is a crucial activity in cybersecurity that involves simulating real-world attacks to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a system or network. PowerShell, a versatile scripting language native to the Windows environment, is a valuable tool for penetration testers due to its flexibility, extensive automation capabilities, and ability to interact with various data formats, including XML. In this section, we will explore how PowerShell can be used to handle XML data as part of penetration testing. We will cover scenarios such as parsing XML files, extracting valuable information from XML nodes, and manipulating XML payloads for testing purposes.

Reading and parsing XML files

Penetration testers often encounter XML files containing configuration data or other sensitive information. PowerShell provides a simple way to read and parse XML files using the Get-Content cmdlet in conjunction with the Select-Xml cmdlet. Let’s read and parse...