What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with PowerShell, provides an introduction to PowerShell, exploring its history and highlighting its relevance in cybersecurity. You will learn about Object-Oriented Programming principles, key concepts such as the execution policy and the help system, and the security features introduced in each PowerShell version.

Chapter 2, PowerShell Scripting Fundamentals, covers the PowerShell scripting essentials, including variables, data types, operators, control structure conditions and loops, and naming conventions. The chapter also explores PowerShell profiles, PSDrives, and creating reusable code with cmdlets, functions, modules, and aliases.

Chapter 3, Exploring PowerShell Remote Management Technologies and PowerShell Remoting, dives into some of PowerShell’s remote management technologies, such as WinRM, WMI, CIM, OMI, SSH remoting, and, of course, PowerShell remoting. You will learn how to configure PowerShell remoting to establish remote connections, create custom endpoints, and execute PowerShell commands remotely.

Chapter 4, Detection – Auditing and Monitoring, explores the importance of logging for effective detection and monitoring in PowerShell environments. You will learn about essential log files, logging features such as module and script block logging, protected event logging, PowerShell transcripts, and how to analyze event logs using PowerShell.

Chapter 5, PowerShell Is Powerful – System and API Access, explores PowerShell’s system and API access capabilities. You will learn about working with the Windows registry, employing the Windows API, utilizing .NET classes for advanced techniques, and leveraging the power of WMI. The chapter also covers how to execute PowerShell without directly invoking powershell.exe.

Chapter 6, Active Directory – Attacks and Mitigation, explores AD security, including authentication protocols, enumeration, privileged accounts, password spraying, access rights, credential theft risks, and mitigation strategies. We will also look at Microsoft security baselines and the Security Compliance Toolkit.

Chapter 7, Hacking the Cloud – Exploiting Azure Active Directory/Entra ID, delves into Azure AD/Entra ID and explores its authentication mechanisms, privileged accounts, PowerShell access, and various attack vectors. You will gain insights into techniques such as anonymous enumeration, password spraying, and credential theft in Azure AD, along with mitigation strategies.

Chapter 8, Red Team Tasks and Cookbook, introduces you to the phases of an attack and common PowerShell red team tools. The chapter then provides a red team cookbook with various recipes, sorted by MITRE ATT&CK areas, such as reconnaissance, execution, persistence, defense evasion, credential access, discovery, lateral movement, command and control, exfiltration, and impact.

Chapter 9, Blue Team Tasks and Cookbook, focuses on blue team tasks and provides a cookbook of practical PowerShell code snippets. It first introduces the “protect, detect, respond” approach and highlights common PowerShell blue team tools. The cookbook provides a variety of blue team recipes, such as examining installed and missing updates, monitoring and preventing bypasses, isolating compromised systems, and analyzing and managing processes, services, and network connections.

Chapter 10, Language Modes and Just Enough Administration (JEA), first explores language modes in PowerShell and their impact on script execution. It then focuses on JEA, enabling administrators to delegate specific tasks to non-admin users using role-based access control. The chapter explains JEA in detail, including role capability and session configuration files, logging, and best practices, and provides guidance on how to efficiently deploy JEA.

Chapter 11, AppLocker, Application Control, and Code Signing, dives into application control and code signing, focusing on preventing unauthorized script execution, planning for application control, and deploying mechanisms such as Microsoft AppLocker and Windows Defender Application Control. It also explores virtualization-based security and the impact on PowerShell when application control is enforced.

Chapter 12, Exploring the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), covers the AMSI, exploring its functionality and purpose. It provides practical examples to demonstrate the importance of the AMSI in detecting malicious activities. The chapter also discusses various techniques that adversaries use to bypass and disable AMSI, including obfuscation and Base64 encoding.

Chapter 13, What Else? – Further Mitigations and Resources, provides an overview of the additional PowerShell-related mitigations and resources to enhance your security, such as secure scripting, Desired State Configuration, hardening systems and environments, and Endpoint Detection and Response.