Convert PowerShell script into non-readable format

Question

I have a PowerShell script which installs a patch (contains set of files to be added) on a customer machine. For this, I have created a batch file which executes this PowerShell script.
For the customer to run this batch file, the PowerShell script file must be placed onto the customer machine as well.

The PowerShell script is in text format, which can be read and understood by the customer easily.

Can we convert this script file into some non-readable format (e.g. bin or exe), so that it is not readable by the customer?

If money is no object, get Powershell Studio from Sapien. It's got a one button compile option and I've built all sorts of crappy little GUI.EXE's with it. — Knuckle-Dragger
– Knuckle-Dragger, Commented Jan 6, 2014 at 7:16
Is your goal to obscure the script content from the customer, or to prevent them from altering it? — alroc
– alroc, Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 19:43

user189198 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-06 05:42:48Z

8

You can convert the script to Base64 encoding, so that it's not immediately readable. To convert a PowerShell script file to a Base64 String, run the following command:

$Base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('c:\path\to\script file.ps1'));

To launch the Base64-encoded script, you can call PowerShell.exe as follows:

powershell.exe -EncodedCommand <Base64String>

For example, the following command:

powershell.exe -EncodedCommand VwByAGkAdABlAC0ASABvAHMAdAAgAC0ATwBiAGoAZQBjAHQAIAAiAEgAZQBsAGwAbwAsACAAdwBvAHIAbABkACEAIgA7AA==

Will return the following results:

Hello, world!

answered Jan 6, 2014 at 5:42

user189198

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3 Comments

Knuckle-Dragger Over a year ago

For additional security maybe I would compress to gzip before encoding to base64. Then only decrypt in RAM via System.IO.MemoryStream and System.IO.Compression.GZipStream making it one step harder for customer's to read.

Nipun Over a year ago

Base64 encoding won't be a good solution in my case because I have multiple ps1 files which are dependent on each other and are big in size.

user1156544 Over a year ago

This failed for me, I had to use Frimlik solution (with encoding)

Frimlik · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-15 16:55:50Z

5

I tried the solution proposed by @TrevorSullivan, but it gave me error

The term '????' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function,
script file or operable program...

As I found out later there was a problem with bad encoding. I found somewhere another approach and when I combined those two, I got working PS command:

$Base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText("script.ps1")))

Then I can redirect the result to file:

$Base64 > base64Script.txt

from where I just copy the encoded command and paste it here instead of <Base64String>:

powershell.exe -EncodedCommand <Base64String>

and it works without any problem.

answered Nov 15, 2016 at 16:55

Frimlik

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Comments

Orlando Hernandez · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-10 20:15:17Z

Thanks guys for your posts. I took @Frimlik's post and created my own script to automate the process. I hope this helps someone. Save the script to a ps1 file and run it.

Function Get-FileName($initialDirectory)
{
    [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") | Out-Null    
    $OpenFileDialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
    $OpenFileDialog.initialDirectory = $initialDirectory
    $OpenFileDialog.ShowDialog() | Out-Null
    $OpenFileDialog.filename
}

Function EncodePS1ToBat {
    $ScriptToEncode = Get-FileName
    # Encode the script into the variable $Base64
    $Base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($ScriptToEncode)))

    # Get the path and name to be used as output
    $filePath = Split-Path $ScriptToEncode -Parent
    $fileName = (Split-Path $ScriptToEncode -Leaf).Split(".")[0]

    # Output the encoded script into a batch file on the same directory of the origial script
    "@echo off`n powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -EncodedCommand  $Base64"  | 
    Out-File -FilePath "$filePath\$fileName`_Encoded.bat" -Force -Encoding ascii
}
# Call the funtion to encode the script to a batch file
EncodePS1ToBat

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