Invoke-VMScriptPlus v2

The ability to execute scripts inside the guest OS of your VMs, is definitely one of the more useful cmdlets available in VMware PowerCLI. A year ago I published the first version of my Invoke-VMScriptPlus function to solve some of the issues the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet has in my opinion.
That function allowed you to run multi-line scripts in a Linux guest OS on your VMs. It also allowed you to use she-bang lines, to indicate which interpreter your script had to run in (bash, perl, python, nodejs, php…). Another handy feature was that you could use Linux here-documents in your scripts.

With the introduction of PowerShell Core (aka PowerShell v6), the lack of support for any Guest OS of the Windows family became obvious. Prompted by a recent thread in the VMTN PowerCLI Community, I decided it was time to publish a new version of my Invoke-VMScriptPlus function.

 

Update August 21st 2018

  • Added ScriptEnvironment

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Invoke-VMScriptPlus

The Invoke-VMScript cmdlet is definitely one of the PowerCLI cmdlets that is indispensable when you need to do things inside the Guest OS of your VMs.

When you are interacting with a Windows based Guest OS you can run old-fashioned BAT files or use PowerShell scripts. When the Guest OS is Linux based, you currently only can run Bash scripts.

Most Linux flavours have a feature that is called SheBang, and which allows you to specify in the first line of your bash script, which interpreter shall be used to run the following lines of the script. Unfortunately, the current Invoke-VMScript cmdlet doesn’t allow one to use that feature.

Time to tackle that issue, and expand the possibilities for all VMs that have a Linux-based Guest OS. So I decided to write my Invoke-VMScriptPlus function.

Update October 14th 2017

  • Added here-document bash sample

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PowerCLI and the Linux Shellshock vulnerability

With all the fuss going round about the latest Linux vulnerability you will probably get a request from your local Security Officer to produce a report which of your Linux systems are vulnerable to the Shellshock bug. And, seen there are already several known exploits, who can blame him for asking such a report.

shellshock-main

Since a lot of these Linux boxes are running under vSphere, we can use PowerCLI to produce such a report. The Invoke-VMScript cmdlet is the vehicle I use in the following function. With the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet it is very easy to execute, what is considered the best test to check for the vulnerability.

Update2 September 29 2014: the 2nd test from the Shellshocker gives a syntax error. The test is replaced by the one found on Michael Boelen‘s website in How to protect yourself against Shellshock Bash vulnerability. Big thanks to Wil van Antwerpen for the pointer.

Update1 September 29 2014: the function was updated to include tests for most of the known Shellshock vulnerabilities. The tests were collected from the Shellshocker site.
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