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mnadjit/PS_Encrypting_Data.md

Last active January 24, 2022 07:08
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PowerShell - Using certificates to encrypt documents or data
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PS_Encrypting_Data.md

Creating the certificate

Pick a domain name which can be anything and also a friendly name

  • $domainName = "me@domain"
  • $friendlyName = "Give it a name"

Create the certificate

  • $cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddYears(2) -DnsName $domainName -CertStoreLocation Cert:\CurrentUser\My -KeyUsage KeyAgreement,KeyEncipherment,DataEncipherment -Type DocumentEncryptionCert -FriendlyName $friendlyName

Create a backup

  • $certThumprint=(Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\CurrentUser\My\ | Where { $_.FriendlyName -eq $friendlyName }).Thumbprint
  • With Password
    • Export-PfxCertificate -Cert Cert:\CurrentUser\My\$certThumprint -FilePath $env:USERPROFILE\Certificates\MyDocEncCert.pfx -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText 'password123!' -Force)
  • Without Password
    • Export-Certificate -Cert $cert -FilePath $env:USERPROFILE\certificates\mycertFilename.cer -Type CERT

Encrypt some text using the certificate

  • $outFile=$env:USERPROFILE\encryptedFile.txt
  • "text to be encrypted" | Protect-CmsMessage -To cn=$domainName | Out-File $outFile
  • "text to be encrypted" | Protect-CmsMessage -To $cert
  • "text to be encrypted" | Protect-CmsMessage -To (Get-Item Cert:\CurrentUser\My\$($cert.Thumbprint))

Decrypt using the certificate (no need to specify the certificate)

  • Unprotect-CmsMessage -Path $EncryptedFilePath
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