Adding a secret to an Azure Key Vault

An Azure Key Vault is a great location for storing credential securely. In a recent article I cover how to:

next, I want to cover how you can actually put credentials in there.

Step one is to navigate the Azure Key Vault you have created, and select the Secrets option from the menu on the left as shown above. From the menu on the right select +Generate/Import as shown.

Simply complete the fields as shown and select the Create button at the bottom of the window.

You will note that your secret (say a password) has a Name and potentially an activation and expiration date if desired. You can also enable or disable if desired.

You should now see that the secret has been created as shown above. To view the details simply click on the secret.

Here you’ll now see all the details about the secret. The good thing about information about an Azure Key Vault credential is that you can easily update it if required and previous versions will be retained. You can also control access to this individual secret via the Access control (IAM) on the menu on the left hand side.

If you now select the Current version displayed in the middle of the page you will get more details like so:

Here, you can update the settings for secret as well as reveal what the secret is by selecting the Show Secret Value button as shown.

You see the super secret password shown above.

One of the main reasons reasons for using an Azure Key Vault is that we can access this information also programmatically, for example by using PowerShell.

If I connect to Azure using the Azure PowerShell module with a user that has rights to access the vault and secret, I can run a command like:

get-azkeyvaultsecret -vaultname “vaultname” -name “secretname”

and the results will be shown above. But how do I get to the actual secret?

Basically, you repeat the previous command but this time assign it to a variable and add the –asplaintext option, like shown above. The command would look like:

$pwd = get-azkeyvaultsecret -vaultname “vaultname” -name “secretname” –asplaintext

Now the secret value (say password) is in the variable $pwd for use in my code.

PowerShell is not the only method you can use to obtain what is in an Azure Key Vault. You can use something like Power Automate and Flow, which I’ll cover off in an upcoming articles. However, PowerShell allows just about any function with vaults including creating, reading, deleting, updating and so on. Thus, using an Azure Key Vault provides a secure yet flexible method of storing credentials you want to protect as well as make potentially portable (i.e. you can use them anywhere on any device that runs PowerShell and connect to the internet).

So an Azure Key Vault provides secure storage for credentials that you can easily access programmatically using something like PowerShell and Power Automate. What can now be achieved with this? Stay tuned to find out more.

Run on demand PowerShell scripts from Intune

Microsoft Intune now has the ability to run ‘on demand’ PowerShell scripts on devices. My video above takes you through the basics of uploading your scripts to Intune and then executing them on a device.

The direct video URL is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YKN5dq1HxA

Connect to PnP PowerShell script

The latest pnp.powershell module (V2.X and above) now won’t work with PowerShell v5. Thus, I have updated my PnP connection script:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/o365-connect-pnp.ps1

to accommodate this.

Thus, if you attempt to run this script in PowerShell version 5 with the latest pnp.powershell module you will typically see:

and the error is:

Could not load file or assembly ‘System.Management.Automation, Version=7.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

However, when you run the script in PowerShell V7 you’ll see:

that the connection is successful.

I have also taken the opportunity to remove the dependency in the script as well on the now depreciated module MSONLINE and replaced it the Microsoft.Graph module.

This kind of signals the beginning of the end for modern cloud modules in PowerShell 5. However, some still require PowerShell 5 but I expect that to change.

In summary, the latest pnp.powershell modules require PowerShell version 7 and I have updated my connection script to accommodate this.

PowerShell connection to M365 Compliance center no longer users WinRM

For the longest time, if you needed to connect to the Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance center with PowerShell you needed to allow WinRM to use basic authentication.

If you therefore ran my connection script:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/o365-connect-sac.ps1

you’d see the above error if you didn’t have WinRM enabled for basic authentication.

Having WinRM enabled with basic authentication is not a best practice for security, and I’m happy to report that if you update you ExchangeOnlineManagement PowerShell to version 3.2.0 you’ll now no longer need WinRM at all!

My connection script will auto update your environment for you when it runs.

I’m glad to see this update as it means I can again connect to the Microsoft Security and Compliance center in my locked down environment.

Get Teams Meeting Attendees via PowerShell and the Microsoft Graph

Here’s a handy way to get a list of attendees in Microsoft Teams using PowerShell. I have uploaded the script to do this here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/tms-attend-get.ps1

Before you run the script you’ll need to have the Graph PowerShell module installed.

You’ll also need to set some variable values for your own environment in the script. You can do this by locating $tenantid in the script as shown above, and setting that to your own tenant URL. Then find $meetingjoinurl and set that to the URL for that meeting. Finally, set $useremail to the email address of the user who created the meeting.

The meeting URL is the link people selected to join the meeting as shown above. You’ll also find it in the configuration for the meeting.

With all those settings updated, when you run the script it should look something like shown above. The script will connect to the Microsoft Graph with the scopes required to read the meeting details. You may be requested to login to the tenant and then potentially consent to these scopes during the connection phase. The required scopes are:

OnlineMeetingArtifact.Read.All
OnlineMeetings.Read

The script will get the GUID of the creator of the meeting from the email you specified followed by the meeting id from the meeting join link you specified, then the report id for that meeting and finally the report details for the meeting. It will then display the email address (if recorded) of attendees as shown above.

Of course, you can just download the CSV meeting report from the Teams page I know, but this process will be first step in eventually using Power Automate to get meeting attendees and send them an automatic follow up after the meeting. Stay tuned for details on that coming soon. This is simply proof of concept and a handy option if you do indeed just want to use PowerShell to get a list of meeting attendees.

Using the Defender for Endpoint API and PowerShell (Updated)

A while back I wrote this post:

Using the Defender for Endpoint API and PowerShell

Problem is, the script that I developed:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/endpoint-api-svbm.ps1

now doesn’t seem to bring back any results!

It used the following API:

https://api.securitycenter.microsoft.com/api/machines/SoftwareVulnerabilitiesByMachine

which isn’t generating any data or any errors!

The above returned results shows a good status but the value of data is empty.

So for now I’ll have to assume that this API is unavailable. No fear I’ve developed a new script:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/mde-vul-get.ps1

which will not only list out the vulnerabilities but also export to a CSV file.

That allows you to sort and filter the results any way you wish.

To get the script working you still need the following API permissions for your Azure AD App with the WindowsDefenderATP API:

Application permissions = Vulnerability.Read.All

Application permissions = Machine.Read.All, Machine.ReadWrite.All

like so:

You also need to ensure you change the Azure AD App information in the script to match your own:

If you want to export more information you should be able to easily modify the script which firstly get the machine info and then the vulnerabilities on each.

Hopefully, this give people what they need until the original API comes back on line.

Getting started automating Microsoft 365 administration with the Graph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ypZGfifSQ

The Microsoft Graph is a unique and powerful way to administrate Microsoft 365. This session will provide you with a introduction to what the Microsoft Graph is, how to access it and how to use to improve the way you maybe currently administrating your customers environments. The session will also be jammed packed with live demonstrations and best practices for automating any Microsoft 365 environment. Save time, save money and save effort by viewing this session.

Inconsistent Intune PowerShell module results

If you run the command:

get-intuneconfigurationpolicy

you’d except to see all your Intune configuration policies displayed.

However, after connecting to the Microsoft Graph module you see that nothing is returned. My experience has also been receiving incomplete results using these commands.

What I have found is that using the Microsoft Graph directly by using commands like:

$uri = “https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/deviceManagement/deviceConfigurations/”

(Invoke-MSGraphRequest -Url $URI -HttpMethod GET).value

produces the desired results as shown above in the same environment.

So my tip is when working with Intune and Endpoint Manager with PowerShell is, use the Microsoft Grah directly to obtain and set the information you need.