Forum Discussion
NimbostratusiControl ConnectionInfo Plain Text Password
I noticed that iControl stores the authentication credentials in plain text under ConnectionInfo. Is there a way to get iControl to use a secure string or something other than plain text for passwords?
Code for reference:
Add-PSSnapin -Name iControlSnapin
$F5Credentials = Get-Credential
Initialize-F5.iControl -Hostname $F5 -Username $F5Credentials.UserName -Password $F5Credentials.GetNetworkCredential().Password
$F5iControl = Get-F5.iControl
$F5iControl.ConnectionInfo2 Replies
There are several ways to pass in credentials
Initialize-F5.iControl -Hostname $host -Username $user -Password $pass Initialize-F5.iControl -Hostname $host -PSCredentials $ps_creds Initialize-F5.iControl -Hostname $host -Credentials $net_credsThe PSCredentials takes a PowerShell PSCredential object while the Credentials parameter takes a core .Net NetworkCredential object.
Hope this helps...
-Joe
iControl uses HTTP Authentication so the credentials need to be passed through the HTTPS connection to the BIG-IP in digest form. For that we need to have the clear text on the client. Perhaps someday the BIG-IP will support client side certs or a more advanced OAUTH type authentication but for now we are stuck with what the BIG-IP management port supports.
If you are concerned with persistence of the credentials in memory within the calling process, you can always create a iControl.Interfaces object (which the Initialize-F5.iControl cmdlet does internally) and then null out that object when you are done with calls.
$ic = New-Object iControl.Interfaces $ic.initialize(hostname, username, password) ... Do something with $ic ... $ic = $null;Get-F5.iControl just returns the internal iControl.Interfaces object.
-Joe
