PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition

Chapter 17. PowerShell security

This chapter covers

• Command execution
• Script signing
• Execution policy

Security is important in any computer software, and PowerShell is no exception. That said, you may have some confusion about what PowerShell’s security is meant to accomplish. We’ll clear that up in this chapter.

17.1. PowerShell security goals

Let’s start by defining exactly what PowerShell’s security is meant to accomplish and outlining a few things that it’s explicitly not intended to provide.

PowerShell’s only security goal is to prevent an uninformed user from unintentionally executing scripts. That’s it. The goal is to try to stop PowerShell from becoming an easy source for malicious scripts, as VBScript was back in the days of ...