Chapter 48: System.Diagnostics

Section 48.1: Run shell commands

string strCmdText = "/C copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg"; System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("CMD.exe",strCmdText);

This is to hide the cmd window.

System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process(); System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo(); startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";

startInfo.Arguments = "/C copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg"; process.StartInfo = startInfo;

process.Start();

Section 48.2: Send Command to CMD and Receive Output

This method allows a command to be sent to Cmd.exe, and returns the standard output (including standard error) as a string:

private static string SendCommand(string command)

{

var cmdOut = string.Empty;

var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", command)

var p = new Process {StartInfo = startInfo}; p.Start();

p.OutputDataReceived += (x, y) => cmdOut += y.Data; p.ErrorDataReceived += (x, y) => cmdOut += y.Data; p.BeginOutputReadLine();

p.BeginErrorReadLine(); p.WaitForExit(); return cmdOut;

}

Usage

var servername = "SVR-01.domain.co.za";

var currentUsers = SendCommand($"/C QUERY USER /SERVER:{servername}")

Output

string currentUsers = "USERNAME SESSIONNAME ID STATE IDLE TIME LOGON TIME Joe.Bloggs ica-cgp#0 2

Active 24692+13:29 25/07/2016 07:50 Jim.McFlannegan ica-cgp#1 3 Active . 25/07/2016 08:33 Andy.McAnderson ica-cgp#2 4 Active . 25/07/2016 08:54 John.Smith ica-cgp#4 5 Active 14 25/07/2016 08:57 Bob.Bobbington ica-cgp#5 6 Active 24692+13:29 25/07/2016 09:05 Tim.Tom ica-cgp#6 7 Active . 25/07/2016 09:08 Bob.Joges ica-cgp#7 8 Active 24692+13:29 25/07/2016 09:13"

On some occasions, access to the server in question may be restricted to certain users. If you have the login credentials for this user, then it is possible to send queries with this method:

private static string SendCommand(string command)

{

var cmdOut = string.Empty;

var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", command)

{

WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Windows\System32",

WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden, // This does not actually work in conjunction with "runas" - the console window will still appear!

UseShellExecute = false, CreateNoWindow = true, RedirectStandardOutput = true, RedirectStandardError = true,

Verb = "runas",

Domain = "doman1.co.za", UserName = "administrator", Password = GetPassword()

};

var p = new Process {StartInfo = startInfo};

p.Start();

p.OutputDataReceived += (x, y) => cmdOut += y.Data; p.ErrorDataReceived += (x, y) => cmdOut += y.Data; p.BeginOutputReadLine();

p.BeginErrorReadLine(); p.WaitForExit(); return cmdOut;

}

Getting the password:

static SecureString GetPassword()

{

var plainText = "password123"; var ss = new SecureString(); foreach (char c in plainText)

{

ss.AppendChar(c);

}

return ss;

}

Notes

Both of the above methods will return a concatenation of STDOUT and STDERR, as OutputDataReceived and ErrorDataReceived are both appending to the same variable - cmdOut.