Protect-CmsMessage
Encrypts content by using the Cryptographic Message Syntax format.
Syntax
Protect-CmsMessage
[-To] <CmsMessageRecipient[]>
[-Content] <PSObject>
[[-OutFile] <String>]
[<CommonParameters>]
Protect-CmsMessage
[-To] <CmsMessageRecipient[]>
[-Path] <String>
[[-OutFile] <String>]
[<CommonParameters>]
Protect-CmsMessage
[-To] <CmsMessageRecipient[]>
[-LiteralPath] <String>
[[-OutFile] <String>]
[<CommonParameters>]
Description
The Protect-CmsMessage
cmdlet encrypts content by using the Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)
format.
The CMS cmdlets support encryption and decryption of content using the IETF format as documented by RFC5652.
The CMS encryption standard uses public key cryptography, where the keys used to encrypt content (the public key) and the keys used to decrypt content (the private key) are separate. Your public key can be shared widely, and is not sensitive data. If any content is encrypted with this public key, only your private key can decrypt it. For more information, see Public-key cryptography.
Before you can run the Protect-CmsMessage
cmdlet, you must have an encryption certificate set up.
To be recognized in PowerShell, encryption certificates require a unique extended key usage
(EKU) ID to identify them as data encryption certificates (such as
the IDs for Code Signing and Encrypted Mail). For an example of a certificate that would work for
document encryption, see Example 1 in this topic.
Support for Linux and macOS was added in PowerShell 7.1.
Examples
Example 1: Create a certificate for encrypting content
Before you can run the Protect-CmsMessage
cmdlet, you must create an encryption certificate. Using
the following text, change the name in the Subject line to your name, email, or other identifier,
and save the certificate in a file (such as DocumentEncryption.inf
, as shown in this example).
# Create .INF file for certreq
{[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
[Strings]
szOID_ENHANCED_KEY_USAGE = "2.5.29.37"
szOID_DOCUMENT_ENCRYPTION = "1.3.6.1.4.1.311.80.1"
[NewRequest]
Subject = "[email protected]"
MachineKeySet = false
KeyLength = 2048
KeySpec = AT_KEYEXCHANGE
HashAlgorithm = Sha1
Exportable = true
RequestType = Cert
KeyUsage = "CERT_KEY_ENCIPHERMENT_KEY_USAGE | CERT_DATA_ENCIPHERMENT_KEY_USAGE"
ValidityPeriod = "Years"
ValidityPeriodUnits = "1000"
[Extensions]
%szOID_ENHANCED_KEY_USAGE% = "{text}%szOID_DOCUMENT_ENCRYPTION%"
} | Out-File -FilePath DocumentEncryption.inf
# After you have created your certificate file, run the following command to add
# the certificate file to the certificate store. Now you are ready to encrypt and
# decrypt content with the next two examples.
certreq.exe -new DocumentEncryption.inf DocumentEncryption.cer
Example 2: Encrypt a message sent by email
$Protected = "Hello World" | Protect-CmsMessage -To "*[email protected]*"
In the following example, you encrypt a message, "Hello World", by piping it to the
Protect-CmsMessage
cmdlet, and then save the encrypted message in a variable. The To parameter
uses the value of the Subject line in the certificate.
Example 3: View document encryption certificates
PS C:\> cd Cert:\CurrentUser\My
PS Cert:\CurrentUser\My> Get-ChildItem -DocumentEncryptionCert
To view document encryption certificates in the certificate provider, you can add the DocumentEncryptionCert dynamic parameter of Get-ChildItem, available only when the certificate provider is loaded.
Parameters
-Content
Specifies a PSObject that contains content that you want to encrypt. For example, you can
encrypt the content of an event message, and then use the variable containing the message ($Event
,
in this example) as the value of the Content parameter:
$event = Get-WinEvent -ProviderName "PowerShell" -MaxEvents 1
. You can also use the Get-Content
cmdlet to get the contents of a file, such as a Microsoft Word document, and save the content in a
variable that you use as the value of the Content parameter.
Type: | PSObject |
Position: | 1 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | True |
Accept pipeline input: | True |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-LiteralPath
Specifies the path to content that you want to encrypt. Unlike Path, the value of LiteralPath is used exactly as it is typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcards. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.
Type: | String |
Position: | 1 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | True |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-OutFile
Specifies the path and file name of a file to which you want to send the encrypted content.
Type: | String |
Position: | 2 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Path
Specifies the path to content that you want to encrypt.
Type: | String |
Position: | 1 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | True |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-To
Specifies one or more CMS message recipients, identified in any of the following formats:
- An actual certificate (as retrieved from the certificate provider).
- Path to the file containing the certificate.
- Path to a directory containing the certificate.
- Thumbprint of the certificate (used to look in the certificate store).
- Subject name of the certificate (used to look in the certificate store).
Type: | CmsMessageRecipient[] |
Position: | 0 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | True |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |