[SOLVED] Window Powershell credential request is unnecessary. How to avoid that?

Issue

The following Powershell script is prompting the credentials to the user but I am sending all the necessary information to execute the ssh session connection.

What can I change to remove the user prompt request?

$sshParams = @{
    Credential="user_name"    
    HostName = $sshHostName
    KeyFile = $sshIdentityFile # .pem file
}

$sshSession = New-SSHSession @sshParams

if ($null -ne $sshSession) {
    Write-Output "Connected to $sshHost"
}
else {
    $errorMessage = "SSH connection failed!"
    Write-Output $errorMessage
    throw $errorMessage
}

Write-Output "Closing SSH session..."
Remove-SSHSession -SessionId $sshSession.SessionId

User Prompt Request:

After click Ok with no password the connection works fine => Promt is unnecessary!

I need to execute the script with no Windows Prowershell credential request.

Solution

This is the behavior you can expect from a parameter with type pscredential or a parameter decorated with the Credential Attribute, if you supply a string to it it will automatically prompt you for a password:

function Test-Param {
    param([pscredential] $Credential)
}

Test-Param -Credential willPromptForPassword

If you want the cmdlet to not prompt for a password then you need to construct the pscredential beforehand and pass it as argument. For example:

function Test-Param {
    param([pscredential] $Credential)
}

$credential = [pscredential]::new(
    'doesNotPromptForPassword',
    (ConvertTo-SecureString 'thePassword' -AsPlainText -Force))

Test-Param -Credential $credential

As for the code you currently have, I have not personally used New-SSHSession but reading the documentation states the following:

If a key file is used the password field is used for the Key pass phrase.

Unfortunately the documentation for this cmdlet only has 1 example and is not a particularly clear.

---

EDIT: OP has confirmed that the issue was solved by using an empty password:

$credential = [pscredential]::new(
    'user_name',
    [securestring]::new())

$sshParams = @{
    Credential = $credential
    HostName   = $sshHostName
    KeyFile    = $sshIdentityFile # .pem file
}

$sshSession = New-SSHSession @sshParams

Answered By - Santiago Squarzon

Answer Checked By - David Goodson (WPSolving Volunteer)