SharePoint Online CSOM default credentials

Question

I'm using the following SharePoint Online CSOM powershell that connects to my Office 365 tenant (E3). I'm using the Read-host to enter the password when I run the script and the script works fine...

If I plan to execute the script unattended (task scheduler) on a daily/weekly how do I authenticate without manual entering the password or how can I use the default network credentials to authenticate O365?

I don't want to hard-code password in the script file. I hope this is a very common scenario...

Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
$siteUrl = "https://contoso.sharepoint.com"
$adminUsername = "[email protected]"
$secureAdminPassword = Read-Host -AsSecureString "please enter password"
$credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($adminUsername, $secureAdminPassword)

Answer 1

We've done it similar to this for remote scripting by service accounts:

• Log into your server as the service account
• Execute a script similar to this:

$cred = get-credential
$cred | Export-clixml c:\some\path

• Update your powershell profile or include in your script with:

$credential = Import-Clixml  "C:\some\path\securePassword.xml"

• Set up any scheduled scripts and utilize $credential.Username and $credential.Password like:

  $credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($credential.UserName, $credential.Password)

The file is encrypted using a cert of the user who created the credential. So if using for it automation, make sure to create cred using the account that will be accessing the file.

Answer 2

This is covered by the Office Dev Patterns and Practices group. Read the section "Setting Up Credentials" in this repo.

https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP-PowerShell

Answer 3

Sorry I'm late, but still high in search results...

1) Add credentials as generic Windows Credential in Credential Manager. [https://github.com/SharePoint/PnP-PowerShell/wiki/How-to-use-the-Windows-Credential-Manager-to-ease-authentication-with-PnP-PowerShell]

2) Install SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline [https://github.com/SharePoint/PnP-PowerShell/releases]

3) The PS code:

$cred = Get-PnPStoredCredential -Name <WindowCredLabel> -Type PSCredential $credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($cred.UserName, $cred.Password)

Answer 4

You can convert to secure string

$plainPassword = "Plain text"
$secureString = ConvertTo-SecureString $plainPassword -AsPlainText -Force