Save firefox profile to 7zip file

bgstack15 — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 14:09:46 GMT

Because one of my workstations is a non-persistent environment, I wrote a script to backup my Firefox profile. It uses a few tricks to do what I want it to do-- serialize the filename, and encrypt even the filenames in the compressed file.

# File: \\storage2\c$\users\bgstack15\u_drive\vdi\save-firefox.ps1
# License: CC-BY-SA 4.0
# Author: bgstack15
# Startdate: 2019-11-05 11:24
# Title: Script that Saves Firefox Profile from VDI
# Purpose: Backup the entire Firefox directory because the VDI has nonpersistent sessions
# History:
# Usage:
# Reference:
#    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20886243/press-any-key-to-continue/20886446#20886446
#    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28352141/convert-a-secure-string-to-plain-text/28353003#28353003
# Improve:
# Documentation:
#  Assumptions:
#   The network location  has already been accessed, particularly because this script is hosted there and we need to dump a file there without having to authenticate.
#   7zip is installed in the VDI

# Define variables
# it is assumed I already access this network location so I do not need to authenticate
$outdir = "\\storage2\c$\users\bgstack15\u_drive\vdi"
$7z = "${env:ProgramFiles}\7-zip\7z.exe"
$today = Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd
$indir = "${env:APPDATA}\Mozilla\Firefox"

# Functions
Function MyWait {
   Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Press any key to continue...'
   $null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey('NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown')
}

Function ToPlainText {
    param(
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true)]$inSecureString
    )
    #$inSecureString = ConvertTo-SecureString $PlainPassword
    $BSTR = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($inSecureString)
    $outPlainString = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)
    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ZeroFreeBSTR($BSTR)
    Return $outPlainString
}

######
# Main

# learn filename to use
$outfile = $outdir + "\firefox." + $today
# if file exists, change name.
$num=0
while (Test-Path "${outfile}.${num}.7z")
{
   write-Host "Incrementing because ${outfile}.${num}.7z exists..."
   $num++;
}
$outfile="${outfile}.${num}.7z"

# prompt for password
$pass1 = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Generate a password"
$pass2 = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Enter the password again"

# validate passwords
if (($pass1 | ToPlainText) -ne ($pass2 | ToPlainText))
{
   Write-Error -Category InvalidData -ErrorId "PasswordsMismatched" "Passwords do not match. Aborted."
   Exit 1
}
$passparam="-p$($pass1 | ToPlainText)"

# archive
Write-Host "$7z" -ArgumentList $passparam,"a","${outfile}",$indir
Start-Process -Wait -NoNewWindow "$7z" -ArgumentList "-mhe=on","$passparam","a","${outfile}",$indir

Ssh use 7z with password and suppress password echo

bgstack15 — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:39:23 GMT

If you want to use 7z with a password, over ssh, by default the password will be displayed! Suppress it with ssh -t. I don't know why. Here's the relevant section of the man page for ssh.

     -t      Force pseudo-terminal allocation.  This can be used to execute arbitrary screen-based programs on a remote machine, which
             can be very useful, e.g. when implementing menu services.  Multiple -t options force tty allocation, even if ssh has no
             local tty.

Knowledge Base (Posts about 7zip)

Save firefox profile to 7zip file

Ssh use 7z with password and suppress password echo