Home » Security Bloggers Network » Remedying Shell Shock: Off the Script

Remedying Shell Shock: Off the Script

In this three-part blog series, we’ll solve the mystery of PowerShell and explain how to use it with JumpCloud. In Part 1, we’ll cover some history and give an overview of how you can use shells to automate processes and reduce the time you spend on routine tasks across your environment.

Shell Shock: History of Shells

Starting in IT (or in the world of technology), more and more technologists have become accustomed to an easy-to-follow and intuitive user interface. Look at any program or platform today and you’ll likely find a wide variety of visually captivating interfaces, intuitive reports, and interactive graphics. Although UIs make many tasks easier and are great for productivity, many tasks can only be done from the command line.

In the early 2000s, UIs were available but basic — think Windows 95 on a 10-inch CRT monitor in greyscale. Although UIs were the way of the future in those times, many generations of admins can relate to the old-school world of CLI, Unix systems, and DOS/C/K/Bash shells. Back in the day, this was the only method to interact with applications, systems, and platforms.

For newer admins and technologists accustomed to modern operating systems, the shell and command-line interfaces can create anxiety, hesitation, and habits of avoidance. The goal of this series is to make PowerShell less scary by giving you fundamental skills to help you get work done faster.

What the Heck is a Shell?

Programs and operating systems (OS) at their core are just many, many lines of code. The shell is just one way of interacting with the operating system or different resources within the OS. Shells can be either command-line interfaces (CLI) or graphical user interfaces (GUI). It is the outer interface (shell) to interact with the core OS or application.

If you used computers in the early- to mid-90s and ran a command line interface-only machine, that in its basic definition was interacting with a shell. Unix and Linux systems had variants of Bash, C shell, K shell, or Bourne shell (with many other alternatives as well). Microsoft had command line interfaces (Read more...)