Using formatted PS JSON in play.

kzersatz · November 5, 2020, 10:16pm

So i’m having difficulties and am quite stuck…

My goal is to capture details from a UNC paths NTFS ACLS.

Important details are below.

name: Teach him to fish - Run it
win_shell: |
. C:\Temp\grp_enum.ps1

enumerate -path “{{ path }}”
become: yes
become_method: runas
vars:
ansible_become_user: ‘{{ h_become_user }}’
ansible_become_pass: ‘{{ h_become_pass }}’
register: fishing

name: process fish
set_fact:
chum: “{{ fishing.stdout | from_json }}”
name: plate SamAccountName’s
set_fact:
caughtfish: “{{ chum | json_query(jmesquery) }}”
vars:
jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’
name: serve samaccountnames
debug:
msg: " Fucking output something already! {{caughtfish}}"

Spits out JSON formatted
“ansible_facts”: {
“chum”: [
{
“DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME\, FIRSTNAME (USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”,
“SamAccountName”: “USN123”
},
{
“DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME1\, FIRSTNAME1 (USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”,
“SamAccountName”: “USN234”
}
]
},

Yet no matter how I skin this fish…

PLATES results

ok: [l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net] => {
“ansible_facts”: {
“caughtfish”: “”
},
“changed”: false
}

SERVES results

ok: [l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net] => {
“msg”: " Fucking output something already! "
}

I can’t get this thing to give me any data, what so ever…

P.s. google groups sucks in conversion, no format as code is a sin.

Dick_Visser · November 6, 2020, 6:09am

So i’m having difficulties and am quite stuck…

My goal is to capture details from a UNC paths NTFS ACLS.

Important details are below.

name: Teach him to fish - Run it
win_shell: |
. C:\Temp\grp_enum.ps1

enumerate -path “{{ path }}”
become: yes
become_method: runas
vars:
ansible_become_user: ‘{{ h_become_user }}’
ansible_become_pass: ‘{{ h_become_pass }}’
register: fishing

name: process fish
set_fact:
chum: “{{ fishing.stdout | from_json }}”

name: plate SamAccountName’s
set_fact:
caughtfish: “{{ chum | json_query(jmesquery) }}”
vars:
jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’

name: serve samaccountnames
debug:
msg: " Fucking output something already! {{caughtfish}}"

Spits out JSON formatted
“ansible_facts”: {
“chum”: [
{
“DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME\, FIRSTNAME (USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”,
“SamAccountName”: “USN123”
},
{
“DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME1\, FIRSTNAME1 (USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”,
“SamAccountName”: “USN234”
}
]
},

Yet no matter how I skin this fish…

PLATES results

ok: [l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net] => {
“ansible_facts”: {
“caughtfish”: “”
},
“changed”: false
}

SERVES results

ok: [l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net] => {
“msg”: " Fucking output something already! "
}

I can’t get this thing to give me any data, what so ever…

It does give you data, but judging from your comments, not the data you want, or in a different format. But it’s not clear what you want (‘skin fish’??).

What are you exactly looking for?
What is the expected result?

kzersatz · November 6, 2020, 2:08pm

No, pretty positive when I’m asking for the value of a variable, I’m expecting for more output than none.

name: plate SamAccountName’s
set_fact:
caughtfish: “{{ chum | json_query(jmesquery) }}”
vars:
jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’
name: serve samaccountnames
debug:
msg: " Fucking output something already! {{ caughtfish }}"

I’m mostly at a loss of what I’m doing wrong with json_query for it to net me … no results… each time when simply asking for it to query SamAccountName.
Either I’m grossly misunderstanding how it functions, or my data/query is boned.

kzersatz · November 6, 2020, 2:12pm

Also, the variable names are a bit eclectic I know, but…
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him for a fish, feed him for life.
Playbook name is fishing
chum the water
catch fish,

prep fish
serve fish,

silly I know, but it makes sense.

Dick_Visser · November 6, 2020, 3:50pm

It's not getting any clearer to me. Let's take some steps back. Please
confirm if I'm on the right track.

You end up with this data structure:

    "ansible_facts": {
        "chum": [
            {
                "DistinguishedName": "CN=LASTNAME\\, FIRSTNAME
(USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net",
                "SamAccountName": "USN123"
            },
            {
                "DistinguishedName": "CN=LASTNAME1\\, FIRSTNAME1
(USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net",
                "SamAccountName": "USN234"
            }
        ]
    },

Is that the correct data? I.e. does it contain everything you need?
And if so, what do you want to do/extract from this?
You want perhaps to end up with a list of the SamAccountNames, i.e.:

- USN123
- USN234

?
Or something entirely different?

kzersatz · November 6, 2020, 4:20pm

I want to get the samaccountnames in a dictionary list that I can then use in further plays, yes.

Dick_Visser · November 6, 2020, 5:04pm

You are already piping 'chum' to json_query, so it should not be part
of the query itself again.
Also, because it's a list, you need to select all entries first with .
And a relatively simple query like this doesn't need a dedicated variable.
Try this:

  - name: plate SamAccountName's
    set_fact:
      caughtfish: "{{ chum | json_query('.SamAccountName') }}"

kzersatz · November 6, 2020, 5:29pm

That absolutely worked and made a huge difference.

so using like that selects all entries from the variable being piped into it to query?
Is there literature I can read to help understand this facet better?

Thank you again!.

Dick_Visser · November 6, 2020, 6:39pm

https://jmespath.org/tutorial.html is a good start, the examples have
the data in editable forms, so you can quickly test things out.

For trial/error with complex data structures that come from
expensive/slow APIs or playbooks, I usually make a dummy playbook with
hard coded data, to focus on the json_query part itself, for example:

flowerysong1 · November 6, 2020, 6:59pm

json_query() is almost never needed, and adds a whole other language to learn (JMESPath) on top of the Jinja that you need to learn in order to use Ansible.

You can replace both of your set_fact calls with:

`

name: plate fish
set_fact:
caughtfish: “{{ fishing.stdout | from_json | map(attribute=‘SamAccountName’) | list }}”
`

See https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/templates/#map for more information on map().

vbotka · November 6, 2020, 11:33pm

FWIW, Let me add to this statement:

   "json_query() is almost never needed when the data is stored in
   lists. json_query() is essential when the data is stored in nested
   dictionaries."

Sometimes the result of using the nested dictionaries is a cleaner
code. Then json_query() is essential to help with searching. In other
words, without json_query() it might be a trade-off between a clean
code and optimal structure. See the examples below.

racke · November 7, 2020, 11:36am

Hello Vladimir,

thanks a lot for your exhaustive analysis of json_query vs. Jinja filters.

Very much appreciated!!

Regards
Racke

kzersatz · November 7, 2020, 5:00pm

Absolutely thank you for the breakdowns and information, I know I’ll be referencing this in the VERY near future

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Using formatted PS JSON in play.

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