How to pipe binary data in PowerShell

Question

I tried to extract the Master Boot Record (MBR) via mmcat.exe in PowerShell and PowerShell ISE (Version 5.1.1). The outputted binary data is always bigger than 512 bytes. PowerShell 6.1.1 has still this problem.

$mmcat = "C:\Tools\sleuthkit\bin\mmcat.exe"
& $mmcat -t dos "$EWF_IMAGE" 0 > "$OUTPUT\Disk-Geometry\MBR.bin"

The issue is well decribed here: PowerShell’s Object Pipeline Corrupts Piped Binary Data

Do you know a workaround for this?

> uses default UTF encoding. Did you try & $mmcat -t dos "$EWF_IMAGE" 0 | "$OUTPUT\Disk-Geometry\MBR.bin" -encoding Ascii ? — Lieven Keersmaekers
– Lieven Keersmaekers, Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 6:59
I tested it one minute ago...the output is 514 bytes. I tested also earlier -Encoding oem. — user3022917
– user3022917, Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 7:14
I played with -NoNewLine and -Encoding ascii & -Encoding oem...when the output has 512 bytes...for example the MBR Signature (55 AA) at the end is wrong. — user3022917
– user3022917, Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 7:59
For posterity (because I constantly re-google the github issue) here is the open ticket — Hashbrown
– Hashbrown, Commented Nov 5, 2022 at 3:32

dns · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-17 11:56:09Z

4

PowerShell 7 support -AsByteStream to pipe binary data:

Get-Content -AsByteStream .\original.bin | Set-Content -AsByteStream .\copied-file.bin

If you want to concatenate binary file use Add-Content:

Get-Content -AsByteStream .\original.bin | Add-Content -AsByteStream .\appended-file.bin

answered Sep 17, 2022 at 11:56

dns

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3 Comments

js2010 Over a year ago

PS 5 has get-content -encoding byte

dns Over a year ago

@js2010 The future PowerShell version will not support -Encoding Byte. It's replaced by -AsByteStream

Mattwmaster58 Jun 16 at 21:11

The question title is how to pipe binary data. This works when you want to output to a file but I can't get it to work for piping to another program for example

SATO Yusuke · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-04 13:31:55Z

2

You can't pipe binary data in PowerShell. To work around, use cmd.exe like this:

$command = "C:\Tools\sleuthkit\bin\mmcat.exe -t dos `"$EWF_IMAGE`" 0 > `"$OUTPUT\Disk-Geometry\MBR.bin`""
cmd /c $command

You can read binary data like this:

[byte[]]$mbr = Get-Content -Path $OUTPUT\Disk-Geometry\MBR.bin -Encoding Byte

answered Aug 4, 2020 at 13:31

SATO Yusuke

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