wilsonfisk77 / hiddenrun

Run something completely hidden from the end-user.

This vbscript will run any command hidden. Using Windows Scripting Host (WSH) is the only native Windows way to run a script completely hidden. Alternatively, you could compile and EXE, but ... meh. PowerShell doesn't run things hidden yet; since -WindowStyle Hidden isn't sufficient. Hopefully we'll have a pwshw.exe soon and this repo can be antiquated.

If you're wanting to run PowerShell hidden, try HiddenPowershell for more terse execution.

Usage

Download HiddenRun.vbs

I suggest grabbing it at boot with a startup script, via GPO. Users won't see the the powershell console of a startup script, so it's not invasive. Be sure to adjust the $path:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoProfile -NonInteractive -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "$path = 'C:\Temp'; [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UNT-CAS/HiddenRun/v1.0/HiddenRun.vbs' -OutFile ('{0}\HiddenRun.vbs' -f $path) -UseBasicParsing"

‼️ Wherever you put it, be sure users can read, but not write to it.

Be sure you check for the latest release. I don't expect a lot of changes to this script, but now that it's open source ... who knows?

I know this seems simple, but pratical implementation is usually a bit more complex. Here's how I've made it happen.

Execute Command

Do not use cscript.exe; it will cause a console window to appear.

wscript.exe HiddenRun.vbs C:\Temp\CustomFoo.bat

This Will run your custom batch script in a completely hidden console by calling the batch script like this:

C:\Temp\CustomFoo.bat

If you have machines that have Windows Scripting Host (WSH) file extensions (like .vbs) disassociated from WSH; then you will need to add the //E:vbscript parameter:

wscript.exe //E:vbscript HiddenRun.vbs ...

Logging

Logging is done to Event Viewer. There will be two events for every run of the script. One at the start of the run, and the other at the completion/finish. The details of the logs are:

• Event Path: Windows Logs\Application
• Source: WSH
• Event ID: Depends on Status
  • Success: 0 Script Finished; Command Exited with 0.
  • Error: 1 Script Finished; Command Exited with something other than 0.
  • Information: 4 Script Starting

Start

The Event ID of the starting message will always be 4 (informational). Here's an example of what that will look like:

HiddenRun Running: 
	C:\Temp\HiddenRun.vbs
	C:\Temp\CustomFoo.bat

Finish

The Event ID of the finished message will be 0 (success). If your command exits with a non-zero exit code, the Event ID will be 1 (error).

Here's an example of what a success looks like; Event ID is 0:

HiddenRun Exited: 
	C:\Temp\HiddenRun.vbs
	C:\Temp\CustomFoo.bat
	Exit Code: 0

Here's an example of what an error looks like; Event ID is 1:

HiddenRun Exited: 
	C:\Temp\HiddenRun.vbs
	C:\Temp\CustomFoo.bat
	Exit Code: -1