powershell filterhashtable credential

Question

I'm having issues adding credentials to my code string. The purpose of this is to pull multiple logs and from a single machine and print out the logs in order of time. For some reason I can never get the get-winevent command to work once I add -credential. Any input is welcomed!

    $creds = Get-Credential -Message "Please enter creds"

    $Startdate = Read-Host -Prompt "Input your start date in the format     of  mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss am"


    Try{

    [DateTime]::Parse($Startdate, [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"))
    }
    Catch{

    Write-Host "This time format is incorrect."

    }

    $Enddate = Read-Host -Prompt "Input your end date in the format of mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss am"


    Try{

    [DateTime]::Parse($Enddate, [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"))
    }
    Catch{

    Write-Host "This time format is incorrect."

    }


    $Logs = @()
    do{
    $input = (Read-Host "Please enter in the name of a log")
    if($input -ne'') {$Logs += $input}
    }
    until($input -eq '')

    $table = foreach ($Log in $Logs)  
    { 

    Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName=$Log;StartTime=$Startdate;EndTime=$Enddate} -Credential $creds

    }  
    $table | sort TimeCreated  | Format-Table TimeCreated, Logname, Source, Message  -wrap

The error I'm currently receiving.

Get-WinEvent : Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation. At line:40 char:5 + Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName=$Log;StartTime=$Startdate ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-WinEvent], UnauthorizedAccessException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWinEventCommand

Answer 1

I think the error comes from not feeding the -FilterHashtable with the correct data types for $Startdate and $Enddate. You check if the users input is in a valid DateTime format, but the variables themselves remain Strings. The -FilterHashtable requires these parameters to be DateTime objects as shown in the below table:

Key name        Value data type
--------------- ---------------
LogName         <String[]>     
ProviderName    <String[]>     
Path            <String[]>     
Keywords        <Long[]>       
ID              <Int32[]>      
Level           <Int32[]>      
StartTime       <DateTime>     
EndTime         <DateTime>     
UserID          <SID>          
Data            <String[]>

Try this:

$creds = Get-Credential -Message "Please enter creds"

# Create variable for parsed start date
[datetime]$Startdate = Get-Date

do {
    $input = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter your start date. Use format 'mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss am'"
    # Check the user input
    $success = ([DateTime]::TryParse($input, 
                            [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"),
                            [System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles]::None,
                            [ref]$Startdate)) 
} while (!$success)

# Create variable for parsed end date
[datetime]$Enddate = Get-Date
do {
    $input = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter your end date. Use format 'mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss am'"
    # Check the user input
    $success = ([DateTime]::TryParse($input, 
                            [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"),
                            [System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles]::None,
                            [ref]$Enddate)) 
} while (!$success)

$Logs = @()
while ($true) {
    $logName = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter in the name of a log"
    if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($logName)) { break }
    $Logs += $logName
}

$table = foreach ($Log in $Logs) { 
    # note that we use [DateTime] objects $Startdate and $Enddate
    Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName=$Log;StartTime=$Startdate;EndTime=$Enddate} -Credential $creds
}  
$table | Sort-Object TimeCreated  | Format-Table TimeCreated, Logname, Source, Message -Wrap