PowerShell's admin-lite scheme is an open door

Microsoft's PowerShell feature “Just Enough Administration” (JEA) is, apparently, “way too much administration” according to researcher Matt Weeks.

In this write-up of JEA, root9B and Metasploit module developer Weeks says JEA profiles aren't much of a barrier, since people with JEA profiles can escalate themselves to sysadmin status. Cutting to the conclusion:

    “Every JEA profile I had found Microsoft has published can be bypassed to obtain complete system administrative rights, most of them immediately, reliably, and without requiring any special configuration.”

The idea with JEA is to provide granular administrative profile management – a good thing, if only it worked out that way.