The Bromium Platform has several hardware and software requirements to fully function on an endpoint. Since the Bromium Client itself does not check many of these requirements until after installation, it's difficult to know ahead of time what machines require remediation prior to deployment.
To address this issue, I wrote PowerShell scripts to take an inventory of machines in your environment and compile a report using minimal infrastructure.
Requirements
The solution is designed to be deployed without depending on an endpoint management or software delivery platform. It does however require a scheduled task to run the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 on each endpoint and a centralized file share where the script can save the collected inventory data. To summarize, the following components are necessary for this solution to work:
File Shares – Location for collected data
Scheduled Task – Executes the BromiumReadiness script
BromiumReadiness PowerShell script – Collects inventory data from endpoint
Compiler script – Aggregates collected data into a readable report
File Shares
The Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 collects inventory data from the endpoint, and although it could be stored on the machine itself, it would require a significant amount of overhead to log into each machine and gather the data. To facilitate a simpler method of data collection, the script is designed to write the inventory data to a centralized file share. This file share can be one that already exists in your environment or can be created for the purpose of this solution.
The example that I used to create the file share where the script will store inventory data has these properties:
Name of folder: TestShare
Name of share: TestShare
Share permissions: Allow: Change, Read
Folder permissions: Allow: Create files / write data, Create folders / append data
Figure 1 - Share Permissions: Allow: Change, Read
NOTE: The name TestShare is used as an example. A more descriptive name would be preferable
Figure 2 - Folder Permissions: Allow: Create files / write data, Create folders/append data
The other file share will be a network location where the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 PowerShell script can be stored for execution during the Scheduled Task. This file share can be a Read Only location as the script is only read from this location.
The example that I use for a file share location where I store this script is:
\dc01\ScriptShare\Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.ps1
Scheduled Task
Since there is no requirement to use a software delivery platform to deploy the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1, the simplest method for deployment and execution of the script is to use a Scheduled Task. Creating the scheduled task on each workstation would be time consuming and inefficient so the better approach would be to simply create the Scheduled Task through an Active Directory Computer Configuration GPO preference. An existing GPO or a new GPO can be used and needs to be linked to the OU or OUs that contain the workstations in the environment.
To create a Scheduled Task as a GPO preference, open the GPO using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Control Panel Settings > Scheduled Tasks
Figure 3 - GPO Preference - Scheduled Tasks
Right-Click “Scheduled Tasks” and choose New > Scheduled Task (Windows Vista and later)
A New Task (Windows Vista and later) Properties window should appear as follows:
Figure 4 - New Task (Windows Vista and later) Properties
Change the Action dropdown from Update to “Create” Under the General tab, the following parameters should be entered:
Name: Bromium Readiness
User Account: NT AUTHORITY\System
Security Options: Run whether user is logged on or not
Security Options: Run with highest privileges
Hidden: Enabled
Figure 5 - General tab
Under the Actions tab, click “New” then in the New Action window, enter the following:
Program/Script:
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Powershell.exe
Add Arguments(optional):
-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& '\\<>\Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.ps1' -CopyToLocation '\\dc01\testshare\'"
Figure 6 - New Action window
NOTE: The name of the file server and shares are used as an example. Your UNC path would include the location of the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 in a central file share and the data collection file share as created above. These UNC paths may not necessarily be the same.
Under the Triggers tab, click “New” then in the New Trigger window define the parameters for when to execute the scheduled task:
Figure 7 - New Trigger window
The script should be run at least once but it would be advised to not run the script continuously as the inventory data should only be necessary to collect information to assess the machine’s readiness to deploy the Bromium Client. It is not designed to be a maintenance task.
When the Scheduled Task executes, the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 PowerShell script will gather the required information from the endpoints, generate a tsv file, and copy the file to the file share you set after the “-CopyToLocation” parameter.
BromiumReadiness Script
This PowerShell script collects the inventory data from the endpoints and is contained here:
Figure 8 - BromiumReadiness script
Compiler Script
This PowerShell script aggregates the inventory data located in the file share from all of the individual tsv files generated from each endpoint into a single file that can be reviewed in Excel.
The Compiler_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 is contained within the zip file.
Figure 9 - Compiler script
It is preferable to keep the Compiler script in the same file share as the tsv files that are generated so that it can be run as needed.
Figure 10 - Compiler script stored in file share
To execute the compiler script, open Windows PowerShell and run:
.\Compiler_CDABromiumReadiness.ps1
A finished report will look like this:
Figure 11 - Finished report
Running Multiple Rounds of Readiness Checks (Optional)
If the Scheduled Task runs multiple times, it will overwrite the inventory data that was previously collected for the endpoints. To prevent the data from getting overwritten, a method to keep previous data collections would be to run multiple rounds of readiness checks. This could also be important in a situation where you need to run the inventory more than once and you expect different results.
To do this, simply add the -ReadinessCheckRound parameter to the end of the execution of the BromiumReadiness script with a number indicating the round. This parameter is set to 1 by default and tags the tsv files. Notice in the image that the number 1 precedes the device name:
Figure 12 - Round number in tsv file name
And here is an example of the command line to use. Change the command line in the scheduled task that was created in the GPO to include the -ReadinessCheckRound parameter.
-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command “& ‘\\dc01\ScriptShare\Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.ps1’ -CopyToLocation ‘\\dc01\testshare\'” -ReadinessCheckRound 2
When the scheduled task runs again, the Endpoint_CDABromiumReadiness.PS1 script will generate tsv files with the round number preceding the name of the device:
Figure 13 - TSV files with multiple rounds
Add the -ReadinessCheckRound parameter when executing the Compiler script and the new report generated will show only data from that round.
.\Compiler_CDABromiumReadiness.ps1 -ReadinessCheckRound 2
Figure 14 - Compiled report from round