powershell - How to pass credentials to the Send-MailMessage command for sending emails

Question

I'm having difficulty passing my credentials to the Send-MailMessage command

This is what I am running:

Send-MailMessage -smtpServer smtp.gmail.com -from 'myself@gmail.com' `
    -to 'myself@gmail.com' -subject 'Test' -attachment C:CDF.pdf

it errors with below the message which is obviously because I have not passed my gmail credentials

Send-MailMessage : The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not
authenticated. The server response was: 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first.

I googled a bit and also went through the man page of Send-MailMessage and found that the "-credential" parameter needs to be passed.

My issue is: HOW ?

I tried with Get-Credentials as below:

$mycredentials = Get-Credential

Then entered my usrname and password for gmail in the box that pops up.

then I run below command:

Send-MailMessage -smtpServer smtp.gmail.com -credentail $mycredentials `
  -from 'myself@gmail.com' -to 'myself@gmail.com' -subject 'Test' -attachment C:CDF.pdf

and still it fails with the exact same error.

So I need help from you guys on how do I pass my Credentials to the Send-MailMessage command. I learned about PScredentials but not exactly sure what it is and how to use it in this context.

Answer 1

I found this blog site: Adam Kahtava
I also found this question: send-mail-via-gmail-with-powershell-v2s-send-mailmessage
The problem is, neither of them addressed both your needs (Attachment with a password), so I did some combination of the two and came up with this:

$EmailTo = "myself@gmail.com"
$EmailFrom = "me@mydomain.com"
$Subject = "Test" 
$Body = "Test Body" 
$SMTPServer = "smtp.gmail.com" 
$filenameAndPath = "C:CDF.pdf"
$SMTPMessage = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage($EmailFrom,$EmailTo,$Subject,$Body)
$attachment = New-Object System.Net.Mail.Attachment($filenameAndPath)
$SMTPMessage.Attachments.Add($attachment)
$SMTPClient = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($SmtpServer, 587) 
$SMTPClient.EnableSsl = $true 
$SMTPClient.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password"); 
$SMTPClient.Send($SMTPMessage)

Since I love to make functions for things, and I need all the practice I can get, I went ahead and wrote this:

Function Send-EMail {
    Param (
        [Parameter(`
            Mandatory=$true)]
        [String]$EmailTo,
        [Parameter(`
            Mandatory=$true)]
        [String]$Subject,
        [Parameter(`
            Mandatory=$true)]
        [String]$Body,
        [Parameter(`
            Mandatory=$true)]
        [String]$EmailFrom="myself@gmail.com",  #This gives a default value to the $EmailFrom command
        [Parameter(`
            mandatory=$false)]
        [String]$attachment,
        [Parameter(`
            mandatory=$true)]
        [String]$Password
    )

        $SMTPServer = "smtp.gmail.com" 
        $SMTPMessage = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage($EmailFrom,$EmailTo,$Subject,$Body)
        if ($attachment -ne $null) {
            $SMTPattachment = New-Object System.Net.Mail.Attachment($attachment)
            $SMTPMessage.Attachments.Add($SMTPattachment)
        }
        $SMTPClient = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($SmtpServer, 587) 
        $SMTPClient.EnableSsl = $true 
        $SMTPClient.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($EmailFrom.Split("@")[0], $Password); 
        $SMTPClient.Send($SMTPMessage)
        Remove-Variable -Name SMTPClient
        Remove-Variable -Name Password

} #End Function Send-EMail

To call it, just use this command:

Send-EMail -EmailTo "Myself@gmail.com" -Body "Test Body" -Subject "Test Subject" -attachment "C:cdf.pdf" -password "Passowrd"

I know it's not secure putting the password in plainly like that. I'll see if I can come up with something more secure and update later, but at least this should get you what you need to get started. Have a great week!

Edit: Added $EmailFrom based on JuanPablo's comment

Edit: SMTP was spelled STMP in the attachments.