VM-Install-Shortcut uses unnecessary amount of characters for "executableArgs"

[emtuls]

What's the problem?

The function VM-Install-Shortcut creates an argument $executableArgs with a long list of arguments that can each be long themselves, leading to the possibility of hitting the character limit when creating a shortcut (which is a quiet error that doesn't display).

I propose we remove the && echo $executableDir^> $executablePath $arguments piece as this doesn't serve much functionality and it extends the command that is put inside the shortcut by almost double.

Steps to Reproduce

Attempt to create a shortcut whose $executablePath + $arguments may be long, for example:

$executablePath = "%ProgramFiles%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" $arguments = "C:\Tools\cyberchef\CyberChef_v10.5.2.html & exit"

This gets cut off around C:\Tools\cyb which is incomplete for me to perform the action I'm intending to do to fix another issue.

Environment

Environment Independent

Additional Information

No response

Detected by test suite

No

[Ana06]

I think the echo is useful to know what has been run for console applications. From https://github.com/mandiant/VM-Packages/issues/676 (issue for discussion on how to unify and improve shortcuts):

It's useful to display what commands get executed when a LNK is clicked

I think it would be good idea in the shortcut helper to either:

• fail the installation if we exceed the limit
• render a warning remove the echo in this case (I prefer this option)

But CyberChef is not a console application, so it should not be run as a console application and the echo is not used in that case. Or am I missing something @emtuls ? 🤔

[emtuls]

Cyberchef is not normally a console application, but due to how I would like to have chrome open the local cyberchef .html page (programmatically modifying Chrome config files is fairly inconsistent and will likely break), it would work best if I utilized a command prompt shortcut, which is essentially what our consoleapp flag creates for VM-Install-Shortcut.

One other alternative that may resolve the current issue with cyberchef specifically, if we don't take either of your suggested routes, would be fixing https://github.com/mandiant/VM-Packages/issues/842, as I believe that should reduce the length of the command as well.

I do think it may be worth considering your second option though if we want to be safe for future occurrences of this issue.

[Ana06]

@emtuls what is the state of this issue? :thinking: