Active Directory Search displaying properties GUID and SID returns system.Byte[] instead of Actual Values

Question

This code produces the following output:

my email address,
System.Byte[], this should be SID
System.Byte[], this should be GUID
my name,
First Name,
last Name,
Middle Initial

Code:

Console.WriteLine(((byte)de.Properties["objectSid"].Value.ToString());

I attempted to cast the above line. I get an error

Cannot convert type string to byte

string ObjGuid = BitConverter.ToString(de.Properties["objectguid"].Value);

I attempted the above line of code same response

((byte)de.Properties["ObjectGUID"]).Value.ToString();

Cannot convert type SystemDirectoryServices.PropertyValueCollection to byte

byte one = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(de.Properties["ObjectGUID"]));

Cannot convert type SystemDirectoryServices.PropertyValueCollection to byte

These are the items that I have attempted. Console.WriteLine requires a string.

The problem that I see is that I am getting a list of items.

From this list, I am getting the underlying properties.

I am only collecting a few items of the collection of properties.

I am searching inside the underlying collection and I am attempting to convert that item to a string

I think this is a basic conversion from byte to string. I might have an issue with searching and manipulating an object hierarchy.

Can someone help me with this concept?

using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Security.Principal;
using System.Threading;
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;
using System.DirectoryServices;
using System.IO;
using System.Data;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;

//using System.DirectoryServices;
namespace TestRole
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        //Requires Add References to using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;
        // and using System.DirectoryServices;


        PrincipalContext ctx = new 
               PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain,Environment.UserDomainName);
        UserPrincipal user = new UserPrincipal(ctx);

        user.EmailAddress = "MyEmail@com";

        PrincipalSearcher ps = new PrincipalSearcher();
        ps.QueryFilter = user;
        PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> results = ps.FindAll();
        Principal pc = results.ToList()[0];
        DirectoryEntry de = (DirectoryEntry)pc.GetUnderlyingObject();

        Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["mail"].Value.ToString());

      //old code
        ////Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["Sid"].Value.ToString());
        //Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["objectSid"].Value.ToString());
        //Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["objectGUID"].Value.ToString());
        //This code does the job
            var sid = new 
             SecurityIdentifier((byte[])de.Properties["objectSid"].Value, 0);
               Console.WriteLine(sid);
            var guid = new Guid((Byte[])de.Properties["objectGUID"].Value);
               Console.WriteLine(guid.ToString());


        Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["Name"].Value.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["givenname"].Value.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["sn"].Value.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["initials"].Value.ToString());


        Console.WriteLine(Environment.UserDomainName);


        //Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["StructuralObjectClass"].Value.ToString());

       }
    }
}

Answer 1

You need to check the type of the returned values before using or converting them. The return type of de.Properties["anyPropHere"].Value is object , because it will return different types, depending on the queried property.

If you want to get the objectSid as string you have to convert the returned bytes using the SecurityIdentifier , as described in this post

byte[] sid = (byte[])de.Properties["objectSid"].Value;
string sidStr = (new SecurityIdentifier((byte[])sid, 0)).ToString();