A simple web server built with powershell.

powershell-web-server.ps1

# This is a super **SIMPLE** example of how to create a very basic powershell webserver
# 2019-05-18 UPDATE — Created by me and and evalued by @jakobii and the comunity.

# Http Server
$http = [System.Net.HttpListener]::new() 

# Hostname and port to listen on
$http.Prefixes.Add("http://localhost:8080/")

# Start the Http Server 
$http.Start()



# Log ready message to terminal 
if ($http.IsListening) {
    write-host " HTTP Server Ready!  " -f 'black' -b 'gre'
    write-host "now try going to $($http.Prefixes)" -f 'y'
    write-host "then try going to $($http.Prefixes)other/path" -f 'y'
}


# INFINTE LOOP
# Used to listen for requests
while ($http.IsListening) {



    # Get Request Url
    # When a request is made in a web browser the GetContext() method will return a request object
    # Our route examples below will use the request object properties to decide how to respond
    $context = $http.GetContext()


    # ROUTE EXAMPLE 1
    # http://127.0.0.1/
    if ($context.Request.HttpMethod -eq 'GET' -and $context.Request.RawUrl -eq '/') {

        # We can log the request to the terminal
        write-host "$($context.Request.UserHostAddress)  =>  $($context.Request.Url)" -f 'mag'

        # the html/data you want to send to the browser
        # you could replace this with: [string]$html = Get-Content "C:\some\path\index.html" -Raw
        [string]$html = "<h1>A Powershell Webserver</h1><p>home page</p>" 
        
        #resposed to the request
        $buffer = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($html) # convert htmtl to bytes
        $context.Response.ContentLength64 = $buffer.Length
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Write($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length) #stream to broswer
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Close() # close the response
    
    }



    # ROUTE EXAMPLE 2
    # http://127.0.0.1/some/form'
    if ($context.Request.HttpMethod -eq 'GET' -and $context.Request.RawUrl -eq '/some/form') {

        # We can log the request to the terminal
        write-host "$($context.Request.UserHostAddress)  =>  $($context.Request.Url)" -f 'mag'

        [string]$html = "
        <h1>A Powershell Webserver</h1>
        <form action='/some/post' method='post'>
            <p>A Basic Form</p>
            <p>fullname</p>
            <input type='text' name='fullname'>
            <p>message</p>
            <textarea rows='4' cols='50' name='message'></textarea>
            <br>
            <input type='submit' value='Submit'>
        </form>
        "

        #resposed to the request
        $buffer = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($html) 
        $context.Response.ContentLength64 = $buffer.Length
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Write($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length) 
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Close()
    }

    # ROUTE EXAMPLE 3
    # http://127.0.0.1/some/post'
    if ($context.Request.HttpMethod -eq 'POST' -and $context.Request.RawUrl -eq '/some/post') {

        # decode the form post
        # html form members need 'name' attributes as in the example!
        $FormContent = [System.IO.StreamReader]::new($context.Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd()

        # We can log the request to the terminal
        write-host "$($context.Request.UserHostAddress)  =>  $($context.Request.Url)" -f 'mag'
        Write-Host $FormContent -f 'Green'

        # the html/data
        [string]$html = "<h1>A Powershell Webserver</h1><p>Post Successful!</p>" 

        #resposed to the request
        $buffer = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($html)
        $context.Response.ContentLength64 = $buffer.Length
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Write($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Close() 
    }


    # powershell will continue looping and listen for new requests...

} 

# Note:
# To end the loop you have to kill the powershell terminal. ctrl-c wont work :/

It's awesome for Windows power users!

Powershell Webserver on technet

Working Example

Simple Gist Example

where would be a place to host this tho

Note that this is single-threaded. This server can only serve one client at a time.

Using this example, I managed to create complete server that will serve anything in web/* directory wherever you run it. The server is insecure against directory crawling attacks.

Check this answer for the code: https://stackoverflow.com/a/63133186/607407

Hi, i wish to use something this in an OAuth Authorization Code flow, where the Identity provider will redirect back to my browser a code.. Any ideas?

Can be improved by de-duplicating code.

        #resposed to the request
        $buffer = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($html)
        $context.Response.ContentLength64 = $buffer.Length
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Write($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)
        $context.Response.OutputStream.Close()

To enable the script pipeline to be stopped using CTRL+C we can wrap the while loop in a try/finally and use an async context. E.g.

try {
    while ($http.IsListening) {
        $contextTask = $http.GetContextAsync()
        # Waits in 200ms increments allowing pipeline stops to be processed (i.e. CTRL+C)
        # Credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/9n2q03/comment/e7ju5w4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
        while (-not $contextTask.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(200)) { }
        $context = $contextTask.GetAwaiter().GetResult()
        
        # -- rest of loop
    }
}
finally {
    # This is always called when ctrl+c is used
    $http.Stop()
}

Full Gist: https://gist.github.com/rminderhoud/c603a0a30587ae5c957b211ba386bf37