Powershell: ConvertTo-SecureString not working inside background jobs on Linux

[janegilring]

Using ConvertTo-SecureString inside background jobs works on Windows, but fails on Linux. Tested both inside VS Codespaces and Azure Cloud Shell (repro below is frow the latter).

Steps to reproduce

Start-Job -Name test -ScriptBlock {ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force -String 'test'}

Expected behavior

System.Security.SecureString

Actual behavior

Id     Name            PSJobTypeName   State         HasMoreData     Location             Command
--     ----            -------------   -----         -----------     --------             -------
1      test            BackgroundJob   Failed        False           localhost            ConvertTo-SecureString -…

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.0.3
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.0.3
OS                             Linux 4.15.0-1096-azure #106~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 10 18:51:54 UTC 2020
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

[vexx32]

What error is shown if you retrieve the results from the job?

[anmenaga]

On Ubuntu 18 I see it failing on PS 7.0.3, but passing on PS 7.1.0-rc.1
@PaulHigin might have more info on this.

[PaulHigin]

SecureString was not implemented on Linux platforms initially because of Windows only dependencies. It was fixed in the 7.0 timeframe but only merged to 7.1 not 7.0.

https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/pull/11185

[janegilring]

I see, thanks @PaulHigin

@vexx32 No error or output at all