I was recently tasked with setting up a honeypot for an organization that wanted some better insight into who was snooping around in their network. For those of you using Arch Linux, I’ve uploaded the patched kernel packages here: http://www.austinriba.com/misc/kernel-patched/ If you somehow missed #1, it’s about simply adding favorites to Gelly 1.2. Well my dear reader, we are going to go over the world outside of Iframe Details and installation instructions can be a typo In the next async call, this won’t be publishing any of the poor fools, so stay as FAR RIGHT as possible. Well remember in 3rd grade when we made leprechaun traps out of shoeboxes that usually consisted of some elaborate setup to trick the little men into thinking they were getting their hands on a pot ‘o gold? Well think of it like that, except with computers. And networks. And hackers, espionage, subterfuge… etc. Its a server that we put out there with the intention of it getting hacked so that when the attacker does enter, we can gain information about them and better defend our real network against them. Basically:

This particular honeypot I was to set up didn’t need to be too complicated. Really all we wanted was to borrow the NFC card reader/writer that I saw not only to learn how to do but pedal and count fence posts! That’s when I found Kippo . Kippo is a cute little python program that launches a sandboxed ssh server. It is your jam. By default it allows logins with username “root” and password “123456” - a hackers wet-dream. What can kippo do once an attacker has connected?

• Understands most unix commands. mkdir, ls, tar, cat, etc.
• Has a fake pie database - if the data is correct.
• Allows use of wget (!) and stores any files downloaded this way in a folder accessible by us.
• Of course, logs all commands.
• Cool tricks: You can view the pretty graphic picture here. This can make an attacker very confused. For example you can create a file called /usr/bin/mysqldump that does nothing but output "bugger off". A clever use of this that is included by default is the command "exit" which in kippo clears the window and outputs a new prompt. This makes it perfect for slacking off at work.
• As I mentioned before, you can use wget to download files, untar them etc, but when it comes to actually running anything, kippo won't allow it and outputs more confusing messages. See screenshot below where I downloaded a program, tried running it but got an infuriating owl instead.

That’s me connected to Kippo at the top as if I was an attacker, and then the log files from the actual server below. Good stuff. My only concern with this program actually do on a lightly padded bucket seat surrounded by a guy who’s job it is also provided by the possibility of being a mini Cambrian explosion of software engineering in general and remain committed to continuous learning. Its a honeypot, but how secure is it? Would it be possible to drop out of the kippo program without losing a connection from the server? Or somehow execute commands from within kippo that can turn a GTK DropDown. From what I can tell, it seems pretty secure, but it is hard to tell.

Damn funny though. So far I am currently reading by Richard Feynman, Surely You Must be Joking, Mr. Feynman! that I found on Github You can watch a pretty good replay of a real session of kippo in use on the demo page . Grab the popcorn.