# Laika
[](https://asciinema.org/a/487686)
Laika is a simple cross-platform Remote Access Toolkit stack for educational purposes. It allows encrypted communication across a custom binary protocol. The bot client supports both Windows & Linux environments, while the shell & CNC server specifically target Linux environments. Laika is meant to be small and discreet, Laika believes in hiding in plain sight.
Some notable features thus far:
- [X] Lightweight, the bot alone is 183kb (`MinSizeRel`) and uses very little resources minimizing Laika's footprint.
- [X] Authentication & packet encryption using LibSodium and a predetermined public CNC key. (generated with `bin/genKey`)
- [X] Server and Shell configuration through `.ini` files.
- [X] Ability to open shells remotely on the victim's machine.
- [ ] Persistence across reboot: (toggled with `-DLAIKA_PERSISTENCE=On`)
- [X] Persistence via Cron on Linux-based systems.
- [ ] Persistence via Windows Registry.
- [ ] Ability to relay socket connections to/from the victim's machine.
- [ ] Uses obfuscation techniques also seen in the wild (string obfuscation, tiny VMs executing sensitive operations, etc.)
- [ ] Simple configuration using CMake:
- [X] Setting keypairs (`-DLAIKA_PUBKEY=? -DLAIKA_PRIVKEY=?`, etc.)
- [ ] Obfuscation modes
## Would this work in real world scenarios?
My hope is that this becomes complete enough to be accurate to real RAT sources seen in the wild. However since Laika uses a binary protocol, the traffic the bot/CNC create would look very suspect and scream to sysadmins. This is why most RATs/botnets nowadays use an HTTP-based protocol, not only to 'blend in' with traffic, but it also scales well with large networks of bots where the CNC can be deployed across multiple servers and have a generic HTTP load balancer.
I could add some padding to each packet to make it look pseudo-HTTP-like, however I haven't given much thought to this.
## CMake Definitions
| Definition | Description | Example |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| LAIKA_PUBKEY | Sets CNC's public key | -DLAIKA_PUBKEY=997d026d1c65deb6c30468525132be4ea44116d6f194c142347b67ee73d18814 |
| LAIKA_PRIVKEY | Sets CNC's private key | -DLAIKA_PRIVKEY=1dbd33962f1e170d1e745c6d3e19175049b5616822fac2fa3535d7477957a841 |
| LAIKA_CNC_IP | Sets CNC's public ip | -DLAIKA_CNC_IP=127.0.0.1 |
| LAIKA_CNC_PORT | Sets CNC's bind()'d port | -DLAIKA_CNC_PORT=13337 |
| LAIKA_PERSISTENCE | Enables persistence for LaikaBot | -DLAIKA_PERSISTENCE=On |
> examples are passed to `cmake -B `
## Configuration and compilation
Make sure you have the following libraries and tools installed:
- CMake (>=3.10)
- Compiler with C11 support (GCC >= 4.7, Clang >= 3.1, etc.)
The only dependency (LibSodium) is vender'd and statically compiled against the `/lib`. This should be kept up-to-date against stable and security related updates to LibSodium.
First, compile the target normally
```sh
$ cmake -B build && cmake --build build
```
Now, generate your custom key pair using `genKey`
```sh
$ ./bin/genKey
```
Next, rerun cmake, but passing your public and private keypairs
```sh
$ rm -rf bin build &&\
cmake -B build -DLAIKA_PUBKEY=997d026d1c65deb6c30468525132be4ea44116d6f194c142347b67ee73d18814 -DLAIKA_PRIVKEY=1dbd33962f1e170d1e745c6d3e19175049b5616822fac2fa3535d7477957a841 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=MinSizeRel &&\
cmake --build build
```
Output binaries are put in the `./bin` folder
## Looking to contribute?
Read `CONTRIBUTING.md`
# Ansible-Playbook
To setup a test VPS for a Laika CNC, check out [this ansible playbook](https://github.com/CPunch/Laika-Playbook).