# Laika

Workflow License

[![asciicast](https://asciinema.org/a/487180.svg)](https://asciinema.org/a/487180) 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. ## Directories explained - `/cmake-modules` holds helper functions for CMake. - `/lib` is a shared static library between the bot, shell & CNC. LibSodium is also vendor'd here. - `/cnc` is the Command aNd Control server. (Currently only targets Linux) - `/bot` is the bot client to be ran on the target machine. (Targets both Linux and Windows) - `/shell` is the main shell to connect to the CNC server with to issue commands. (Currently only targets Linux) - `/tools` holds tools for generating keypairs, etc. ## 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 # Ansible-Playbook To setup a test VPS for a Laika CNC, check out [this ansible playbook](https://github.com/CPunch/Laika-Playbook).