Penelope is an advanced shell driver whose main purpose is to replace Netcat as the shell receiver when exploiting RCE vulnerabilities. It works on Linux and macOS and the only requirement is Python3. This is a scenario with no third-party dependencies, and hopefully, it will stay that way. …
Main Features
Auto-upgrade shells to PTY (auto-resize included)
Logging interaction with the targets
Download files from targets
Upload files to targets
Upload preset scripts to targets
Spawn backup shells
Multiple sessions
Multiple listeners
How to download and install the Penelope tool?
Step 1:
First, we need to download the Penelope tool so run the following command on your terminal.
git clone https://github.com/brightio/penelope.git
Step 2:
Now change the directory to Penelope so type the below command in your terminal.
cd penelope
Step 3:
Now permit to read write and execute of penelope.py python file so execute the below command
chmod +x penelope.py
Step 4:
After that execute the penelope.py python file to handle the shell’s
python3 penelope.py
Sample Basic usage
penelope.py # Listening for reverse shells on 0.0.0.0:4444
penelope.py 5555 # Listening for reverse shells on 0.0.0.0:5555
penelope.py 5555 -i eth0 # Listening for reverse shells on eth0:5555
penelope.py -c target 3333 # Connect to a bind shell on target:3333
Menu Options
use [sessionID|none]
Select a session
sessions [sessionID]
Show active sessions. When followed by <sessionID>, interact with that
session
interact [sessionID]
Interact with a session
kill [sessionID|all]
Kill a session
download <glob>...
Download files and folders from the target
open <glob>...
Download files and folders from the target and open them locally
upload <glob|URL>...
Upload files and folders to the target. If URL is specified then it is
downloaded locally and then uploaded to the target
recon [sessionID]
Upload preset reconnaissance scripts to the target
spawn [sessionID]
Spawn a new session. Whether it will be reverse or bind, depends on
the current session.
upgrade [sessionID]
Upgrade the session's shell to "PTY". If it fails attempts to upgrade
it to "Advanced". If this fail too, then falls back to "Basic" shell.
dir|. [sessionID]
Open the session's local folder. If no session is selected, opens the
base folder.
listeners [<add|stop> <Interface|IP> <Port>]
Add or stop a Listener. When invoked without parameters, it shows the
active Listeners.
connect <Host> <Port>
Connect to a bind shell
hints
Show sample commands to run on the targets to get reverse shell, based
on the registered listeners
reset
Reset the local terminal
history
Show menu history
help [command]
Show menu help or help about specific command
DEBUG
Open debug console
SET [<param> <value>]
Set options. When invoked without parameters it shows current options
exit|quit|q|Ctrl+D
Exit penelope
Limitations of Penelope
1. Emojis don’t appear on mate-terminal (parrot OS)
2. Download command: path links are not clickable on the terminal (Kali Linux)
3. The menu commands and PTY authorize operate on the same socket. This could be an advantage but it has a side effect that for example if nano is open on target, then detaching the session and attempt a download, Penelope copes with that by sending Ctrl-Z -> Ctrl-E -> Ctrl-U. Then must run FG to get the process back. Maybe consider spawning an extra socket for controlling the session in the future. However, if before executing a menu command, the target’s terminal is left in a clear state, then there is no problem.