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Quickstart

John Kennedy edited this page Dec 29, 2021 · 14 revisions

πŸ‘• 1. Download and Install

Download the current release from our page.

🍏 OSX

Mount the DMG, and move ashirt.app into your /Applicaions folder. Launch ashirt from your /Applications folder, through Spolight, or open -a ashirt in the terminal.

πŸ’» Windows

Windows builds are not provided at this time. The applicaition successfully builds and functions, but there is no recommended screenshot utility at this time.

πŸ–₯️ Linux

Set the executable bit on the downloaded appimage. chmod +x ashirt-v1.0.1-linux.appimage

πŸ‘• 2. Locate the ashirt tray icon

πŸ“‘ 3. Configure ashirt

Select Settings

On the first launch, the user must first set up an appropriate configuration. When the tray displays, open the tray and select Settings. From here, you will be presented with some options.

Settings

Field Meaning
Evidence Repository Where evidence is stored. Note that this is a jumping off point. Files are stored in a subdirectory using the operation name
Access Key The (shorter) base-64 key given by the ashirt frontend (look for this in Account Settings)
Secret Key The (longer) base-64 key given by the ashirt frontend
Host Path The http location to the ashirt API server (If you are following the ashirt-server quickstart this will be http://localhost:3000)
Capture Area Command The CLI command to take a screenshot of an arbitrary area and save to a file. More on this below
[Capture Area Command] Shortcut The key combination used (at a system level) to trigger the capture area command
Capture Window Command The CLI command to take of a given window, and save to a file
[Capture Area Command] Shortcut The key combination used (at a system level) to trigger the capture window command

Authentication to the ashirt server is managed via API keys that you can generate when logged into the web interface. Once you login use the dropdown menu in the top right to select Account Settings and navigate to the API Keys tab in the left rail.

API Keys

You'll see a Create new API Key button. Click this button to generate a new API key. A modal will pop up with your access key and secret key pair. Don't close this modal without saving the secret key somewhere because you won't be able to see it again.

New API Key

Once the above is configured, save the settings and you can now select an operation. Open the tray, and under Select Operation, choose an operation to start using the application. Note that whenever you change the host path, the list of operations will be updated

On Mac the system screenshot shorcuts are Shift+Meta+3 and Shift+Meta+4 for window and area respectively. An unreserved, similar combination can be configured in ashirt with Crtl+Meta+3 and Crtl+Meta+4.

πŸ’Ό Switching Operations

To change operations, navigate to Select Operation and choose one of the operations exposed in the list. If the operation you are looking for is not in the list, you can refresh the list by closing and re-opening the tray menu, or check with the operation owner to ensure that you have write access to that operation.

πŸ” 4. Submit Evidence

Try capturing the screen with the configured hotkey, or selecting Capture Screen Area from the tray. Add an optional description, tags, and then submit to the current operation. NOTE On Mac you will need to give ashirt the Screen Recording authorization in Security & Privacy > Privacy in your system settings.

πŸ“· Screenshot Requirements

This application requires taking screenshots from the command line. The application must:

  1. Allow for saving the screenshot to a named file.
  2. Create the file must before the application exits.

Theoretically, any application that satisfies this requirement will work. For Mac, the system command to do this is pre-populated, since this is a standard feature. For Linux, there are a number of screenshot commands, and so none are provided. For Windows, a 3rd party application must be used, as there is currently no way to save a screenshot to a named file.

This tool will replace the above filename with %file as noted below:

OS/DE/App Capture Window Capture Area Notes
Linux/Gnome gnome-screenshot -w -f %file gnome-screenshot -a -f %file Capture window captures the focused window, rather than allowing a selection; adding the --delay flag can help mitigate choosing the wrong window
MacOS X screencapture -w %file screencapture -s %file

Note: this application expects a single, basic command. While piping output to another command may work, it is not guaranteed. Likewise, providing multiple commands on the same "line" may work, but is also not guaranteed. Officially, both of these techniques are unsupported.

⌨️ Shortcuts

Global shortcut keys can be registered with your computer, depending on the exact operating system. These shortcuts may conflict with shortcuts for a given application, where it is unclear which shortcut will trigger. All this is to say that this feature, while supported, may not work perfectly every time. That said, here is how you configure shortcuts:

Within Settings next to each capture command is a small text box to provide the shortcut. Each shortcut should add in one or more modifier keys (e.g. ctrl) in order to provide less of a chance to interfere with other system/application commands. These modifier keys have reserved names for shortcuts, noted in the below table:

Key Name Alternate Names
Shift shift shft
Control control ctrl
Alt alt --
Windows/Meta/MacOS Command key meta win

To specify a shortcut pattern, simply decide on what set of modifier keys you want, plus a single alphanumeric key (or F- key), and separate these by +.

E.g. Ctrl+Shift+p

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