Bug 14 (vm/launch_target.sh): Metasploitable2 requires -machine pc
(i440fx), -cpu kvm32, -drive if=ide, and -device e1000. The previous
config (-machine q35, -cpu host, -drive if=virtio, virtio-net-pci)
caused a kernel panic at boot because /dev/vda != the grub root=/dev/sda1.
Services never started; the b'' probe fix (Bug 10) then correctly waited
out the full timeout with no result.
Bug 15 (scripts/install-tier-3-4.sh): verify step used vsftpd_234_backdoor
which is requires_bridge=true and has a hardcoded port-6200 backdoor.
Changed to distccd_command_exec with TARGET_PORTS="5632:3632,4444:4444".
manifest.toml: admit distccd_command_exec and unreal_ircd_3281_backdoor
to the module catalog. Both use cmd/unix/bind_perl (bind shell, no guest
egress, SLIRP-safe). distccd returns a valid protocol response so MSF's
handler runs and session_open fires. Verified against Metasploitable2
sourceforge image sha256 a8c019c3.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Root causes and fixes documented in TIER3-BRINGUP.md. Summary:
1. BRIDGE env var leaked into Tier-3 subprocess → target VM used tap
instead of SLIRP; fix: env.pop("BRIDGE") in fleet _run_slot.
2. usable_modules filter conditioned on BRIDGE presence → bridge-requiring
modules selected on SLIRP runs; fix: always filter requires_bridge.
3. cmd/unix/interact creates no session.list entry → session_open_timeout
every episode; fix: switch samba_usermap_script to cmd/unix/bind_perl.
4. Per-slot LPORT hostfwd used wrong guest port (host:5444→guest:4444);
fix: extra_host_port:extra_host_port mapping so guest binds the
per-slot LPORT directly.
5. vsftpd backdoor port 6200 hardcoded → collision across concurrent slots;
fix: requires_bridge=true filters it from SLIRP fleet runs.
6. SLIRP false-positive in _wait_for_tcp → exploit fires before Samba
boots (~60 s too early); fix: replace TCP probe with serial console
_wait_for_serial_login that waits for actual "login:" prompt.
7. Stale QEMU survives orchestrator restart (start_new_session=True) →
holds hostfwd ports, new QEMU silently fails; fix: kill by pgid from
old pidfile before rmtree.
8. PORT_BASE default used privileged port 21; fix: default to 2021+slot*100.
9. msfrpcd 6.x returns bytes for all string values even with raw=False;
fix: MSFRpcClient._str() recursive decoder applied to all responses.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Wraps the three remaining 🚧 items from the README so every collector
the threat-model promises is actually live, and the Tier-4 path
(real-malware fetch + upload + exec) works end-to-end as soon as a
sha256 lands in samples/store/.
Closesspectral/CIS490#4, #5, #6.
== #6 — Bridge pcap wiring ==
EpisodeConfig grows three optional fields:
bridge_iface: str | None # e.g. "br-malware"
bridge_ip: str = "10.200.0.1"
pcap_snaplen: int = 256
When bridge_iface is set, EpisodeRunner spawns tcpdump for the duration
of the schedule (network.pcap), stops it cleanly on episode end, and
runs collectors.pcap.bucketize() to produce netflow.jsonl per the
100-ms schema in docs/data-model.md. EpisodeResult + meta.result
gain rows_netflow + pcap_bytes counters.
vm/launch_demo.sh + launch_target.sh now switch between SLIRP usermode
and tap+bridge based on $BRIDGE — operator pre-creates the tap as a
bridge member, no sudo from the launcher.
run_real_vm_demo.py picks BRIDGE up from env so the fleet runner can
opt entire waves into pcap mode by exporting BRIDGE before invocation.
== #5 — Source 3 perf collector ==
collectors/perf_qemu.py shells out to ``perf stat -p <pid> -I 100 -j``
and parses the per-event JSON stream. Aggregates one row per interval
across the canonical event set (cycles/instructions/cache-{refs,misses}/
branches/branch-misses/page-faults/context-switches), computes IPC +
cache-miss rate. Tolerates missing events (``<not counted>`` /
``<not supported>``) without dropping the row, and skips cleanly when
``perf`` isn't on PATH or the process can't be attached.
EpisodeConfig.enable_perf=True opts into the collector — off by default
because perf needs CAP_SYS_ADMIN or perf_event_paranoid <= 1. When
enabled, runs as a parallel thread alongside the other collectors;
EpisodeResult.rows_perf records the count.
== #4 — Tier 4 (real-malware fetch + upload + exec) ==
tools/fetch_sample.py: pulls a sample by sha256 from MalwareBazaar
(API key from env or samples/.bazaar.token), unzips with the standard
"infected" password, verifies the resulting binary's sha256, lands at
samples/store/<sha256>. Idempotent — already-staged correct binaries
return immediately.
samples/manifest.py: Sample.binary_path(store_root) resolves to the
staged binary path, or None for mimics / not-yet-fetched real samples.
exploits/workloads.py: real_binary_workload(bytes, sample) builds a
Workload that base64-uploads the binary into the shell session via a
heredoc, decodes + chmods + execs it in the background, captures the
PID for clean stop on dormant. Per-profile pid/bin paths so concurrent
samples in the same guest don't collide.
exploits/driver.py: dispatch order is now:
1) sample.kind == "real" + binary staged at sample_store_root
→ real_binary_workload (Tier 4)
2) profile mimic from workloads.workload_for() (Tier 3 v2)
3) None → driver v1 fallback yes-loop
DriverConfig.sample_store_root is the new field; run_tier3_demo.py
wires it to repo_root/samples/store. driver_setup event records
sample_sha256 so trainers can join Tier-4 episodes against the
manifest by hash.
samples/store/.gitkeep added (binaries themselves are gitignored).
Tests: 102 pass (was 86). New suites:
tests/test_perf_qemu.py — parser + builder + perf-missing fallback
tests/test_tier4.py — real_binary_workload base64 round-trip,
stop-cmd kills pidfile, per-profile path
isolation, driver dispatch chooses real vs
mimic correctly, fetcher input validation
and cached-fast-path
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This is the chunk that makes "real data" actually flow on multiple
hosts in parallel. End-to-end pipe was up at 613c6fa / 2579683; now
the lab-host side has the diversity + concurrency it needs.
Collectors landed:
collectors/qmp.py — source 2 (oracle). Tiny synchronous QMP
client + row builder + run loop. Tolerates
older qemu without query-stats.
collectors/guest_agent.py — source 5 (deployable). Reads the
virtio-serial host-side socket, parses
agent JSON-lines, re-stamps to the host
monotonic clock, persists.
collectors/pcap.py — source 4 (deployable). tcpdump capture
+ pure-Python pcap reader + 100 ms
netflow.jsonl bucketizer. Decodes
Ethernet/IPv4/TCP/UDP enough for the
schema in docs/data-model.md.
In-guest agent:
vm/guest-agent/cis490_agent.py — stdlib-only Python agent. Reads
/proc/{stat,meminfo,loadavg,net/dev,net/tcp*}, top-N RSS procs,
thermal. Writes JSON-lines to /dev/virtio-ports/cis490.guest.agent.
tools/build_cidata.py — embeds the agent + an OpenRC service into
user-data so first boot of the Alpine cidata image auto-starts it.
Launchers:
vm/launch_demo.sh / launch_target.sh — second virtio-serial port for
the agent socket; SLOT env support so multiple VMs run without
socket / port collisions; PORT_BASE on launch_target so multiple
target VMs hostfwd different host ports.
vm/setup_bridge.sh — creates host-only br-malware (10.200.0.1/24,
no NAT). Idempotent.
Fleet:
orchestrator/fleet.py — capacity detector (cores / RAM / load
headroom) + concurrent-slot runner. Per-slot ENV selects the
sample. FleetCapacity dataclass round-trips into meta.json so
"this episode ran with 6 concurrent VMs" is auditable post-hoc.
tools/run_fleet.py — CLI: --capacity report; --waves N runs N
waves of (max_concurrent) episodes each, every slot with a
different sample.
etc/cis490-orchestrator.service — now drives the fleet runner with
Restart=always so each invocation runs one wave and respawns,
giving a continuous stream.
Samples:
samples/manifest.toml — six profiles spanning the five major
behaviour shapes. Each entry is real OR mimic (sha256 distinguishes).
samples/manifest.py — strict TOML loader (rejects dups, unknown
categories) + deterministic select(host_id, slot, episode_index)
so different hosts on the network walk the catalog in different
orders without any coordinator.
EpisodeRunner:
orchestrator/episode.py — optional qmp_socket + guest_agent_socket
fields on EpisodeConfig; when set, additional collector threads
run alongside proc_qemu. EpisodeResult now carries rows_qmp +
rows_guest counters.
Tier-3 setup automation:
scripts/install-msfrpcd.sh — installs metasploit-framework where
the package manager has it, generates a strong password into
/etc/cis490/msfrpc.env, drops a hardened systemd unit bound to
127.0.0.1:55553. After this, run_tier3_demo.py works zero-touch
once MSFRPC_PASSWORD is sourced.
scripts/fetch-metasploitable2.sh — accepts IMAGE_URL + IMAGE_SHA256
from the operator (Rapid7 download is registration-walled), pulls,
verifies, converts vmdk → qcow2, lands at vm/images/.
Tests: 82 pass (was 51). New suites:
tests/test_qmp.py — fake QMP server, capability handshake,
blockstats, async-event interleaving,
5-failure backoff
tests/test_guest_agent.py — fake virtio socket, JSON-lines read +
re-stamp, malformed-line tolerance
tests/test_pcap.py — synthetic pcap with TCP/UDP/ARP frames,
bucketize correctness across windows
tests/test_fleet.py — capacity math (8-core idle / low-RAM /
high-load / Pi5 / 1-core box), manifest
selection determinism + diversity
What's queued for the next commit (already discussed in convo):
- MSFExploitDriver v2: map sample.profile → distinct in-session
workload so Tier-3 episodes don't all produce the same yes-loop
envelope. Critical for ML to learn varied malware shapes.
- Real-sample fetch from MalwareBazaar by sha256.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds the Tier-3 exploit driver — an MSFExploitDriver that plugs into
EpisodeRunner.on_phase, fires a Metasploit module against a target VM
via msfrpcd, watches for the resulting session, and stamps each
transition (exploit_fire, session_open, session_landing_probe,
sample_executed, session_dormant, session_killed) into the episode's
events.jsonl on the orchestrator's monotonic clock.
What landed:
- exploits/msfrpc.py — minimal msgpack-over-HTTPS client (auth,
module.execute, job/session lifecycle) so we don't depend on a
third-party MSF wrapper.
- exploits/driver.py — phase-to-msfrpc adapter; idempotent fire,
session-open polling with timeout, workload start/stop, teardown.
- exploits/modules.py + exploits/modules/vsftpd_234_backdoor.toml —
TOML module configs with {{ target_ip }} placeholders, replacing the
imperative .rc-script approach the README previously hinted at.
- vm/launch_target.sh — SLIRP+restrict=on launcher for the
intentionally-vulnerable target VM (host can reach guest via
hostfwd, guest cannot reach host or internet).
- tools/run_tier3_demo.py — end-to-end runner mirroring run_real_vm_demo.
- tests/test_exploits.py — 12 new tests against a fake MSFRpcClient,
including an integration test that drives a real EpisodeRunner.
Plumbing changes:
- EpisodeRunner._emit_event → public emit_event, so external drivers
share the runner's monotonic clock and events.jsonl.
- mkdir for episode_dir moved to __init__ so emit_event is callable
before run() (driver_setup fires pre-schedule).
Status: driver + tests pass (40/40); end-to-end against a live msfrpcd
+ Metasploitable2 image is the next bring-up step.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
max
