Penelope - Advanced shell handler

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

1. Auto-upgrade shells to PTY (auto-resize included)
2. Logging interaction with the targets
3. Download files from targets
4. Upload files to targets
5. Upload preset scripts to targets
6. Spawn backup shells
7. Multiple sessions
8. 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 0.0.0.0:4444penelope.py 5555              # Listening for reverse shells on 0.0.0.0:5555penelope.py 5555 -i eth0      # Listening for reverse shells on eth0:5555penelope.py -c target 3333    # Connect to a bind shell on target:3333				

Menu Options

									use [sessionID|none]  Select a sessionsessions [sessionID]  Show active sessions. When followed by <sessionID>, interact with that  sessioninteract [sessionID]  Interact with a sessionkill [sessionID|all]  Kill a sessiondownload <glob>...  Download files and folders from the targetopen <glob>...  Download files and folders from the target and open them locallyupload <glob|URL>...  Upload files and folders to the target. If URL is specified then it is  downloaded locally and then uploaded to the targetrecon [sessionID]  Upload preset reconnaissance scripts to the targetspawn [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 shellhints  Show sample commands to run on the targets to get reverse shell, based  on the registered listenersreset  Reset the local terminalhistory  Show menu historyhelp [command]  Show menu help or help about specific commandDEBUG  Open debug consoleSET [<param> <value>]  Set options. When invoked without parameters it shows current optionsexit|quit|q|Ctrl+D  Exit penelope				

Download github tool

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.