PyRDP

PyRDP is a Python Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Monster-in-the-Middle (MITM) tool and library.

It features a few tools:

RDP Monster-in-the-Middle
- Logs plaintext credentials or NetNTLM hashes used when connecting
- Steals data copied to the clipboard
- Saves a copy of the files transferred over the network
- Crawls shared drives in the background and saves them locally
- Saves replays of connections so you can look at them later
- Runs console commands or PowerShell payloads automatically on new connections
RDP Player:
- See live RDP connections coming from the MITM
- View replays of RDP connections
- Take control of active RDP sessions while hiding your actions
- List the client's mapped drives and download files from them during active sessions
Converter tool:
- Convert RDP replays to videos for easier sharing
- Convert RDP replays to a sequence of low-level events serialized in JSON format
- Convert PCAPs to replays, videos or JSON events
- Convert decrypted PCAPs (L7 PDUs) to replays, videos or JSON events
RDP Certificate Cloner:
- Create a self-signed X509 certificate with the same fields as an RDP server's certificate

PyRDP was introduced in 2018 in which we demonstrated that we can catch a real threat actor in action. This tool is being developed with both pentest and malware research use cases in mind.

PyRDP Player Replaying an RDP session

Supported Systems
Installing
- Using pipx
- Using the Docker Image
Using PyRDP
PyRDP Lore
Contributing to PyRDP
Acknowledgements

Supported Systems

PyRDP should work on Python 3.7 and up on the x86-64, ARM and ARM64 platforms.

This tool has been tested to work on Python 3.7 on Linux (Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04), Raspberry Pi and Windows. It has not been tested on macOS.

Installing

Two installation techniques are recommended via pipx or using docker containers. Installing from source or building docker containers yourself is covered in the development documentation.

Using pipx

Dependencies

Linux

First, make sure to install the prerequisite packages (these are listed for Ubuntu 22.04, you might need to adjust for other distros). We provide two types of installs a full one and a slim one. Install the dependencies according to your use case.

# Full install (GUI, convert captures to video)
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
        build-essential python3-dev openssl \
        libegl1 libxcb-cursor0 libxkbcommon-x11-0 libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-keysyms1 \
        libnotify-bin \
        libavcodec58 libavdevice58

# Slim install (no GUI, no conversion to video possible)
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
        build-essential python3-dev git openssl

This should install the dependencies required to run PyRDP. If you choose to install without the GUI or video conversion dependencies, it will not be possible to use pyrdp-player without headless mode (--headless) or pyrdp-convert to produce video output.

Make sure you have pipx installed. On Ubuntu 22.04:

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

Windows

Make sure you have Python installed. Windows Store Python didn't work for me on Windows 11. We recommend installing Python via Scoop.

scoop install python # if not installed already
scoop install pipx
pipx ensurepath

Log out and log back in (to update your PATH).

Other OS

To install pipx on other operating systems see here: https://github.com/pypa/pipx#install-pipx

Install

For the full PyRDP experience with the QT GUI and the ability to convert captures to video:

pipx install pyrdp-mitm[full]

For the compact version meant to be run in headless environments (servers, RaspberryPi):

pipx install pyrdp-mitm

You are ready to go! See the usage instructions.

Using the Docker Image

This is the easiest installation method if you have docker installed and working.

docker pull gosecure/pyrdp:latest

As an alternative we have a slimmer image without the GUI and ffmpeg dependencies. This is the only provided image on ARM platforms.

docker pull gosecure/pyrdp:latest-slim

You can find the list of all our Docker images on the gosecure/pyrdp DockerHub page. The latest tag refers to the latest released version while the devel tag is the docker image built out of our main branch.

Using PyRDP

Using the PyRDP Monster-in-the-Middle

Use pyrdp-mitm <ServerIP> or pyrdp-mitm <ServerIP>:<ServerPort> to run the MITM.

Assuming you have an RDP server running on 192.168.1.10 and listening on port 3389, you would run:

pyrdp-mitm 192.168.1.10

When running the MITM for the first time a directory called pyrdp_output/ will be created relative to the current working directory. Here is an example layout of that directory:

pyrdp_output/
├── certs
│   ├── WinDev2108Eval.crt
│   └── WinDev2108Eval.pem
├── files
│   ├── e91c6a5eb3ca15df5a5cb4cf4ebb6f33b2d379a3a12d7d6de8c412d4323feb4c
│   ├── b14b26b7d02c85e74ab4f0d847553b2fdfaf8bc616f7c3efcc4771aeddd55700
├── filesystems
│   ├── romantic_kalam_8214773
│   │   └── device1
│   │   └── clipboard
|           └── priv-esc.exe -> ../../../files/b14b26b7d02c85e74ab4f0d847553b2fdfaf8bc616f7c3efcc4771aeddd55700
│   └── happy_stonebraker_1992243
│       ├── device1
│       └── device2
|           └── Users/User/3D Objects/desktop.ini -> ../../../../../../e91c6a5eb3ca15df5a5cb4cf4ebb6f33b2d379a3a12d7d6de8c412d4323feb4c
├── logs
│   ├── crawl.json
│   ├── crawl.log
│   ├── mitm.json
│   ├── mitm.log
│   ├── mitm.log.2021-08-26
│   ├── ntlmssp.log
│   ├── player.log
│   └── ssl.log
└── replays
    ├── rdp_replay_20231214_01-20-28_965_happy_stonebraker_1992243.pyrdp
    └── rdp_replay_20231214_00-42-24_295_romantic_kalam_8214773.pyrdp

certs/ contains the certificates generated stored using the CN of the certificate as the file name
files/ contains all files captured and are deduplicated by saving them using the SHA-256 hash of the content as the filename
filesystems/ contains a recreation of the filesystem of the targets classified by session IDs. To save space on similar sessions, files are symbolic links to the actual files under files/.
logs/ contains all the various logs with most in both JSON and plaintext formats:
- crawl: the file crawler log
- mitm: the main MITM log
- ntlmssp.log: the captured NetNTLM hashes
- player.log: the player log
- ssl.log: the TLS master secrets stored in a format compatible with Wireshark
replays/ contains all the previously recorded PyRDP sessions with timestamps and session IDs in the filename

Specifying the private key and certificate

If key generation didn't work or you want to use a custom key and certificate, you can specify them using the -c and -k arguments:

pyrdp-mitm 192.168.1.10 -k private_key.pem -c certificate.pem

Monster-in-the-Middle Network Level Authentication (NLA) connections

Network Level Authentication (NLA) is a security feature available since Windows Vista that adds security to RDP connections. NLA relies on the new security support provider CredSSP and is sometimes referred by that name. A server that enforces NLA is harder to attack. There are three different strategies that can be used:

Obtain the server's certificate and private key
Using a host redirection feature
Capture the client's NetNTLMv2 hash and crack it

Monster-in-the-Middle NLA

If we have access to the server's certificate and private key, we can successfully MITM RDP even if NLA is enforced. We documented this attack in our 1.0 release blog post. Instructions to extract the RDP certificate and private key are available on our GitHub.

With the certificate and private key accessible, you just need to set the authentication to ssp by adding this on the pyrdp-mitm command-line:

--auth ssp -c <certificate.pem> -k <private-key.pem>

This will enable the possibility to intercept NLA-enforced connections.

Pyrdp

Install / Use

README