The software framework has become essential to developing almost all complex software these days. The Django Web framework, for instance, bundles all the libraries, image files, and other components needed to quickly build and deploy web apps, making it a mainstay at companies like Google, Spotify, and Pinterest. Frameworks provide a platform that performs common functions like logging and authentication shared across an app ecosystem.
Last week, researchers from security firm Intezer revealed the Lightning Framework, a modular malware framework for Linux that has gone undocumented until now. Lightning Framework is post-exploit malware, meaning it gets installed after an attacker has already gained access to a targeted machine. Once installed, it can provide some of the same efficiencies and speed to Linux compromises that Django provides for web development.Lightning consists of a downloader named Lightning.Downloader and a core module named Lightning.Core. They connect to a designated command and control server to download software and receive commands, respectively. Users can then run any of at least seven modules that do all kinds of other nefarious things. Capabilities include both passive and active communications with the threat actor, including opening a secure shell on the infected machine and a polymorphic malleable command.
The framework has both passive and active capabilities for communication with the threat actor, including opening up SSH on an infected machine, and support for connecting to command and control servers that useLife on the command line on Linux is clearly something most of us enjoy, but typing the same command again and again can become tiresome. To avoid that boredom, this post explains a number of ways that you can make repeating commands – or repeating commands but with some changes – a lot easier than you might expect.Over the years, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to use the Linux top command to troubleshoot problems on both server and desktop deployments. Top has always been one of those tools that never fails to feel as if it should be able to do more but never can. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for a top replacement.
When on the desktop, there’s always GNOME System Monitor, which is a very well-designed GUI that makes managing processes very simple. But even that tool has its limitations.
So when I came across a tool named btop, I was pretty thrilled to see that it took that old standby and gave it some much-needed features. Not only does btop list out various system usages (memory, disks, network and processes), but it also allows for interaction with the mouse. Even on a server installation, you can point and click your way around btop to view processes as a tree, hide or reveal certain displays, and access an options menu where you can tweak the look and feel of the display.Btop can be installed on just about any Linux distribution from default repositories. I’ll demonstrate the installation on both a Ubuntu-based distribution and an RHEL-based distribution. Other than having a running instance of Linux, you’ll also need a user with sudo privileges. Let’s get to the installation.
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