Python Wrapper

The Exegol project regroups many things (docker images, offline resources, custom configurations, aliases, history commands, multi-architecture support and many others). In order to make all the tech involved easy to use, and provide some unique entrypoint to the whole setup, a Python wrapper was created.

The Python wrapper handles all Docker and Git operations, can manage multiple images and containers at once and give the user the best experience possible, suited for beginners as well as advanced people.

The wrapper knows multiple actions.

Install an image : exegol install
Create/start/enter a container : exegol start
Show info on containers and images : exegol info
Stop a container : exegol stop
Remove a container : exegol remove
Uninstall an image : exegol uninstall
Get help and advanced usage : exegol --help
Help and examples can be obtained for each action directly from the wrapper with the following command: exegol <action> -h (action: install/start/stop/etc.).

All actions are documented in the exegol-wrapper part of this doc (e.g. info, start, version, …)

Below is a, non-exhaustive, list of what the wrapper supports:

Note

Exegol uses Docker images and containers. Understanding the difference is essential to understand Exegol.

image: think of it as an immutable template. They cannot be executed as-is and serve as input for containers. It’s not possible to open a shell in an image.
container: a container rests upon an image. A container is created for a certain image at a certain time. It’s possible to open a shell in a container. Careful though, once a container is created, updating the image it was created upon won’t have any impact on the container. In order to enjoy the new things, a new container must be created upon that updated image.

Features

The Exegol wrapper has many features to automatically and transparently manage different configurations to facilitate the use and creation of docker containers.

Desktop

On some systems, it may be difficult to have or share an X11 environment. Some users prefer to have a full graphical desktop environment rather than just graphical applications.

To meet this need, Exegol is able to host a complete graphical environment within its container since version 4.3.0 of the wrapper and 3.1.2 of the images.

This environment can then be made available to others in a variety of ways. The default protocol is currently HTTP, but the user can change the configuration to use the VNC alternative.

This feature can be enabled manually with the option --desktop of the start action.

Tip

The default behavior and configuration of the desktop mode can be changed in the configuration of Exegol.

Workspace

Exegol always creates within a container a persistent workspace (even after deleting the container) and shared with the host.

By default a folder will be created on the host and shared with the container. This folder will be created in ~/.exegol/workspaces/ with the name of the exegol container.

Tip

The default location of workspace volumes can be changed in the configuration of Exegol.

The user can also create an Exegol container with an existing custom workspace folder (with already existing data) regardless of its location in the file system.

See the options -w WORKSPACE_PATH and -cwd of the start action for more details.

Update-fs

The root user is used by default in Exegol containers which poses problems of permissions when accessing the project documents from the host. To remedy this without compromising, a shared permission system exists allowing the host user to have read and write access to files created from the container.

This system is automatically activated when a new default workspace is created.

Warning

When the user uses an existing custom folder as workspace, this system is disabled by default! This feature can be enabled by default by changing the configuration of Exegol.

Its activation is possible manually (see the option --update-fs of the start action) but it will lead to the modification of the folder and its sub-folders permissions (as g+rws).

If the user does not have the rights to perform such an operation, a sudo command will be proposed to the user that he will have to execute manually to apply the necessary permissions for the proper functioning of the functionality (as chgrp + g+rws).

Tip

When the default configuration of this feature is changed and the update will be enabled by default, the option --update-fs can still be used to manually disable the feature in specific cases.

OpenVPN connection

Exegol supports OpenVPN tunnel configuration to automatically establish a VPN tunnel at container startup.

Exegol supports certificate authentication (all files should preferably be included in a single ovpn file) but also user/password authentication through an authentication file (to allow non-interactive and transparent authentication).

Tip

A folder can also be used in the case of a multi-file configuration (with relative paths!) and the configuration file must have the .ovpn extension (Only one .ovpn file will be loaded by exegol).

See the options --vpn VPN and --vpn-auth VPN_AUTH of the start action for more details.

Tip

In case of problem, to troubleshoot a VPN connection, the log of OpenVPN can be retrieved within the container in the /var/log/exegol/vpn.log file

Shell logging

Within the framework of a mission, it is necessary to log all actions performed during a pentest, red team etc. To meet this need, Exegol has a feature to automatically record everything that is displayed (stdout / stderr) but also all entries (stdin).

See the option --log of the start action to enable the feature.

Hint

When the option is enabled upon creation of a new container, all shells created for this container will be automatically logged.

If the container was created without this option, the shells can still be logged individually by adding the option in the start command of each shell.

The date and time of each command is displayed thanks to the PS1 of zsh.

The logs are automatically saved in the /workspace/logs folder. Each log file is automatically compressed with gzip at the end of the session to optimize disk space. The automatic compression of log files can be disabled manually with the start action --log-compress parameter or change the default behavior in the Exegol configuration file.

Hint

When the default configuration of the log compression is changed from the config file and the feature will be disabled by default, the option --log-compress can still be used to manually enable the feature in specific cases.

Warning

The logs should NOT be consulted from the exegol container but from the host to avoid loops and duplication of data in the logs.

There are (since exegol images version 3.0.0) different methods of shell logging. The shell logging method can be selected manually with the start action --log-method parameter or by default in the configuration file of Exegol.

The shell logging method asciinema is available from exegol images version 3.0.0. This new mode allows to consult sessions in video format taking into account the interactive environment. It is also possible to manually upload and share recordings, useful for demonstrations for example

Here is a quick demonstration:

Tip

Logs in .gz format can be replay directly without unpacking them with the command: gunzip -c <filename_shell.asciinema.gz> | asciinema play -

Hint

To display the whole session without the “video” mode, it is possible to use the command: asciinema cat <filename_shell.asciinema>

Warning

Major disadvantage of this method, to view the logs from your host, you must install asciinema on your host machine to replay or share your records.

Tip

When you share or play an asciinema video, you can copy and paste any command/text it contains.

script is the “classic” method of session logging, it was also the only option available before version 3.0.0 of exegol images. This method simply records all incoming (stdin) and outgoing (stdout/stderr) shell actions in a file.

Tip

Logs in .gz format can be viewed directly without unpacking them with the zcat, zgrep, zdiff or zmore command!

Warning

Shell logging saves EVERYTHING including keyboard shortcuts, display refreshes, etc.

Complex graphical environments (such as tmux) can make it difficult to read the logs.

Shared network

By default, containers created by Exegol are in host mode which means that the network interfaces of the host are shared with the container.

This configuration is useful to:

dynamically open ports and services
have a low level access on a physical network (some operation might need privileged mode)
share a unique ip address on the target network
share a MAC address on the target network (to be considered as a single physical machine)

This mode can be disabled with the option --disable-shared-network of the start action to create a dedicated and isolated network instead.

Tip

When host network sharing is disabled, ports can be to expose services on the host machine’s networks.

Warning

This mode is only available on Linux installations! Windows and MacOS installations are subject to the constraints and limitations of Docker Desktop .

You can still use the port publishing feature instead.

Shared timezones

For convenience and precision in the date and time of the logs of each command, exegol allows to share the timezone of the host in the container.

This feature is active by default and can be disabled with the option --disable-shared-timezones of the start action.

Exegol-resources

To save time and have at hand many tools, scripts and other resources, exegol maintains a repository exegol-resources contains many updated tools that are available to the host and exegol containers.

This module is not mandatory and can be downloaded later.

Hint

If an antivirus is present on your host, be careful to exclude the destination folder of the exegol-resources module before downloading it.

This feature is active and shared by default and can be disabled with the option --disable-exegol-resources of the start action.

My-resources

The my-resources feature is a space dedicated to the user and shared with all the containers. This space allows to store configurations and to install personal tools.

More details on the functionality of the wrapper here and how to take advantage of the customization system here.

Env. variables

Exegol can configure custom environment variables defined by the user.

When the environment variables are defined at the first time of the container creation, these variables will be:

accessible in the container by all processes
present during the whole lifetime of the container

The environment variables can be defined when opening a shell in an existing container and will be available only in the user’s shell until it is closed.

See the option --env ENVS of the start action for more details.

Custom hostname

In some environments with OPSEC requirements, it may be necessary to change the hostname of your exegol container.

See the option --hostname HOSTNAME of the start action for more details.

Comments

To add more context information about an exegol container, it is possible to add comments to each Exegol container. The comment of an exegol container can be displayed with the command exegol info <container_name>

See the option --comment COMMENT of the start action for more details.

Capabilities

Exegol supports adding Linux capabilities to the Exegol container to perform tasks that require administrative rights without allowing everything.

This feature gives control to the user to configure his container but giving administrator rights remains a dangerous practice and should be used by experienced users only.

For more details on the capabilities supported by docker check here.

Warning

Not all Linux capabilities are allowed by the Exegol wrapper, here is the list of available capabilities:

NET_ADMIN, NET_BROADCAST, SYS_MODULE, SYS_PTRACE, SYS_RAWIO, SYS_ADMIN, LINUX_IMMUTABLE, MAC_ADMIN, SYSLOG

For all other needs, consider the privileged mode.

Privileged

For particular needs, it is sometimes necessary to have privileged rights to perform certain actions. If Exegol does not allow you to have specifically the rights necessary, you can configure your container in privileged mode to get full administrator rights.

Warning

This configuration is particularly dangerous because it gives the container full admin control over the kernel of the host machine.

Use this option only if you know exactly what you are doing!!

If the need is specifically identified, consider adding capabilities instead!

See the option --privileged of the start action for more details.

Multi-architecture

Exegol supports ARM64 architecture (in addition to the classic AMD64) since version 4.1.0 of the wrapper and 3.0.0 of the images.

This support allows you to fully use exegol on hardware equipped with an ARM processor (such as Mac M1 / M2 but also some Raspberry Pi).

Warning

Exegol only supports 64-bit ARM architecture! If your ARM processor supports 64-bit, make sure your OS is also installed in 64-bit version to use exegol!

Tip

For experienced users or developers, it is possible to explicitly modify the architecture used by the Exegol wrapper with the general option --arch ARCH.

But be careful, the modification of this parameter can lead to malfunctions!

Local image building

The wrapper allows users to locally build their images from the exegol-images sources.

More information in the advanced uses section.

Remote image pulling

To save time, pre-built images are available for download from DockerHub. These images can be downloaded and installed / updated from the exegol wrapper with the install and update actions.

Command execution

The Exegol wrapper does not only allow the opening of interactive shells, it is also possible to execute single commands in several ways.

Tip

To see the execution logs of the command, the user must add the parameter -v.

The details of this functionality are detailed in the exec action.

Daemon execution

One of the execution modes can be in the background like a daemon service. In this way the wrapper executes the user’s command, for example an application such as bloodhound. The wrapper launches the task in an exegol container and finishes immediately without occupying the user’s terminal, leaving the application open.

See the option --background of the exec action for more details.

Temporary containers

Another feature of the exec action is the execution in a temporary container.

In this mode, a temporary container will be created and dedicated to the execution of the command specified by the user.

This mode can be useful to run a given command with the most up-to-date image already installed on the host, for any test or for special privacy needs.

See the option --tmp of the exec action for more details.

Python Wrapper

Features

X11 sharing (GUI)

Desktop

Workspace

Update-fs

OpenVPN connection

Shell logging

Shared network

Shared timezones

Exegol-resources

My-resources

Volume sharing

Port sharing

Env. variables

Device sharing

Custom hostname

Comments

Capabilities

Privileged

Multi-architecture

Local image building

Remote image pulling

Command execution

Daemon execution

Temporary containers