usbrip (inherited from "USB Ripper", not "USB R.I.P.") is a simple forensics tool with command line interface that lets you keep track of USB device artifacts (i.e., USB event history) on Linux machines.
Table of Contents:
- Description
- Quick Start
- Showcase
- Git Clone
- Dependencies
- Installation
- Usage
- Examples
- Credits & References
- Post Scriptum
usbrip is a small piece of software written in pure Python 3 (using some external modules, see Dependencies/pip) which analyzes Linux log data (journalctl
output or /var/log/syslog*
and /var/log/messages*
files, depending on the distro) for constructing USB event history tables. Such tables may contain the following columns: "Connected" (date & time), "Host", "VID" (vendor ID), "PID" (product ID), "Product", "Manufacturer", "Serial Number", "Port" and "Disconnected" (date & time).
Besides, it also can:
- export collected information as a JSON dump (and open such dumps, of course);
- generate a list of authorized (trusted) USB devices as a JSON (call it
auth.json
); - search for "violation events" based on the
auth.json
: show (or generate another JSON with) USB devices that do appear in history and do NOT appear in theauth.json
; - *when installed with
-s
flag* create crypted storages (7zip archives) to automatically backup and accumulate USB events with the help ofcrontab
scheduler; - search additional details about a specific USB device based on its VID and/or PID.
usbrip is available for download and installation at PyPI (the latest version is always on GitHub, though):
~$ pip3 install --upgrade usbrip
Docker (*DEMO ONLY!*)
~$ docker run --rm -it snovvcrash/usbrip
For simplicity, lets agree that all the commands where ~/usbrip$
prefix is appeared are executed in the ~/usbrip
directory which is created as a result of git clone:
~$ git clone https://github.com/snovvcrash/usbrip.git usbrip && cd usbrip
~/usbrip$
usbrip supports two types of format:
- Non-modified — standard
syslog
structure for GNU/Linux ("%b %d %H:%M:%S"
, ex."Jan 1 00:00:00"
). This type of timestamp does not provide the information about years. - Modified (recommended) — improved structure of system log files which provides high precision timestamps (
"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z"
, ex."1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000-00:00"
).
If you use journalctl
to manage your logs, then there's nothing to worry about (as it can convert timestamps on the fly).
Otherwise, the desired structure could be achieved by setting RSYSLOG_FileFormat
format if you are using rsyslog, for example.
- Comment out the following line in
/etc/rsyslog.conf
:
$ActionFileDefaultTemplate RSYSLOG_TraditionalFileFormat
- Add custom .conf file for usbrip:
~$ echo '$ActionFileDefaultTemplate RSYSLOG_FileFormat' | sudo tee /etc/rsyslog.d/usbrip.conf
- (optional) Delete existing log files:
~$ sudo rm -f /var/log/syslog* /var/log/messages*
- Restart the service:
~$ sudo systemctl restart rsyslog
Firstly, usbrip will check if there is a chance to dump system events with journalctl
as the most portable option (which may take some time). If not — it will search for and parse /var/log/syslog*
and /var/log/messages*
system log files.
- python3.6 (or newer) interpreter;
- python3-venv;
- p7zip-full (used by
storages
module).
~$ sudo apt install python3-venv p7zip-full -y
usbrip makes use of the following external modules:
To resolve Python dependencies manually (it's not necessary actually because pip or setup.py
can automate the process, see Installation) create a virtual environment (optional) and run pip from within:
~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ pip install -r requirements.txt
Or let the pipenv
one-liner do all the dirty work for you:
~/usbrip$ pipenv install && pipenv shell
After that you can run usbrip portably:
(venv) ~/usbrip$ python -m usbrip --help
There are two ways to install usbrip into the system: pip or setup.py
.
First of all, usbrip is pip installable. This means that after git cloning the repo you can simply fire up the pip installation process and after that run usbrip from anywhere in your terminal like so:
~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ pip install .
(venv) ~/usbrip$ usbrip --help
Or if you want to resolve Python dependencies locally (without bothering PyPI), use setup.py
:
~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ python setup.py install
(venv) ~/usbrip$ usbrip --help
👽 Note: you'd likely want to run the installation process while the Python virtual environment is active (like it is shown above).
Secondly, usbrip can also be installed into the system with the installers/install.sh
script.
When using the installers/install.sh
some extra features become available:
- the virtual environment is created automatically;
- the
storage
module becomes available: you can set a crontab job to backup USB events on a schedule (the example of crontab jobs can be found inusbrip/cron/usbrip.cron
).
sudo crontab -e
in order to force the storage update
submodule run as root. The storage passwords are kept in /var/opt/usbrip/usbrip.ini
and accessible by root only.
The installers/uninstall.sh
script removes all the installation artifacts from your system.
To install usbrip use:
~/usbrip$ chmod +x installers/install.sh
~/usbrip$ sudo -H installers/install.sh [-l/--local] [-s/--storages]
~/usbrip$ cd
~$ usbrip --help
- When
-l
switch is enabled, Python dependencies are resolved from local .tar packages (./3rdPartyTools/
) instead of PyPI. - When
-s
switch is enabled, not only the usbrip project is installed, but also the list of trusted USB devices, history and violations storages are created.
After the installation completes, feel free to remove the ~/usbrip
folder.
When installed, the usbrip uses the following paths:
/opt/usbrip/
— project's main directory;/var/opt/usbrip/usbrip.ini
— usbrip configuration file (keeps passwords for 7zip storages);/var/opt/usbrip/storage/
— USB event storages:history.7z
andviolations.7z
(created during the installation process);/var/opt/usbrip/log/
— usbrip logs (recommended to log usbrip activity when using crontab, seeusbrip/cron/usbrip.cron
);/var/opt/usbrip/trusted/
— list of trusted USB devices (created during the installation process);/usr/local/bin/usbrip
— symlink to the/opt/usbrip/venv/bin/usbrip
script.
Cron jobs can be set as follows:
~/usbrip$ sudo crontab -l > tmpcron && echo "" >> tmpcron
~/usbrip$ cat usbrip/cron/usbrip.cron | tee -a tmpcron
~/usbrip$ sudo crontab tmpcron
~/usbrip$ rm tmpcron
To uninstall usbrip use:
~/usbrip$ chmod +x installers/uninstall.sh
~/usbrip$ sudo installers/uninstall.sh [-a/--all]
- When
-a
switch is enabled, not only the usbrip project directory is deleted, but also all the storages and usbrip logs are deleted too.
And don't forget to remove the cron job.
# ---------- BANNER ----------
$ usbrip banner
Get usbrip banner.
# ---------- EVENTS ----------
$ sudo usbrip events history [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Get USB event history.
$ sudo usbrip events open <DUMP.JSON> [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Open USB event dump.
$ sudo usbrip events genauth <OUT_AUTH.JSON> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Generate a list of trusted (authorized) USB devices.
$ sudo usbrip events violations <IN_AUTH.JSON> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Get USB violation events based on the list of trusted devices.
# ---------- STORAGE ----------
$ sudo usbrip storage list <STORAGE_TYPE> [-q] [--debug]
List contents of the selected storage. STORAGE_TYPE is "history" or "violations".
$ sudo usbrip storage open <STORAGE_TYPE> [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Open selected storage. Behaves similary to the EVENTS OPEN submodule.
$ sudo usbrip storage update <STORAGE_TYPE> [IN_AUTH.JSON] [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Update storage -- add USB events to the existing storage. COMPRESSION_LEVEL is a number in [0..9].
$ sudo usbrip storage create <STORAGE_TYPE> [IN_AUTH.JSON] [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--host <HOST> [<HOST> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Create storage -- create 7zip archive and add USB events to it according to the selected options.
$ sudo usbrip storage passwd <STORAGE_TYPE> [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Change password of the existing storage.
# ---------- IDs ----------
$ usbrip ids search [--vid <VID>] [--pid <PID>] [--offline] [-q] [--debug]
Get extra details about a specific USB device by its <VID> and/or <PID> from the USB ID database.
$ usbrip ids download [-q] [--debug]
Update (download) the USB ID database.
To get a list of module names use:
~$ usbrip --help
To get a list of submodule names for a specific module use:
~$ usbrip <module> --help
To get a list of all switches for a specific submodule use:
~$ usbrip <module> <submodule> --help
-
Show the event history of all USB devices, supressing banner output, info messages and user interaction (
-q
,--quiet
), represented as a list (-l
,--list
) with latest 100 entries (-n NUMBER
,--number NUMBER
):~$ sudo usbrip events history -ql -n 100
-
Show the event history of the external USB devices (
-e
,--external
, which were actually disconnected) represented as a table (-t
,--table
) containing "Connected", "VID", "PID", "Disconnected" and "Serial Number" columns (-c COLUMN [COLUMN ...]
,--column COLUMN [COLUMN ...]
) filtered by date (-d DATE [DATE ...]
,--date DATE [DATE ...]
) and PID (--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]
) with logs taken from the outer files (-f FILE [FILE ...]
,--file FILE [FILE ...]
):~$ sudo usbrip events history -et -c conn vid pid disconn serial -d '1995-09-15' '2018-07-01' --pid 1337 -f /var/log/syslog.1 /var/log/syslog.2.gz
👽 Note: there is a thing to remember when working with filters. There are 4 types of filtering available: only external USB events (devices that can be pulled out easily,
-e
); by date (-d
); by fields (--host
,--vid
,--pid
,--product
,--manufact
,--serial
,--port
) and by number of entries you get as the output (-n
). When applying different filters simultaneously, you will get the following behaviour: firstly, external and by date filters are applied, then usbrip will search for specified field values in the intersection of the last two filters, and in the end it will cut the output to the number you defined with the-n
option. So think of it as an intersection for external and by date filtering and union for by fields filtering. Hope it makes sense. -
Build the event history of all USB devices and redirect the output to a file for further analysis. When the output stream is NOT terminal stdout (
|
or>
for example) there would be no ANSI escape characters (color) in the output so feel free to use it that way. Also notice that usbrip uses some UNICODE symbols so it would be nice to convert the resulting file to UTF-8 encoding (withencov
for example) as well as change newline characters to Windows style for portability (withawk
for example):~$ sudo usbrip history events -t | awk '{ sub("$", "\r"); print }' > usbrip.out && enconv -x UTF8 usbrip.out
Remark: you can always get rid of the escape characters by yourself even if you have already got the output to stdout. To do that just copy the output data to
usbrip.out
and add one moreawk
instruction:~$ awk '{ sub("$", "\r"); gsub("\\x1B\\[[0-?]*[ -/]*[@-~]", ""); print }' usbrip.out && enconv -x UTF8 usbrip.out
-
Generate a list of trusted USB devices as a JSON-file (
trusted/auth.json
) with "VID" and "PID" attributes containing the first three devices connected on November 30, 1984:~$ sudo usbrip events genauth trusted/auth.json -a vid pid -n 3 -d '1984-11-30'
⚠️ Warning: there are cases when different USB flash drives might have identical serial numbers. This could happen as a result of a manufacturing error or just some black hats were able to rewrite the drive's memory chip which turned out to be non-one-time programmable and so on... Anyways, "No system is safe". usbrip does not handle such cases in a smart way so far, namely it will treat a pair of devices with identical SNs (if there exists one) as the same device regarding to the trusted device list andgenauth
module. -
Search the event history of the external USB devices for violations based on the list of trusted USB devices (
trusted/auth.json
) by "PID" attribute, restrict resulting events to those which have "Bob-PC" as a hostname, "EvilUSBManufacturer" as a manufacturer, "0123456789" as a serial number and represent the output as a table with "Connected", "VID" and "PID" columns:~$ sudo usbrip events violations trusted/auth.json -a pid -et --host Bob-PC --manufact EvilUSBManufacturer --serial 0123456789 -c conn vid pid
-
Search for details about a specific USB device by its VID (
--vid VID
) and PID (--pid PID
):~$ usbrip ids search --vid 0781 --pid 5580
-
Download the latest version of
usb.ids
database:~$ usbrip ids download
- usbrip / Инструменты Kali Linux
- Как узнать, какие USB устройства подключались к Linux / HackWare.ru
- Linux-форензика в лице трекинга истории подключений USB-устройств / Хабр
- Linux Forensics! First Look at usbrip / YouTube / 13Cubed
Yep, the banner and info messages style is inspired by the sqlmap project (⌒_⌒;)
If this tool has been useful for you, feel free to buy me a coffee.