AScreen

A Qt tray-type application that allows for capturing (via user-selectable area or entire window) screenshots, or codeblocks associated with a particular ASHIRT instance.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Install
• Configuration
• Contribute
• License

Background

This application allows users to connect to a remote ASHIRT backend and create and submit new evidence. Screenshots are taken using a custom, user-defined key, or alternately by selecting the appropriate action in the tray menu. Codeblocks can be added via an action in the tray. Both can be managed from within the application.

Install

Official releases for Mac and Linux will be provided via the releases tab in GitHub along with source code for users to build themselves if desired.

Non-tray OSes

Current Status: Non-functional

Some OSes/desktops do not support a tray (e.g. ice3 window manager). Currently, in these cases, the application will not work, and simply exit instead. Eventually, a simple CLI will be set up to continue to interact with this application.

Getting Started

On the first launch, the user must first set up an appropriate configuration. When the tray displays, open the tray and select Settings. From here, you will be presented with some options:

Field	Meaning
Evidence Repository	Where evidence is stored. Note that this is a jumping off point. Files are stored in a subdirectory using the operation name
Access Key	The (shorter) base-64 key given by the AShirt front end (look for this in Account Settings)
Secret Key	The (longer) base-64 key given by the AShirt front end
Host Path	The http location to the AShirt server
Capture Area Command	The CLI command to take a screenshot of an arbitrary area and save to a file. More on this below
[Capture Area Command] Shortcut	The key combination used (at a system level) to trigger the capture area command
Capture Window Command	The CLI command to take of a given window, and save to a file
[Capture Area Command] Shortcut	The key combination used (at a system level) to trigger the capture window command

Once the above is configured, save the settings and you can now select an operation. Open the tray, and under Select Operation, choose an operation to start using the application. (Note: you may need to choose Refresh Operations in the submenu)

Screenshot Commands

This application requires taking screenshots from the command line. The application must:

1. Allow for saving the screenshot to a named file.
2. Create the file must before the application exits.

Theorectically, any application that satisfies this requirement will work. For Mac, the system command to do this is pre-populated, since this is a standard feature. For Linux, there are a number of screenshot commands, and so none are provided. For Windows, a 3rd party application must be used, as there is currently no way to save a screenshot to a named file.

This tool will replace the above filename with %file as noted below:

OS/DE/App	Capture Window	Capture Area	Notes
Linux/Gnome	gnome-screenshot -w -f %file	gnome-screenshot -a -f %file	Capture window captures the focused window, rather than allowing a selection; adding the --delay flag can help mitigate choosing the wrong window
MacOS X	screencapture -w %file	screencapture -s %file

Note: this application expects a single, basic command. While piping output to another command may work, it is not guaranteed. Likewise, providing multiple commands on the same "line" may work, but is also not guaranteed. Offically, both of these techniques are unsupported.

Shortcuts

Global shortcut keys can be registered with your computer, depending on the exact operating system. These shortcuts may conflict with shortcuts for a given application, where it is unclear which shortcut will trigger. All this is to say that this feature, while supported, may not work perfectly every time. That said, here is how you configure shortcuts:

Within Settings next to each capture command is a small text box to provide the shortcut. Each shortcut should add in one or more modifier keys (e.g. ctrl) in order to provide less of a chance to interfere with other system/application commands. These modifier keys have reserved names for shortcuts, noted in the below table:

Key	Name	Alternate Names
Shift	shift	shft
Control	control	ctrl
Alt	alt	--
Windows/Meta/MacOS Command key	meta	win

To specify a shortcut pattern, simply decide on what set of modifier keys you want, plus a single alphanumeric key (or F- key), and separate these by +.

E.g. Ctrl+Shift+p

Switching and Pausing Operations

Evidence is tied to an operation, and when an operation is paused, or inactive, then the hotkey commands will not work. It may be useful to pause an operation (within this application) once you know you will not be taking additional screenshots. Simply navigate to Select Operation > Pause Operation to pause an operation, and go to the same place (now called Enable Operation) to resume this application. Note: pausing an operation a really more of a pause of this application. You can still use the AShirt website. However, when switching operations, if you were previously in a paused state, you will remain in a paused state.

To change operations, similarly to pause operation, navigate to Select Operation and choose one of the operations exposed in the list. If the operation you are looking for is not in the list, try pressing the Refresh Operations, or check with the operation owner to ensure that you have write access to that operation.

Managing Evidence

Previous evidence can be reviewed by navigating to View Accumulated Evidence, which will present a screen showing evidence for the current operation. Selecting a row in the evidence list will show:

• A preview of the evidence (Images can be scaled by changing the window size, or my shrinking the description box -- mouse over the divider separating the description from the image)
• The description of the evidence
• Any (active) tags associated with the evidence.

From here you can submit the evidence, if not already submitted. Or, you may delete the file (even if previously submitted -- doing so will remove the file locally, but keep the website copy)

Filtering Evidence

Filtering can be done by specifying items in key:value format. Multiple filters can be added by adding a space between each filter. Keys and values are case insensitive.

Action	Key	Values	Alias(es)	Notes
Show submit errors	err	t/f, or y/n	error, fail, failed	Also works with true/false yes/no
Show evidence for operations	op	operation slug	operation	Pre-populated with current operation, when reset button is pressed
Show evidence taken before a given date	before	today, yesterday or date in yyyy-MM-dd format,	to, til, until	Starts at midnight of the given day
Show evidence taken after a given date	after	today, yesterday or date in yyyy-MM-dd format,	from	Start just before midnight of the next given day
Show evidence taken on a given date	on	today, yesterday or date in yyyy-MM-dd format,	--
Show evidence that has not been submitted	submitted	t/f, or y/n	--	Also works with true/false, yes/no

Date filtering

When trying to apply both a "before" date and "after" date filter, the system will adjust the times so that the "before" date is always after the "after" date. Meaning, the timespan must be inclusive. For example, a range of "before March" and "after May" (excluding March and April) is not valid, and will be revised to "After March, Before May"

When applying only one date, the range is unbounded on the other end. That is, dates are implicily "from the start of time" to "until the end of time"

Local Files

You should never need to access these files outside of the application, however, for clarity, the following files are generate and maintained by this application:

File type	Path	Notes
Screenshots	$eviRepo/$operationSlug/ashirt_screenshot_$randomCharacters.png	Presently, random (english) characters tacked on to the end of a screenshot, to add uniqueness and prevent overwriting
Codeblocks	$eviRepo/$operationSlug/ashirt_codeblock_$randomCharacters.json	Presently, random (english) characters tacked on to the end of the codeblock filename, to add uniqueness and prevent overwriting
Configuration	$userSettingsDirectory/ashirt/screenshot.json	Manages connection info / configuration in "settings" menu
Local Database	$userSettingsDirectory/ashirt/screenshot.sqlite
Settings	$userSettingsDirectory/Verizon Media Group/AShirt Screenshot.conf	Manages state info -- e.g. last used operation ; Managed by Qt

Variable locations

The above paths reference some variables. Some of these values change depending on what operating system is being used (or in how it is configured). The exact paths are unknown, but this may help you find these files:

Path Variable	Notes
$userSettingsDirectory	Where user-specific configuration/settings files are stored.
[For Linux]	On the command line, run echo $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
[For Mac OSX]	Check /Users/(username)/Library/Preferences
[For windows]	This may be in the System Registry
$eviRepo	The Evidence Repository value in the "settings" window
$operationSlug	The operation slug for a given operation. This is a unique representation of an operation name
$randomCharacters	Six random english characters, case-insensitive (for those operating systems that support this). e.g. fTaNpS

Developer Notes

Interested in contributing? See the developer notes for style guide, organization, etc

Configuration

All configuration options are managed through the application UI.

Contribute

Please refer to the contributing.md file for information about how to get involved. We welcome issues, questions, and pull requests.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Credits / Contributors / Thanks

• Joel Smith
• Alex David

Maintainers

• Joe Rozner joe.rozer@verizonmedia.com