Medusa

Medusa is a cross-platform agent compatible with both Python 3.8 and Python 2.7.

Installation

To install Medusa, you'll need Mythic v3 installed on a remote computer. You can find installation instructions for Mythic at the Mythic project page.

From the Mythic install root, run the command:

./mythic-cli install github https://github.com/MythicAgents/Medusa.git

Once installed, restart Mythic to build a new agent.

RabbitMQ Config Notes

The file Payload_Type/medusa/rabbitmq_config.json is a template and must match your Mythic environment.

• Set rabbitmq_password to your Mythic RABBITMQ_PASSWORD value (typically from Mythic .env).
• Set rabbitmq_host to your RabbitMQ host/container name (often mythic_rabbitmq in docker-compose setups, or 127.0.0.1 for local binds).
• Set mythic_server_host to your Mythic server host/container name (often mythic_server in docker-compose setups, or 127.0.0.1 for local binds).

Notable Features

• Dynamic loading/unloading of agent functions to limit exposure of agent capabilities on-disk.
• Loading of Python modules in-memory for use in custom scripts.
• Cross-platform SOCKS5 proxy
• macOS clipboard reader, screenshot grabber and TCC database parsing
• File browser compatibility with upload/download
• Eval() of dynamic Python code
• Basic Authentication Proxy compatibility

Commands Manual Quick Reference

The base agent and included commands all use built-in Python libraries, so do not need additional packages to function. Agents will run the commands in threads, so long-running uploads or downloads won't block the main agent.

General Commands

Command	Syntax	Description
cat	cat path/to/file	Read and output file content.
cd	cd [.. dir]	Change working directory (.. to go up one directory).
cp	cp src_file_or_dir dst_file_or_dir	Copy file or folder to destination.
cwd	cwd	Print working directory.
download	download [path]	Download a file from the target system.
download_bulk	download_bulk [path1] [path2] ...	Download multiple files from the target system in one task.
exit	exit	Exit a callback.
env	env	Print environment variables.
eval_code	eval_code [commands]	Execute python code and return output.
jobkill	jobkill [task id]	Send stop signal to long running task.
jobs	jobs	List long-running tasks, such as downloads.
list_modules	list_modules [module_name]	Lists in-memory modules or the full file listing for a specific module.
load	load command	Load a new capability into an agent.
load_module	load_module	Load a zipped Python module into memory (adapted from here and here).
load_script	load_script	Load and execute a Python script through the agent.
ls	ls [. path]	List files and folders in [path] or use . for current working directory.
mv	mv src_file_or_dir dst_file_or_dir	Move file or folder to destination.
pip_freeze	pip_freeze	Programmatically list installed packages on system.
pty	pty [/bin/bash] / pty self / pty fork	Open an interactive PTY session. Modes: spawn runs a program with a PTY, self opens an in-process Python REPL with live agent state, fork forks the agent into a Python REPL with snapshotted state (Linux/macOS only).
rm	rm file_or_dir	Delete file or folder.
shell	shell [command]	Run a shell command which will spawn using subprocess.Popen(). Note that this will wait for command to complete so be careful not to block your agent.
socks	socks start/stop [port]	Start/stop SOCKS5 proxy through Medusa agent.
sleep	sleep [seconds] [jitter percentage]	Set the callback interval of the agent in seconds.
unload	unload command	Unload an existing capability from an agent.
unload_module	unload_module module_name	Unload a Python module previously loaded into memory.
upload	upload	Upload a file to a remote path on the machine.
watch_dir	watch_dir path seconds	Watch for changes in target directory, polling for changes at a specified rate.

macOS Commands

Command	Syntax	Description
clipboard	clipboard	Output contents of clipboard (uses Objective-C API, as outlined by Cedric Owens here. macOS only, Python 2.7 only).
list_apps	list_apps	List macOS applications (Python 2.7 only, macOS only).
list_tcc	list_tcc [path]	List entries in macOS TCC database (requires full-disk access and Big Sur only atm).
screenshot	screenshot	Take a screenshot (uses Objective-C API, macOS only, Python 2.7 only).
spawn_jxa	spawn_jxa	Spawn an osascript process and pipe Javascript content to it.
vscode_list_recent	vscode_list_recent [state_db]	Lists files and folders recently opened with VSCode.
vscode_open_edits	vscode_open_edits [backup_dir_path]	Lists unsaved changes made to files in VSCode.
vscode_watch_edits	vscode_watch_edits [path to remote dir] [poll_interval]	Poll the VSCode backups directory at a given interval for unsaved edits.

Windows Commands

Command	Syntax	Description
shinject	shinject	Inject shellcode into target PID using CreateRemoteThread (Windows only - adapted from here).
load_dll	load_dll dll_path dll_export	Load an on-disk DLL and execute an exported function (NOTE: This DLL must return an int value on completion, an msfvenom-created DLL, for example, will kill your agent upon completion).
list_dlls	list_dlls [pid]	Read process memory (PEB) of local or target process to fetch list of loaded DLLs (Python 3 only)
ps	ps	Get limited process information, e.g. PID, process names, architecture and binary paths (Python 3 only)
ps_full	ps_full	Get full process information, including PPID, integrity level and command line (Python 3 only)
kill	kill	Terminate a process by process ID (Python 3 only)

Python Versions

Both versions of the Medusa agent use an AES256 HMAC implementation written with built-in libraries (adapted from here), removing the need for any additional dependencies beyond a standard Python install. As such the agent should operate across Windows, Linux and macOS hosts. It's worth mentioning that this crypto implementation does introduce some overhead when handling large files (screenshotting, downloads, etc.) but it's workable.

Py2 vs Py3 Commands

Within the Payload_Type/Medusa/agent_code directory, you will see base_agent files with both py2 and py3 suffixes. Likewise, similar file extensions can be seen for individual function files too.

These are read by the builder.py script to firstly select the right base Python version of the Medusa agent. builder.py will then include commands that are specific to the chosen python version. In the case where a command only has a .py extension, this will be used by default, with the assumption being that no alternative code is needed between the Py2 and Py3 versions.

Threaded Jobs