T-Pot is the all in one, optionally distributed, multiarch (amd64, arm64) honeypot plattform, supporting 20+ honeypots and countless visualization options using the Elastic Stack, animated live attack maps and lots of security tools to further improve the deception experience.
T-Pot is based on the Debian 11 (Bullseye) Netinstaller and utilizes
[docker](https://www.docker.com/) and [docker-compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) to reach its goal of running as many tools as possible simultaneously and thus utilizing the host's hardware to its maximum.
1. Meet the [system requirements](#requirements). The T-Pot installation needs at least 8-16 GB RAM and 128 GB free disk space as well as a working (outgoing non-filtered) internet connection.
2. Download the T-Pot ISO from [GitHub](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/releases) acording to your architecture (amd64, arm64) or [create it yourself](#createiso).
- For fast help research the [Issues](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/issues) and [Discussions](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/discussions).
- The software is designed and offered with best effort in mind. As a community and open source project it uses lots of other open source software and may contain bugs and issues. Report responsibly.
- By default, your data is submitted to [Sicherheitstacho](https://www.sicherheitstacho.eu/start/main). You can disable this in the config (`/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml`) by [removing](#community-data-submission) the ewsposter section. But in this case sharing really is caring!
T-Pot is based on the Debian Netinstaller and utilizes
[docker](https://www.docker.com/) and [docker-compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) to reach its goal of running as many tools simultaneously as possible and thus utilizing the host's hardware to its maximum.
* [Fatt](https://github.com/0x4D31/fatt) a pyshark based script for extracting network metadata and fingerprints from pcap files and live network traffic.
* [Geoip-Attack-Map](https://github.com/eddie4/geoip-attack-map) a beautifully animated attack map [optimized](https://github.com/t3chn0m4g3/geoip-attack-map) for T-Pot.
The source code and configuration files are fully stored in the T-Pot GitHub repository. The docker images are built and preconfigured for the T-Pot environment.
During the installation and during the usage of T-Pot there are two different types of accounts you will be working with. Make sure you know the differences of the different account types, since it is **by far** the most common reason for authentication errors and `fail2ban` lockouts.
Depending on the installation setup, edition, installing on [real hardware](#running-on-hardware), in a [virtual machine](#running-in-a-vm) or [cloud](#running-in-a-cloud) there are different kind of requirements to be met regarding OS, RAM, storage and network for a successful installation of T-Pot (you can always adjust `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml` to your needs to overcome these requirements).
*If you need proxy support or static IP addresses please review the [Debian](https://www.debian.org/doc/index.en.html) and / or [Docker documentation](https://docs.docker.com/).*
- While Intel versions run stable, Apple Silicon (arm64) support for Debian has known issues which in UTM may require switching `Display` to `Console Only` during initial installation of T-Pot / Debian and afterwards back to `Full Graphics`.
- During configuration you may need to enable promiscuous mode for the network interface in order for fatt, suricata and p0f to work properly.
- If you want to use a wifi card as a primary NIC for T-Pot, please be aware that not all network interface drivers support all wireless cards. In VirtualBox e.g. you have to choose the *"MT SERVER"* model of the NIC.
Since the number of possible hardware combinations is too high to make general recommendations. If you are unsure, you should test the hardware with the T-Pot ISO image or use the post install method.
Some users report working installations on other clouds and hosters, i.e. Azure and GCP. Hardware requirements may be different. If you are unsure you should research [issues](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/issues) and [discussions](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/discussions) and run some functional tests. Cloud support is a community developed feature and hyperscalers are known to adjust linux images, so expect some necessary adjustments on your end.
Besides the ports generally needed by the OS, i.e. obtaining a DHCP lease, DNS, etc. T-Pot will require the following ports for incomding / outgoing connections. Review the [T-Pot Architecure](#technical-architecture) for a visual representation. Also some ports will show up as duplicates, which is fine since used in different editions.
Ports and availability of SaaS services may vary based on your geographical location. Also during first install outgoing ICMP / TRACEROUTE is required additionally to find the closest and fastest mirror to you.
For some honeypots to reach full functionality (i.e. Cowrie or Log4Pot) outgoing connections are necessary as well, in order for them to download the attackers malware. Please see the individual honeypot's documentation to learn more by following the [links](#technical-concept) to their repositories.
It is recommended to get yourself familiar how T-Pot and the honeypots work before you start exposing towards the interet. For a quickstart run a T-Pot installation in a virtual machine.
Once you are familiar how things work you should choose a network you suspect intruders in or from (i.e. the internet). Otherwise T-Pot will most likely not capture any attacks (unless you want to proof a point)! For starters it is recommended to put T-Pot in an unfiltered zone, where all TCP and UDP traffic is forwarded to T-Pot's network interface. To avoid probing for T-Pot's management ports you can put T-Pot behind a firewall and forward all TCP / UDP traffic in the port range of 1-64000 to T-Pot while allowing access to ports > 64000 only from trusted IPs and / or only expose the [ports](#required-ports) relevant to your use-case. If you wish to catch malware traffic on unknown ports you should not limit the ports you forward since glutton and honeytrap dynamically bind any TCP port that is not covered by other honeypot daemons and thus give you a better representation what risks your setup is exposed to.
The T-Pot installation is offered in different variations. While the overall installation of T-Pot is straight forward it heavily depends on a working, non-proxied (unless you made modifications) up and running internet connection (also see [required outgoing ports](#required-ports)). If these conditions are not met the installation **will fail!** either during the execution of the Debian Installer, after the first reboot before the T-Pot Installer is starting up or while the T-Pot installer is trying to download all the necessary dependencies.
Installing T-Pot based on an ISO image is basically the same routine as with any other ISO based Linux distribution. Running on hardware You copy the ISO file to an USB drive (i.e. with [Etcher](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher)) and boot into the Debian installer and choose to install **T-Pot** or you mount the ISO image as a virtual drive in one of the supported [hypervisors](#running-in-a-vm).
On the [T-Pot release page](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/releases) you will find two prebuilt ISO images for download `tpot_amd64.iso` and `tpot_arm64.iso`. Both are based on Debian 11 for x64 / arm64 based hardware. So far ARM64 support is limited, but works mostly fine with [UTM](#running-in-a-vm) based VMs on Apple Silicon (M1x) Macs.
In case you want to modify T-Pot for your environment or simply want to take things into your own hands you can use the [ISO Creator](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce) to build your own ISO image.
The script will download and install dependencies necessary to build the image. It will further download the Debian Netiso installer image (~50-150MB) which T-Pot is based on.
3. After a successful build, you will find the ISO image `tpot_[amd64,arm64].iso` along with a SHA256 checksum `tpot_[amd64,arm64].sha256` based on your architecture choice in your folder.
In some cases it is necessary to install T-Pot after you installed Debian, i.e. your provider does not offer you the option of an ISO based installation, you need special drivers for your hardware to work, or you want to experiment with ARM64 hardware that is not supported by the ISO image. In that case you can clone the T-Pot repository on your own. Make sure you understand the different [user types](#user-types) before setting up your OS.
Since T-Pot is based on the Debian Netinstall Image ([amd64](http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso), [arm64](http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso)) it is heavily recommended you use this image, too, if possible. It is very lightweight and only offers to install core services.
You can also let the installer run automatically if you provide your own `tpot.conf`. An example is available in `tpotce/iso/installer/tpot.conf.dist`. This should make things easier in case you want to automate the installation i.e. with **Ansible**.
Usage of the T-Pot Installer is mostly self explanatory, since the installer will guide you through the setup process. Depending on your installation method [ISO Based](#iso-based) or [Post Install](#post-install) you will be asked to create a password for the user `tsec` and / or create a `<web-username>` and password. Make sure to remember the username and passwords you understand their meanings outlined in [User Types](#user-types).
<br><br>
## Installation Types
In the past T-Pot was only available as a [standalone](#standalone) solution with all services, tools, honeypots, etc. installed on to a single machine. Based on demand T-Pot now also offers a [distributed](#distributed) solution. While the standalone solution does not require additional explanation the distributed option requires you to select different editions (or flavors).
<br><br>
### **Standalone**
With T-Pot Standalone all services, tools, honeypots, etc. will be installed on to a single host. Make sure to meet the [system requirements](#system-requirements). You can choose from various pre-defined T-Pot editions (or flavors) depending on your personal use-case (you can always adjust `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml` to your needs).
Once the installation is finished you can proceed to [First Start](#first-start).
<br><br>
### **Distributed**
The distributed version of T-Pot requires at least two hosts
- the T-Pot **HIVE**, which will host the Elastic Stack and T-Pot tools (install this first!),
- and a T-Pot **HIVE_SENSOR**, which will host the honeypots and transmit log data to the **HIVE's** Elastic Stack.
To finalize the **HIVE_SENSOR** installation continue to [Distributed Deployment](#distributed-deployment).
*Please note*: Cloud providers usually offer adjusted Debian OS images, which might not be compatible with T-Pot. There is no cloud provider support provided of any kind.
It first creates all resources (security group, network, subnet, router), deploys one (or more) new servers and then installs and configures T-Pot on them.
You can have a look at the Playbook and easily adapt the deploy role for other [cloud providers](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/scenario_guides/cloud_guides.html). Check out [Ansible Galaxy](https://galaxy.ansible.com/search?keywords=&order_by=-relevance&page=1&deprecated=false&type=collection&tags=cloud) for more cloud collections.
*Please note*: Cloud providers usually offer adjusted Debian OS images, which might not be compatible with T-Pot. There is no cloud provider support provided of any kind.
This can easily be extended to support other [Terraform providers](https://registry.terraform.io/browse/providers?category=public-cloud%2Ccloud-automation%2Cinfrastructure).
*Please note*: Cloud providers usually offer adjusted Debian OS images, which might not be compatible with T-Pot. There is no cloud provider support provided of any kind.
Once the T-Pot Installer successfully finishes, the system will automatically reboot and you will be presented with the T-Pot login screen. Logins are according to the [User Types](#user-types):
You can login from your browser and access Cockpit: `https://<your.ip>:64294` or via SSH to access the command line: `ssh -l [tsec,<os_username>] -p 64295 <your.ip>`:
There is not much to do except to login and check via `dps.sh` if all services and honeypots are starting up correctly and login to Kibana and / or Geoip Attack Map to monitor the attacks.
With the distributed deployment firstly login to **HIVE** and the **HIVE_SENSOR** and check via `dps.sh` if all services and honeypots are starting up correctly. Once you have confirmed everything is working fine you need to deploy the **HIVE_SENSOR** to the **HIVE** in order to transmit honeypot logs to the Elastic Stack.
For **deployment** simply keep the **HIVE** login data ready and follow these steps while the `deploy.sh` script will setup the **HIVE** and **HIVE_SENSOR** for securely shipping and receiving logs:
The script will ask for the **HIVE** login data, the **HIVE** IP address, will create SSH keys accordingly and deploy them securely over a SSH connection to the **HIVE**. On the **HIVE** machine a user with the **HIVE_SENSOR** hostname is created, belonging to a user group `tpotlogs` which may only open a SSH tunnel via port `64295` and transmit Logstash logs to port `127.0.0.1:64305`, with no permission to login on a shell. You may review the config in `/etc/ssh/sshd_config` and the corresponding `autossh` settings in `docker/elk/logstash/dist/entrypoint.sh`. Settings and keys are stored in `/data/elk/logstash` and loaded as part of `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml`.
T-Pot is provided in order to make it accessible to all interested in honeypots. By default, the captured data is submitted to a community backend. This community backend uses the data to feed [Sicherheitstacho](https://sicherheitstacho.eu).
You may opt out of the submission by removing the `# Ewsposter service` from `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml` by following these steps:
1. Stop T-Pot services: `systemctl stop tpot`
2. Open `tpot.yml`: `vi /opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml`
3. Remove the following lines, save and exit vi (`:x!`):
As an Opt-In it is now possible to also share T-Pot data with 3rd party HPFEEDS brokers.
If you want to share your T-Pot data you simply have to register an account with a 3rd party broker with its own benefits towards the community. You simply run `hpfeeds_optin.sh` which will ask for your credentials. It will automatically update `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml` to deliver events to your desired broker.
According to the [User Types](#user-types) you can login from your browser and access Cockpit: `https://<your.ip>:64294` or via SSH to access the command line: `ssh -l [tsec,<os_username>] -p 64295 <your.ip>`:
Especially if you do not have a SSH client at hand and still want to access the machine with a command line option you can do so by accessing Cockpit. You can also add two factor authentication to Cockpit just by running `2fa.sh` on the command line.
On the T-Pot Landing Page just click on `Kibana` and you will be forwarded to Kibana. You can select from a large variety of dashboards and visualizations all tailored to the T-Pot supported honeypots.
On the T-Pot Landing Page just click on `Attack Map` and you will be forwarded to the Attack Map. Since the Attack Map utilizes web sockets you need to re-enter the `<web_user>` credentials.
While security update are installed automatically by the OS and docker images are pulled once per day (`/etc/crontab`) to check for updated images, T-Pot offers the option to be updated to the latest master and / or upgrade a previous version. Updating and upgrading always introduces the risk of loosing your data, so it is heavily encouraged you backup your machine before proceeding.
<br><br>
Should an update fail, opening an issue or a discussion will help to improve things in the future, but the solution will always be to perform a ***fresh install*** as we simply ***cannot*** provide any support for lost data!
<br>
## ***If you made any relevant changes to the T-Pot config files make sure to create a backup first!***
## ***Updates may have unforeseen consequences. Create a backup of the machine or the files with the most value to your work!***
All persistent log files from the honeypots, tools and T-Pot related services are stored in `/data`. This includes collected artifacts which are not transmitted to the Elastic Stack.
All log data stored in the [T-Pot Data Folder](#t-pot-data-folder) will be persisted for 30 days by default. The persistence for the log files can be changed in `/opt/tpot/etc/logrotate/logrotate.conf`.
<br>
Elasticsearch indices are handled by the `tpot` Index Lifecycle Policy which can be adjusted directly in Kibana.
By default the `tpot` Index Lifecycle Policy keeps the indices for 30 days. This offers a good balance between storage and speed. However you may adjust the policy to your needs.
<br><br>
## Clean Up
All log data stored in the [T-Pot Data Folder](#t-pot-data-folder) (except for Elasticsearch indices, of course) can be erased by running `clean.sh`.
<br><br>
## Show Containers
You can show all T-Pot relevant containers by running `dps.sh` or `dps.sh [interval]`. The `interval (s)` will re-run `dps.sh` automatically. You may also run `glances` which will also give you more insight into system usage and available resources while still showing the containers running.
<br><br>
## Blackhole
Some users reported they wanted to have the option to run T-Pot in some sort of stealth mode without permanent visits of publicly known scanners and thus reducing the possibility of being exposed. While this is of course always a cat and mouse game T-Pot now offers a blackhole feature that is null routing all requests from [known mass scanners](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stamparm/maltrail/master/trails/static/mass_scanner.txt) while still catching the events through Suricata.
<br>
The feature is activated by running `blackhole.sh add` which will download the mass scanner ip list, add the blackhole routes and re-add keep them active until `blackhole.sh del` permanently removes them.
<br>
Enabling this feature will drastically reduce some attackers visibility and consequently result in less activity. However as already mentioned it is neither a guarantee for being completely stealth nor will it prevent fingerprinting of some honeypot services.
If you want to remove users you just modify `nginxpasswd` with `vi` or any other editor, remove the corresponding line and restart T-Pot again.
<br><br>
## Import and Export Kibana Objects
Some T-Pot updates will require you to update the Kibana objects. Either to support new honeypots or to improve existing dashboards or visualizations. Make sure to ***export*** first so you do not loose any of your adjustments.
### **Export**
1. Go to Kibana
2. Click on "Stack Management"
3. Click on "Saved Objects"
4. Click on "Export <no.> objetcs"
5. Click on "Export all"
This will export a NDJSON file with all your objects. Always run a full export to make sure all references are included.
### **Import**
1. [Download the NDJSON file](https://github.com/dtag-dev-sec/tpotce/blob/master/etc/objects/kibana_export.ndjson.zip) and unzip it.
2. Go to Kibana
3. Click on "Stack Management"
4. Click on "Saved Objects"
5. Click on "Import" and leave the defaults (check for existing objects and automatically overwrite conflicts) if you did not make personal changes to the Kibana objects.
6. Browse NDJSON file
When asked: "If any of the objects already exist, do you want to automatically overwrite them?" you answer with "Yes, overwrite all".
<br><br>
## Switch Editions
You can switch between T-Pot editions (flavors) by running `tped.sh`.
<br><br>
## Redeploy Hive Sensor
In case you need to re-deploy your Hive Sensor, i.e. the IP of your Hive has changed or you want to move the Hive Sensor to a new Hive, you simply follow these commands:
```
sudo su -
systemctl stop tpot
rm /data/elk/logstash/*
deploy.sh
reboot
```
<br><br>
## Adjust tpot.yml
Maybe the avaialble T-Pot editions do not apply to your use-case or you need a different set of honeypots. You can adjust `/opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml` to your own preference. If you need examples how this works, just follow the configuration of the existing editions (docker-compose files) in `/opt/tpot/etc/compose` and follow the [Docker Compose Specification](https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/).
```
sudo su -
systemctl stop tpot
vi /opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml
docker-compose -f /opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml up (to see if everything works, CTRL+C)
docker-compose -f /opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml down -v
systemctl start tpot
```
<br><br>
## Enable Cockpit 2FA
You can enable two-factor-authentication for Cockpit by running `2fa.sh`.
We hope you understand that we cannot provide support on an individual basis. We will try to address questions, bugs and problems on our [GitHub issue list](https://github.com/telekom-security/tpotce/issues).
Without open source and the fruitful development community (we are proud to be a part of), T-Pot would not have been possible! Our thanks are extended but not limited to the following people and organizations:
A new version of T-Pot is released about every 6-12 months, development has shifted more and more towards rolling releases and the usage of `/opt/tpot/update.sh`.
***"[...] I highly recommend T-Pot which is ... it's not exactly a swiss army knife .. it's more like a swiss army soldier, equipped with a swiss army knife. Inside a tank. A swiss tank. [...]"***<br>
And from @robcowart (creator of [ElastiFlow](https://github.com/robcowart/elastiflow)):<br>
***"#TPot is one of the most well put together turnkey honeypot solutions. It is a must-have for anyone wanting to analyze and understand the behavior of malicious actors and the threat they pose to your organization."***
