ctf-tools

This is a Nix flake packaging various security research tools. Of course, this isn't a hard problem, but it's really nice to have them in one place that's easily deployable to new machines and so forth. The packages are checked every once in a while, so things should hopefully have a decent chance of working!

The following tools are included. The first table lists tools packaged in this repo (under nix/pkgs/); the second lists tools taken from nixpkgs.

NIX??????

Long-time ctf-tools users might be surprised by this development, but it is a good development. Nix provides isolated packaging and can be deployed into a dev/hack environment, locally into a user's home directory, or globally system/container-wide. It also happily installs alongside your normal OS and package manager (e.g., ubuntu and apt) with zero interference. Trust me, I was as skeptical as you are for years, but it is the way.

Packaged in this repo

Category	Tool	Description
binary	angr	Next-generation binary analysis engine from Shellphish.
binary	angr-management	A GUI reverse engineering and decompilation tool.
binary	beef	Browser exploitation framework.
binary	crosstool	Cross-compilers and cross-architecture tools.
binary	cross2	A set of cross-compilation tools from a Japanese book on C.
binary	decomp2dbg	A plugin to introduce interactive symbols into your debugger from your decompiler.
binary	elfparser	Multiplatform CLI and GUI tool to show information about ELF files.
binary	evilize	Tool to create MD5 colliding binaries
binary	ida	Decompilation and reversing tool (proprietary: you download it yourself — drop the Hex-Rays tarball in ~/Downloads, or set IDA_HOME to an unpacked install).
binary	ida-pro-mcp	MCP server that drives IDA Pro (headless via idalib, or attached to a running IDA; set up with ida --activate-idalib).
binary	manticore	Manticore is a prototyping tool for dynamic binary analysis, with support for symbolic execution, taint analysis, and binary instrumentation.
binary	preeny	A collection of helpful preloads (compiled for 64- and 32-bit x86).
binary	pwndbg	Enhanced environment for gdb. Especially for pwning.
binary	pwnsh	Useful shell scripts for assembly, exploitation, etc.
binary	qiling	A dynamic binary instrumentation framework. Entry point is qltool.
binary	qira	Parallel, timeless debugger.
binary	shellnoob	Shellcode writing helper.
binary	taintgrind	A valgrind taint analysis tool. Builds and runs, but upstream's IR translator aborts on many binaries (tnt_translate: expr2vbits_Unop).
binary	villoc	Visualization of heap operations.
binary	xrop	Gadget finder.
forensics	firmware-mod-kit	Tools for firmware packing/unpacking.
forensics	peepdf	Powerful Python tool to analyze PDF documents.
forensics	scrdec18	A decoder for encoded Windows Scripts.
forensics	volatility	Analyzer for system memory dumps (classic python2 version; requires python2 tool).
crypto	codext	Python codecs extension featuring CLI tools for encoding/decoding anything including AI-based guessing mode.
crypto	cribdrag	Interactive crib dragging tool (for crypto).
crypto	fastcoll	An md5sum collision generator.
crypto	foresight	A tool for predicting the output of random number generators. To run, launch "foresee".
crypto	featherduster	An automated, modular cryptanalysis tool. WARNING: needs python2 (which can be installed with ctf-tools).
crypto	galois	A fast galois field arithmetic library/toolkit.
crypto	hashpump-partialhash	Hashpump, supporting partially-unknown hashes.
crypto	libc-database	Build a database of libc offsets to simplify exploitation. Ships the scripts only: run libc-database-get all once to populate the database.
crypto	nonce-disrespect	Nonce-Disrespecting Adversaries: Practical Forgery Attacks on GCM in TLS.
crypto	pemcrack	SSL PEM file cracker.
crypto	reveng	CRC finder.
crypto	rsactftool	RSA attack tool.
crypto	ssh_decoder	A tool for decoding ssh traffic. You will need ruby1.8 from https://launchpad.net/~brightbox/+archive/ubuntu/ruby-ng to run this. Run with ssh_decoder --help for help, as running it with no arguments causes it to crash.
crypto	yafu	Automated integer factorization.
web	burpsuite	Web proxy to do naughty web stuff.
web	subbrute	A DNS meta-query spider that enumerates DNS records, and subdomains.
web	webgrep	grep for Web pages, with JS deobfuscation, CSS unminifying and OCR on images.
stego	steganabara	Another image stenography solver.
stego	stegano-tools	A collection of text and image steganography tools (incl LSB, PVD, PIT).
stego	stegdetect	Stenography detection/breaking tool.
stego	stegosaurus	A steganography tool for embedding arbitrary payloads in Python bytecode (pyc or pyo) files.
misc	jdgui	Java decompiler.
misc	python2	For when you really need it...
misc	social-analyzer	Social media reconnaissance tool...
misc	veles	Binary data analysis and visualization tool.
misc	xspy	Tiny tool to spy on X sessions.
game	df	Dwarf Fortress! Something to help you relax after a CTF!

From nixpkgs

Category	Tool	Description
binary	elfkickers	A set of utilities for working with ELF files.
binary	gdb	Up-to-date gdb with python2 bindings.
binary	gef	Enhanced environment for gdb.
binary	ghidra	Open-source reverse engineering and decompilation tool.
binary	honggfuzz	A general-purpose, easy-to-use fuzzer with interesting analysis options.
binary	one_gadget	Magic gadget search for libc.
binary	pwninit	Script to automate starting pwning challenges.
binary	pwntools	Useful CTF utilities.
binary	qemu	Latest version of qemu!
binary	rappel	A linux-based assembly REPL.
binary	ropper	Another gadget finder.
binary	rp++	Another gadget finder.
binary	seccomp-tools	Provides powerful tools for seccomp analysis
binary	valgrind	A Dynamic Binary Instrumentation framework with some built-in tools.
forensics	pdf-parser	Tool for digging in PDF files
forensics	volatility3	Analyzer for system memory dumps (latest version).
crypto	hash-identifier	Simple hash algorithm identifier.
crypto	msieve	Msieve is a C library implementing a suite of algorithms to factor large integers.
crypto	pkcrack	PkZip encryption cracker.
crypto	sslsplit	SSL/TLS MITM.
crypto	xortool	XOR analysis tool.
web	commix	Command injection and exploitation tool.
web	mitmproxy	CLI Web proxy and python library.
stego	stegsolve	Image stenography solver.
stego	zsteg	detect stegano-hidden data in PNG & BMP.
web	tor-browser	Useful when you need to hit a web challenge from different IPs.

Usage

Every tool is a flake output. To use, do:

# install a tool into your Nix profile
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#gdb

# run a tool without installing it
nix run github:zardus/ctf-tools#ropper

# run a shell with a tool in it
nix shell github:zardus/ctf-tools#ropper

# list every available tool
nix flake show github:zardus/ctf-tools

A bin/manage-tools wrapper around nix profile is also provided, for the familiar CLI:

# (once) configure Nix + the binary cache
/path/to/ctf-tools/bin/manage-tools setup

manage-tools list                 # list the available tools
manage-tools install pwntools
manage-tools uninstall gdb
manage-tools search preload

Tools install into your Nix profile, and uninstalling removes them cleanly.

Cross-compiler toolchains (cross2, crosstool)

Two of the tools are toolchain builders rather than single programs, so they expose one output per target instead of one output overall. Install only the target you need — each is an independent package.

crosstool is the crosstool-NG ct-ng driver, and only the driver — unlike the old shell tool, it puts no cross compilers on your PATH. Installing crosstool gives you ct-ng itself, ready to build your own toolchain from a config:

nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#crosstool
ct-ng list-samples

The compilers themselves are separate outputs: 77 of crosstool-NG's 146 samples are prebuilt as crosstool-ng-<sample>, so you can install a ready-made toolchain (say, arm-none-eabi-gcc) instead of spending an hour building one:

# a bare-metal ARM toolchain: arm-none-eabi-gcc, -gdb, -objdump, ...
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#crosstool-ng-arm-none-eabi

# a full Linux/glibc cross toolchain, with sysroot
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#crosstool-ng-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl

# see all of them (bare-metal newlib/picolibc plus Linux
# glibc/uClibc/musl, and the mingw-w64 Windows targets)
nix flake show github:zardus/ctf-tools | grep crosstool-ng-

The sample name is the crosstool-NG sample id with any character outside [a-zA-Z0-9_-] replaced by - (so x86_64-ubuntu16.04-linux-gnu becomes crosstool-ng-x86_64-ubuntu16-04-linux-gnu).

The other 69 samples that ct-ng list-samples prints have no crosstool-ng-* output — build them yourself with ct-ng <sample> && ct-ng build, or pin one as a flake output by running nix/pkgs/crosstool/pin-samples.sh and folding the hash it prints into nix/pkgs/crosstool/hashes.nix (anything in there is surfaced automatically).

cross2 is the companion toolchain set for the kozos.jp assembly book — binutils 2.21.1 + gcc 3.4.6 + newlib 1.20.0 (+ gdb 7.3.1 where it still builds, or just its CPU simulator, <target>-run, where it does not), for 34 mostly-retro bare-metal targets. Installing cross2 gives you the book's six "major architecture" toolchains (arm, h8300, i386, mips, powerpc, sh); the other targets are individual cross2-<target> outputs:

# the major-architecture bundle
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#cross2

# or just one target, e.g. mmix or vax
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#cross2-mmix-elf
nix profile install github:zardus/ctf-tools#cross2-vax-netbsdelf

These are large, from-source gcc builds, so install them with the binary cache configured — otherwise Nix will build the whole toolchain locally (tens of minutes to hours each).

Help!

Something not working? I didn't write (almost) any of these tools, but hit up the discord if you're desperate. Maybe some kind soul will help!

Binary cache

CI builds the tools packaged in this repo and pushes them to a public Cachix cache, so installs download prebuilt binaries instead of compiling. Trusted Nix users pick this up automatically from the flake's nixConfig; otherwise run cachix use ctftools once (or pass --accept-flake-config).

Dockerized Tools

You can get the tools packaged in this repo in prebuilt containers from dockerhub. For example:

$ echo hi | docker run -i ctftools/taintgrind taintgrind --taint-stdin=yes /bin/cat

The images are generated by CI, which installs the tool into a nixos/nix base with nix profile install.

Adding Tools

To add a tool (say, named toolname):

1. If it is already in nixpkgs, add a line to nix/passthrough.nix.
2. Otherwise, create nix/pkgs/toolname/default.nix — a callPackage-style derivation with its sources pinned by hash — and build it with nix build .#toolname.
3. Add it to the README.

The flake discovers nix/pkgs/* automatically; the output name is the directory name.

License

The individual tools are all licensed under their own licenses. As for ctf-tools itself, it is licensed under BSD 2-Clause License. If you find it useful, star it on GitHub (https://github.com/zardus/ctf-tools).

Good luck!

See Also

There's a curated list of CTF tools, but without installers, here: https://github.com/apsdehal/aWEsoMe-cTf.

There's a Vagrant config with a lot of the bigger frameworks here: https://github.com/thebarbershopper/epictreasure.

Useful CTF tools in apt repos

As tools get officially packaged, we switch to just suggesting that you apt install them!

Category	Source	Tool	Description
binary	apt	aflplusplus	State-of-the-art fuzzer.
binary	apt	checksec	Check binary hardening settings.
binary	apt	radare2	Some crazy thing crowell likes.
binary	apt	rr	Record and Replay Debugging Framework
binary	apt	wcc	The Witchcraft Compiler Collection is a collection of compilation tools to perform binary black magic on the GNU/Linux and other POSIX platforms.
forensics	apt	binwalk	Firmware (and arbitrary file) analysis tool.
forensics	apt	foremost	File carver.
forensics	apt	dislocker	Tool for reading Bitlocker encrypted partitions.
forensics	apt	origami-pdf	PDF manipulator.
forensics	apt	testdisk	Testdisk and photorec for file recovery.
web	apt	dirb	Web path scanner.
web	apt	dirsearch	Web path scanner.
web	apt	sqlmap	SQL injection automation engine.
stego	apt	pngtools	PNG's analysis tool.
stego	apt	sonic-visualizer	Audio file visualization.
networking	apt	dsniff	Grabs passwords and other data from pcaps/network streams.
networking	apt	bettercap	Network shenanigans swiss army knife.
misc	apt	z3	Theorem prover from Microsoft Research.
osint	apt	sherlock	Tools for Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400+ social networks .

Useful CTF tools in docker images

Previously, this repository included some scripts that were wrappers around docker pull. We trust that you can do that yourself :-)

Category	Source	Tool	Description
binary	docker	panda	Platform for Architecture-Neutral Dynamic Analysis.
stego	Docker	stego-toolkit	A docker image with dozens of steg tools.

Useful CTF Libraries

Previously, this repository included library installers. Because of how bespoke library install preferences are (e.g., unlike a tool, it's not clear if per-library venvs are a desired thing), we've stopped shipping them, and link them here for posterity.

Category	Source	Tool	Description
binary	Library	capstone	Multi-architecture disassembly framework.
binary	Library	keystone	Lightweight multi-architecture assembler framework.
binary	Library	lief	Library to Instrument Executable Formats.
binary	Library	miasm	Reverse engineering framework in Python.
binary	Library	unicorn	Multi-architecture CPU emulator framework.
binary	Library	virtualsocket	A nice library to interact with binaries.
crypto	Library	cryptanalib3	The surviving core of featherduster cryptanalysis tool, updated for python3.
crypto	Library	python-paddingoracle	Padding oracle attack automation.