Running the Botnet

Administration

1. Start RootTheBox $ python3 ./rootthebox.py --start
2. Enable the Botnet via the the admin Configuration page (very bottom) Botnets Enabled. Alternatively, set the rootthebox.cfg option use_bots = True This makes the bot options and menu items visible to the admin and player.
3. Under Game Management, a button will now be visible for each box that says NameOfBox Bot Garbage File. Download this Garbage File and put it on the target box (the machine the player needs to own and run the bot from). This file basically contains some random data which is part of a zero-knowledge proof that confirms the bot has access to the target machines and not running on a box outside the scope of the game.
4. For the box, add the IP Address of the target machine. This will whitelist the IP for that bot. Alternatively, set the whitelist_box_ips = False if you want to allow it from any IP (also useful for testing if you want to run the bot from anywhere, such as localhost). Note that modifying the rootthebox.cfg will require you restart ./rootthebox.py --start
5. As administrator, you can view the Botnet progress under the Tools & Upgrades menu, there is an page for Botnet Monitor.

Gameplay

1. Once Botnets are enabled, a menu option will become visible to players. It's under the Game menu -> Botnet. From here, they can view the Command & Control (aka Botnet Monitor) page. There will also be a download option for the bot (downloads as rtb_bot.py; a copy of bot.py).
2. The player owns the target box as their CTF challenge, finds the NameOfBox.garbage file, and uploads the rtb_bot.py.
3. The player runs the rtb_bot.py from the target box using the garbage file. $ python3 rtb_bot.py --garbage ./NameOfBox.garbage --user eljeffe --domain 192.20.0.1 --port 8888
4. Bot connects and generates periodic points for the player. The points and the bots can be seen on the Command & Control aka Botnet Monitor page.