LimaCharlie SDK
  • 13 Jun 2024
  • 9 Minutes to read
  • Contributors
  • Dark
    Light
  This documentation version is deprecated, please click here for the latest version.

LimaCharlie SDK

  • Dark
    Light

Article summary

Go

The Go library is a simple abstraction to the LimaCharlie.io REST API. The REST API currently supports many more functions. If it's missing a function available in the REST API that you would like to use, let us know at support@limacharlie.io.

Getting Started

Authentication

You can use Client Options to declare your client/org, or you can use environment variables.

Using Environment Variables:

  • LC_OID: organization ID
  • LC_API_KEY: your LC API KEY
  • LC_UID: optional, your user ID
package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/refractionPOINT/go-limacharlie/limacharlie"
)

func main() {
    client, err := limacharlie.NewClientFromLoader(limacharlie.ClientOptions{}, nil, &limacharlie.EnvironmentClientOptionLoader{})
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err)
    }
    
    org, _ := limacharlie.NewOrganization(client)
    fmt.Printf("Hello, this is %s", org.GetOID())
}

Using Client Options:

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/refractionPOINT/go-limacharlie/limacharlie"
)

func main() {
    clientOptions = limacharlie.ClientOptions{
        OID: "MY_OID",
        APIKey: "MY_API_KEY",
        UID: "MY_UID",
    }
    org, _ := limacharlie.NewOrganizationFromClientOptions(clientOptions, nil)
    fmt.Printf("Hello, this is %s", org.GetOID())
}

SDK

Examples

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/refractionPOINT/go-limacharlie/limacharlie"
)

func main() {
    client, err := limacharlie.NewClientFromLoader(limacharlie.ClientOptions{}, nil, &limacharlie.EnvironmentClientOptionLoader{})
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err)
    }
    
    org, _ := limacharlie.NewOrganization(client)
    
    // List all sensors
    sensors, err := org.ListSensors()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err)
    }
    for sid, sensor := range sensors {
        fmt.Printf("%s - %s", sid, sensor.Hostname)
    }
    
    // List D&R rules from Hive
    hiveClient := limacharlie.NewHiveClient(org)
    rules, _ := hiveClient.List(limacharlie.HiveArgs{
        HiveName:     "dr-general",
        PartitionKey:  org.GetOID(),
    })
    for rule_name, _ := range rules {
        fmt.Println(rule_name)
    }
    
    // Add D&R rule to Hive
    enabled := true
    case_sensitive := false
    if _, err := hiveClient.Add(limacharlie.HiveArgs{
        HiveName:     "dr-general",
        PartitionKey: org.GetOID(),
        Key:          "test_rule_name",
        Enabled:      &enabled,
        Data: limacharlie.Dict{
            "detect": limacharlie.Dict{
                "event":            "NEW_PROCESS",
                "op":               "is",
                "path":             "event/COMMAND_LINE",
                "value":            "whoami",
                "case sensitive":   &case_sensitive,
            },
            "respond": []limacharlie.Dict{{
                "action": "report",
                "name":   "whoami detection",
            }},
        },
    }); err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err)
    }
    
    // List extensions
    extensions, _ := org.Extensions()
    for _, extension_name := range extensions {
        fmt.Println(extension_name)
    }
    
    // Subscribe to extension
    subscription_request := org.SubscribeToExtension("binlib")
    if subscription_request != nil {
        fmt.Println(subscription_request)
    }
    
    // List payloads
    payloads, _ := org.Payloads()
    for payload, _ := range payloads {
        fmt.Println(payload)
    }
    
    // List installation keys
    installation_keys, _ := org.InstallationKeys()
    for _, key := range installation_keys {
        fmt.Println(key.Description)
    }
    
    // Create installation key 
    key_request, _ := org.AddInstallationKey(InstallationKey{
		Description: "my-test-key",
		Tags:        []string{"tag", "another-tag"},
	})

}

Python

The Python library is a simple abstraction to the LimaCharlie.io REST API. The REST API currently supports many more functions. If it's missing a function available in the REST API that you would like to use, let us know at support@limacharlie.io.

Getting Started

Installing

pip install limacharlie

Credentials

Authenticating to use the SDK / CLI can be done in a few ways.

Option 1 - Logging In
The simplest is to login to an organization using an API key.

Use limacharlie login to store credentials locally. You will need an OID (Organization ID) and an API key, and (optionally) a UID (User ID), all of which you can get from the Access Management --> REST API section of the web interface.

The login interface supports named environments, or a default one used when no environment is selected.

To list available environments:

limacharlie use

Setting a given environment in the current shell session can be done like this:

limacharlie use my-dev-org

You can also specify a UID (User ID) during login to use a user API key representing
the total set of permissions that user has (see User Profile in the web interface).

Option 2 - Environment Variables
You can use the LC_OID and LC_API_KEY and LC_UID environment variables to replace the values used logging in. The environment variables will be used if no other credentials are specified.

SDK

The root of the functionality in the SDK is from the Manager object. It holds the crendentials and is tied to a specific LimaCharlie Organization.

You can authenticate the Manager using an oid (and optionally a uid), along with either a secret_api_key or jwt directly. Alternatively you can just use an environment name (as specified in limacharlie login). If no creds are provided, the Manager will try to use the default environment and credentials.

Importing

import limacharlie

YARA_SIG = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yara-Rules/rules/master/Malicious_Documents/Maldoc_PDF.yar'

# Create an instance of the SDK.
mgr = limacharlie.Manager()

# Get a list of all the sensors in the current Organization.
all_sensors = mgr.sensors()

# Select the first sensor in the list.
sensor = all_sensors[0]

# Tag this sensor with a tag for 10 minutes.
sensor.tag( 'suspicious', ttl = 60 * 10 )

# Send a task to the sensor (unidirectionally, not expecting a response).
sensor.task( 'os_processes' )

# Send a yara scan to that sensor for processes "evil.exe".
sensor.task( 'yara_scan -e *evil.exe ' + YARA_SIG )

Use of gevent

Note that the SDK uses the gevent package which sometimes has issues with other
packages that operate at a low level in python. For example, Jupyter notebooks
may see freezing on importing limacharlie and require a tweak to load:

{
 "display_name": "IPython 2 w/gevent",
 "language": "python",
 "argv": [
  "python",
  "-c", "from gevent.monkey import patch_all; patch_all(thread=False); from ipykernel.kernelapp import main; main()",
  "-f",
  "{connection_file}"
 ]
}

Components

Manager

This is a the general component that provides access to the managing functions of the API like querying sensors online, creating and removing Outputs etc.

Firehose

The Firehose is a simple object that listens on a port for LimaCharlie.io data. Under the hood it creates a Syslog Output on limacharlie.io pointing to itself and removes it on shutdown. Data from limacharlie.io is added to firehose.queue (a gevent Queue) as it is received.

It is a basic building block of automation for limacharlie.io.

Spout

Much like the Firehose, the Spout receives data from LimaCharlie.io, the difference
is that the Spout does not require opening a local port to listen actively on. Instead
it leverages stream.limacharlie.io to receive the data stream over HTTPS.

A Spout is automatically created when you instantiate a Manager with the
is_interactive = True and inv_id = XXXX arguments in order to provide real-time
feedback from tasking sensors.

Sensor

This is the object returned by manager.sensor( sensor_id ).

It supports a task, hostname, tag, untag, getTags and more functions. This
is the main way to interact with a specific sensor.

The task function sends a task to the sensor unidirectionally, meaning it does not
receive the response from the sensor (if any). If you want to interact with a sensor
in real-time, use the interactive mode (as mentioned in the Spout) and use either
the request function to receive replies through a FutureResults object or the
simpleRequest to wait for the response and receive it as a return value.

Artifacts

The Artifacts is a helpful class to upload artifacts to LimaCharlie without going through a sensor.

Extensions

The Extensions can be used to subscribe to and manage extensions within your org.

import limacharlie
from limacharlie import Extension

mgr = limacharlie.Manager()
ext = Extension(mgr)
ext.subscribe('binlib')

Payloads

The Payloads can be used to manage various executable payloads accessible to sensors.

Replay

The Replay object allows you to interact with Replay jobs managed by LimaCharlie. These allow you to re-run D&R Rules on historical data.

Sample command line to query one sensor:

limacharlie-replay --sid 9cbed57a-6d6a-4af0-b881-803a99b177d9 --start 1556568500 --end 1556568600 --rule-content ./test_rule.txt

Sample command line to query an entire organization:

limacharlie-replay --entire-org --start 1555359000 --end 1556568600 --rule-name my-rule-name

Search

The Search object allows you to perform an IOC search across multiple organizations.

SpotCheck

The SpotCheck object (sometimes called Fleet Check) allows you to manage an active (query sensors directly as opposed to searching on indexed historical data) search for various IOCs on an organization's sensors.

Configs

The Configs is used to retrieve an organization's configuration as a config file, or apply
an existing config file to an organization. This is the concept of Infrastructure As Code.

Webhook

The Webhook object demonstrates handling webhooks emited by the LimaCharlie cloud, including verifying the shared-secret signing of the webhooks.

Examples:

Command Line Interface

Many of the objects available as part of the LimaCharlie Python SDK also support various command line interfaces.

Query

LimaCharlie Query Language (LCQL) provides a flexible, intuitive and interactive way to explore your data in LimaCharlie.

limacharlie query --help

ARLs

Authenticated Resource Locators (ARLs) describe a way to specify access to a remote resource, supporting many methods, including authentication data, and all that within a single string.

ARLs can be used in the YARA manager to import rules from GitHub repositories and other locations.

Testing an ARL before applying it somewhere can be helpful to shake out access or authentication errors beforehand. You can test an ARL and see what files are fetched, and their contents, by running the following command:

limacharlie get-arl -a [github,Yara-Rules/rules/email]

Firehose

Listens on interface 1.2.3.4, port 9424 for incoming connections from LimaCharlie.io.
Receives only events from hosts tagged with fh_test.

python -m limacharlie.Firehose 1.2.3.4:9424 event -n firehose_test -t fh_test --oid c82e5c17-d519-4ef5-a4ac-caa4a95d31ca

Spout

Behaves similarly to the Firehose, but instead of listenning from an internet accessible port, it connects to the stream.limacharlie.io service to stream the output over HTTPS. This means the Spout allows you to get ad-hoc output like the Firehose, but it also works through NATs and proxies.

It is MUCH more convenient for short term ad-hoc outputs, but it is less reliable than a Firehose for very large amounts of data.

python -m limacharlie.Spout event --oid c82e5c17-d519-4ef5-a4ac-caa4a95d31ca

Configs

The fetch command will get a list of the Detection & Response rules in your
organization and will write them to the config file specified or the default
config file lc_conf.yaml in YAML format.

limacharlie configs fetch --oid c82e5c17-d519-4ef5-a4ac-c454a95d31ca`

Then push can upload the rules specified in the config file (or the default one)
to your organization. The optional --force argument will remove active rules not
found in the config file. The --dry-run simulates the sync and displayes the changes
that would occur.

The --config allows you to specify an alternate config file and the --api-key allows
you to specify a file on disk where the API should be read from (otherwise, of if - is
specified as a file, the API Key is read from STDIN).

limacharlie configs push --dry-run --oid c82e5c17-d519-4ef5-a4ac-c454a95d31ca --config /path/to/template.yaml --all --ignore-inaccessible

All these capabilities are also supported directly by the limacharlie.Configs object.

The Sync functionality currently supports all common useful configurations. The --no-rules and --no-outputs flags can be used to ignore one or the other in config files and sync. Additional flags are also supported, see limacharlie configs --help.

To understand better the config format, do a fetch from your organization or have
a look at the samples. Notice the use of the include
statement. Using this statement you can combine multiple config files together, making
it ideal for the management of complex rule sets and their versioning.

Spot Checks

Used to perform Organization-wide checks for specific indicators of compromise. Available as a custom API SpotCheck object or as a module from the command line. Supports many types of IoCs like file names, directories, registry keys, file hashes and yara signatures.

python -m limacharlie.SpotCheck --no-macos --no-linux --tags vip --file c:\\evil.exe`

For detailed usage:

python -m limacharlie.SpotCheck --help

Search

Shortcut utility to perform IOC searches across all locally configured organizations.

limacharlie search --help

Extensions

Shortcut utility to manage extensions.

limacharlie extension --help

Artifact Upload

Shortcut utility to upload and retrieve Artifacts within LimaCharlie with just the CLI (no agent).

limacharlie artifacts --help

Artifact Download

Shortcut utility to download Artifact Collection in LimaCharlie locally.

limacharlie artifacts get_original --help

Replay

Shortcut utility to perform Replay jobs from the CLI.

limacharlie replay --help

Detection & Response

Shortcut utility to manage Detection and Response rules over the CLI.

limacharlie dr --help

Events & Detections

Print out to STDOUT events or detections matching the parameter.

limacharlie events --help
limacharlie detections --help

List Sensors

Print out all basic sensor information for all sensors matching the selector.

limacharlie sensors --selector 'plat == windows'

Was this article helpful?