Inception is a FireWire physical memory manipulation and hacking tool exploiting IEEE 1394 SBP-2 DMA. The tool can unlock (any password accepted) and escalate privileges to Administrator/root on almost* any powered on machine you have physical access to. The tool can attack over FireWire, Thunderbolt, ExpressCard, PC Card and any other PCI/PCIe interfaces.
Inception aims to provide a stable and easy way of performing intrusive and non-intrusive memory hacks in order to unlock live computers using FireWire SBP-2 DMA. It it primarily attended to do its magic against computers that utilize full disk encryption such as BitLocker, FileVault, TrueCrypt or Pointsec. There are plenty of other (and better) ways to hack a machine that doesn't pack encryption.
The tool works over any interface that expands and can master the PCIe bus. This includes FireWire, Thunderbolt, ExpressCard and PCMCIA (PC-Card).
As of version 0.3.0, it is able to unlock the following x86 and x64 operating systems:
| OS | Version | Unlock lock screen | Escalate privileges | Dump memory < 4 GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 8 | SP0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows 7 | SP1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows 7 | SP0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Vista | SP2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Vista | SP1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Vista | SP0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows XP | SP3 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows XP | SP2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows XP | SP1 | Yes | ||
| Windows XP | SP0 | Yes | ||
| Mac OS X | Mountain Lion | Yes (1) | Yes (1) | Yes (1) |
| Mac OS X | Lion | Yes (1) | Yes (1) | Yes (1) |
| Mac OS X | Snow Leopard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mac OS X | Leopard | Yes | ||
| Ubuntu (2) | Raring (13.04) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu | Quantal (12.10) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu | Precise (12.04) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu | Oneiric (11.10) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu | Natty (11.04) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux Mint | 13 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux Mint | 12 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux Mint | 12 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
(1): If FileVault 2 is enabled, the tool will only work when the operating system is unlocked. (2): Other Linux distributions that use PAM-based authentication may also work using the Ubuntu signatures.
The tool also effectively enables escalation of privileges, for instance via
the runas or sudo -s commands, respectively. More signatures will be added.
The tool makes use of the libforensic1394 library courtesy of Freddie Witherden
under a LGPL license.
- Version: 0.3.0
- License: GPL
- Author: Carsten Maartmann-Moe (carsten@carmaa.com) AKA ntropy (n@tropy.org)
- Twitter: @breaknenter Hashtag: #inceptiontool
- Site: http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception
- Source: https://github.com/carmaa/inception
Inception requires:
- Linux or Mac OS X (host / attacker machine)
- A FireWire or Thunderbolt interface, or an ExpressCard/PCMCIA expansion port
For now you should be able to run the tool without any installation except
dependencies on Mac OS X and Linux distros. Check out the README file in
libforensic1394 for installation and FireWire pro-tips.
- Python 3
- git
- gcc (incl. g++)
- cmake
- [libforensic1394] 3
On Debian-based distributions the installation command lines can be summarized as:
sudo apt-get install git cmake python3 g++
On OS X, you can install the tool dependencies with [homebrew] 4:
brew install git cmake python3
After installing the dependencies, download and install libforensic1394:
git clone git://git.freddie.witherden.org/forensic1394.git
cd forensic1394
cmake CMakeLists.txt
sudo make install
cd python
sudo python3 setup.py install
git clone git://github.com/carmaa/inception.git
cd inception
sudo python3 setup.py install
- Connect the attacker machine (host) and the victim (target) with a FireWire cable
- Run Inception
Simply type:
incept
For a more complete and up-to-date description, please run:
incept -h
or see the [tool home page] 5.
Please see the [tool home page] 5.
Please see the [tool home page] 5.
- Insert and execute memory-only rootkit
- Other winlockpwn techniques
- 0.0.1 - First version, supports basic Windows XP SP3, Vista and 7, Mac OS X and Ubuntu Gnome unlocking
- 0.0.2 - Added signatures for early XP SP3, and Windows 7 x86 and x64 SP1
- 0.0.3 - Added some signatures (thanks Tekkenhead) and error handling
- 0.0.4 - Added businfo to display connected FireWire devices as well as memory dumping capabilities
- 0.0.5 - Enhanced memory dumping abilities and added samples catalog
- 0.0.6 - Added unit testing
- 0.0.7 - Updated Ubuntu signatures and priv. escalation - thanks Adel Khaldi from Algeria
- 0.0.8 - Fixed Ubuntu unlock and privilege escalation patches - single patch for double the action
- 0.1.0 - First minor version! Added signatures for OS X and Vista, plus quite a few bug fixes
- 0.1.1 - Added signatures for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- 0.1.2 - Patched several bugs
- 0.1.3 - Patched OS X 10.6.8 x64 signature bug
- 0.1.4 - Added manual mode easing testing of new signatures
- 0.2.0 - Added signatures for OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and Windows 8
- 0.2.1 - Added signatures for Ubuntu 12.10
- 0.2.2 - Added signatures for Linux Mint
- 0.2.3 - General code cleanup, and nicer and more consistent output
- 0.2.4 - Added a progress bar
- 0.2.5 - No longer needed to be root to run the tool
- 0.2.6 - Bug fixes
- 0.3.0 - Added support for Ubuntu 13.04 targets
Do no evil with this tool. Also, I am a pentester, not a developer. So if you see weird code that bugs your pythonesque purity senses, drop me a note on how I can improve it. Or even better, fork my code, change it and issue a pull request.