Remote Control Tool

as mentioned on twitter, and all that.

Overview

The tool is comprised of a client that sends commands to a server listening for input. In a broad sense, this looks like:

client ---(command)---> server

where the command would be something like opening a specific URL in the browser.

The current functionality of the server is to:

• open URLs, including autoplay and fullscreening them
• manage other devices, such as the hypnocollar - wearable device with a screen I’ve also been working on
  • The “wearable” is the project mentioned there, which will have more build logs eventually, but should be enough to DIY already!

Warning / Notice

I tried to make this as secure as possible, reading what I could find on proper practices for TLS, but given the nature of the tool, there could definitely be the potential for arbitrary/remote code execution issues. I do not have much experience with many of these protocols and tried my best, but flaws definitely exist. Be careful about running this, and if you notice something, let me know!

Screenshot

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The Client

The client is run from a local web app, as I figured that was a bit cleaner and more usable than using scripts with a ton of arguments.

The client looks like this:

and is a form that sends all those arguments to a backend which opens a socket to the server to send the commands.

Client Setup

Prerequisites

The client requires python (anything 3.X should work) and flask, which can be installed with pip install flask

Configuration

modes.json - named modes for the smart wearable. Examples are provided.

Usage

python client.py and then opening a browser to http://127.0.0.1:5000, the default flask server.

Note: (http rather than https should be fine for the local web app, because the client web app POSTs to localhost, which would not be visible to the network - anything going to the network and the server machine is from the webapp’s backend through TLS.)

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The Server

The server is a bit more involved, as it handles opening programs on the machine and all of the necessary security.

Server Setup

Prerequisites

The server requires python and the selenium package, as well as chromedriver and chrome/chromium on the machine. Firefox support may exist later, but the options for fullscreen have only been set up for Chrome. An SSL certificate is required: a self-signed certificate that the config can be pointed to suffices. openssl req -new -x509 -key key.key -out cert.crt -days 360 with proper permissions is what I used. I’m not sure what would do this on Windows, but I bet it exists.

Configuration

server_config.json - the server settings. All of the settings are listed with default values, but should be changed to fit your setup. All of these are required, but platform-specific settings will be ignored on other platforms.

• host: the address to host on. 0.0.0.0 would be a public-facing server.
• port: the port to bind to.
• password: a shared key for the client and server to agree on, transmitted through TLS.
• ssl:
  • cert: path to SSL certificate - see above section.
  • key: path to SSL key - see above section.
• paths:
  • windows/linux - OS specific settings.
    • browser - path to browser executable to be used
    • driver - path to selenium chromedriver executable to be used
• wearable:
  • ip, port - network settings for the smart wearable on the local network

Usage

python server.py and wait for someone with the client to mess with you.