PentestGPT_design.md

Design Documentation for PentestGPT

The current design is mainly for web penetration testing

General Design

PentestGPT provides a unified terminal input handler, and backed by three main components:

• A test generation module which generates the exact penetration testing commands or operations for the users to execute.
• A test reasoning module which conducts the reasoning of the test, guiding the penetration testers on what to do next.
• A parsing module which parses the output of the penetration tools and the contents on the webUI.

Function Design

The handler is the main entry point of the penetration testing tool. It allows pentesters to perform the following operations:

1. (initialize itself with some pre-designed prompts.)
2. Start a new penetration testing session by providing the target information.
3. Ask for todo-list, and acquire the next step to perform.
4. After completing the operation, pass the information to PentestGPT.
   1. Pass a tool output.
   2. Pass a webpage content.
   3. Pass a human description.
5. The generation module can also start a continuous mode, which helps the user to dig into a specific task.

Logic Flow Design

1. User initializes all the sessions. (prompt)

2. User initializes the task by

   1. User provides the target information to the ReasoningSession.
   2. The ReasoningSession generates a task-tree based on the target information.
   3. The ReasoningSession decides the first todo, and passes the information to the GenerationSession.
   4. The GenerationSession generates the exact command for the user to execute, and passes it to the User.

3. Go into the main loop. The User can pick to:

   1. Provide todo execution results to PentestGPT.
      1. The User provides the output of the tool to the ParsingSession.
      2. The ParsingSession parses the output, and passes the information to the ReasoningSession.
      3. The ReasoningSession updates the task-tree based on the information.
      4. Do step 3.2.1-3.2.3
   2. Ask for todos.
      1. The ReasoningSession analyzes the task-tree. It decides the next todo, including (1) a natural language description, and (2) the exact command to execute.
      2. The ReasoningSession passes the information to the GenerationSession for further verification.
      3. The GenerationSession generates the exact command for the user to execute, and passes it to the User.
   3. Discuss with PentestGPT by providing arbitrary information.
      1. The User provides the information to the ParsingSession.
      2. The ParsingSession parses the information:
         • If it is too long, summarize it.
         • Otherwise, just rephrase it.
      3. The ReasoningSession analyzes the information, and updates the task-tree.
   • Exit the program.

A flow-chart is shown below:

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant ReasoningSession
    participant GenerationSession
    participant ParsingSession

    User->>+ReasoningSession: 1.1 Provides target information
    ReasoningSession->>+ReasoningSession: 2.1 Generates task-tree
    ReasoningSession->>+GenerationSession: 2.2 Decides first todo
    GenerationSession->>+User: 2.3 Generates command
    loop Main Loop
        User->>+ParsingSession: 3.1 Provides todo execution results or arbitrary information
        alt Provides todo execution results
            ParsingSession->>+ReasoningSession: 3.2 Parses output
            ReasoningSession->>+ReasoningSession: 3.3 Updates task-tree
            ReasoningSession->>+GenerationSession: 3.4 Analyzes task-tree for next todo
            GenerationSession->>+User: 3.5 Generates command
        else Asks for todos
            ReasoningSession->>+ReasoningSession: 3.2 Analyzes task-tree
            ReasoningSession->>+GenerationSession: 3.3 Decides next todo
            GenerationSession->>+User: 3.4 Generates command
        else Discusses with PentestGPT
            ParsingSession->>+ReasoningSession: 3.2 Parses information
            opt Information is too long
                ParsingSession->>+ParsingSession: 3.2.1 Summarizes information
            end
            ReasoningSession->>+ReasoningSession: 3.3 Analyzes information
        end
        User->>-ParsingSession: 3.1 Provides todo execution results or arbitrary information
    end
    User->>-PentestGPT: 4. Exit

Loading

Prompts

The prompts are stored in the prompts/prompt_class.py.