INetSim

Overview

INetSim is a comprehensive internet services simulation suite designed for malware analysis. It allows security researchers to run suspicious samples in an isolated network environment where all network traffic is intercepted and handled by simulated services, preventing actual external communication.

Installation

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install inetsim

Linux (Arch)

sudo pacman -S inetsim

Linux (Manual Installation)

wget http://www.inetsim.org/download/inetsim-1.3.3.tar.gz
tar -xzf inetsim-1.3.3.tar.gz
cd inetsim-1.3.3
sudo ./install.sh

Docker Container

FROM ubuntu:22.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y inetsim
EXPOSE 21 25 53 80 110 143 443 445 3306 8080
CMD ["/usr/bin/inetsim"]

Configuration File Location

/etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf      # Main configuration
/etc/inetsim/inetsim.services  # Service definitions
/var/log/inetsim/              # Log directory
/var/lib/inetsim/              # Data directory

Basic Usage

Command	Description
sudo inetsim	Start INetSim with default config
sudo inetsim -c /path/to/config	Start with custom config
sudo inetsim -v	Verbose logging
sudo inetsim --help	Display help information
sudo systemctl start inetsim	Start as service
sudo systemctl stop inetsim	Stop service

Configuration Basics

Main Configuration File

sudo nano /etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf

Key Configuration Parameters

Network Settings

# Listen interface
listen_address 0.0.0.0
bind_interface eth0

# Enable/disable services
service_dns     on
service_http    on
service_https   on
service_ftp     on
service_smtp    on
service_smtps   on
service_pop3    on
service_imap    on
service_mysql   on
service_ntp     on
service_tftp    on

# Port configuration
dns_port 53
http_port 80
https_port 443
ftp_port 21

Logging Configuration

# Log level: 0=debug, 1=info, 2=notice, 3=warning, 4=error
log_level 1

# Log directory
logdir /var/log/inetsim

# Log format options
log_format syslog

DNS Configuration

service_dns on
dns_port 53
dns_default_ip 127.0.0.1

# Return same IP for all queries
dns_fake_domains on
dns_ip_lookup 192.168.1.100

HTTP/HTTPS Configuration

service_http on
http_port 80
http_keepalive on
http_default_port 80

service_https on
https_port 443
https_certfile /etc/inetsim/certs/cert.pem
https_keyfile /etc/inetsim/certs/key.pem

FTP Configuration

service_ftp on
ftp_port 21
ftp_banner "220 Welcome to INetSim FTP"
ftp_default_user anonymous
ftp_default_pass password

Service Configuration

DNS Service

Return IP for All Domains

service_dns on
dns_port 53
dns_default_ip 192.168.1.100

# Enable DNS spoofing
dns_spoof_all on

Create DNS Cheatsheet Service Examples

# Query INetSim DNS
nslookup example.com localhost
dig example.com @localhost
host example.com localhost

# Test with malware sample
./malware_sample.exe
# Traffic will resolve to localhost

HTTP/HTTPS Service

Default HTTP Responses

service_http on
http_port 80
http_default_file /var/lib/inetsim/http/default.html

# Serve specific files by URL
http_fakefile_dir /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile

HTTP Response Customization

# Create directory for fake files
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile

# Create fake response files
echo "malicious content" | sudo tee /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile/malware.exe

# Restart INetSim to apply changes
sudo systemctl restart inetsim

FTP Service

FTP Configuration

service_ftp on
ftp_port 21
ftp_banner "220 Welcome"
ftp_max_connections 10

# Enable anonymous login
ftp_default_user anonymous
ftp_default_pass email@example.com

FTP File Serving

# Create FTP root directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/inetsim/ftp

# Add files to serve
sudo cp malware_sample.bin /var/lib/inetsim/ftp/

# Set permissions
sudo chmod 755 /var/lib/inetsim/ftp

SMTP/POP3/IMAP Services

Email Service Configuration

# SMTP Configuration
service_smtp on
smtp_port 25
smtp_max_connections 10
smtp_banner "220 mail.inetsim.local ESMTP"

# POP3 Configuration
service_pop3 on
pop3_port 110
pop3_max_connections 10

# IMAP Configuration
service_imap on
imap_port 143
imap_max_connections 10

Email Testing

# Test SMTP connection
telnet localhost 25
# Response: 220 mail.inetsim.local ESMTP

# Send test email
echo "test message" | sendmail -v test@example.com

TFTP Service

TFTP Configuration

service_tftp on
tftp_port 69
tftp_root /var/lib/inetsim/tftp

# Allow write operations
tftp_allow_write on

Network Isolation Setup

Using iptables for Traffic Redirection

Redirect DNS to INetSim

# Redirect UDP 53 to INetSim DNS
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 53 -j DNAT \
    --to-destination 127.0.0.1:53

# Redirect TCP 53 for DNS over TCP
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 53 -j DNAT \
    --to-destination 127.0.0.1:53

Redirect HTTP/HTTPS

# Redirect HTTP
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT \
    --to-destination 127.0.0.1:80

# Redirect HTTPS
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DNAT \
    --to-destination 127.0.0.1:443

Save Rules Permanently

# Install iptables-persistent
sudo apt-get install iptables-persistent

# Save current rules
sudo iptables-save | sudo tee /etc/iptables/rules.v4

# Restore rules
sudo iptables-restore < /etc/iptables/rules.v4

VM Network Configuration

Isolated Network Setup

# Create isolated bridge interface
sudo brctl addbr br-isolated
sudo ip addr add 192.168.122.1/24 dev br-isolated
sudo ip link set dev br-isolated up

# Configure VM to use isolated bridge
# In VM: Set gateway to 192.168.122.1
# In VM: Set DNS to 192.168.122.1

Malware Analysis Workflow

Pre-Analysis Setup

# 1. Start INetSim
sudo systemctl start inetsim

# 2. Configure DNS redirects
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 53 -j DNAT \
    --to-destination 127.0.0.1:53

# 3. Verify services running
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep inetsim

# 4. Check logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

Running Malware Sample

# 1. Copy sample to analysis VM
scp malware.exe user@analysis-vm:/tmp/

# 2. Execute sample
./malware.exe

# 3. Monitor network activity
sudo tcpdump -i any -n | grep -E "(DNS|HTTP|FTP)"

# 4. Review INetSim logs
grep "Connection from" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

Post-Analysis

Review Network Behavior

# Check DNS queries
grep "DNS query" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

# Check HTTP requests
grep "GET\|POST" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

# Check FTP connections
grep "FTP" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

Log Analysis Example

# Extract all external hosts contacted
grep "Connection" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log | \
    awk '{print $NF}' | sort | uniq

# Find attempted downloads
grep "GET\|POST" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

# Identify port scanning
grep "port" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log

Advanced Configuration

Custom SSL Certificates

Generate Self-Signed Certificate

# Generate private key
openssl genrsa -out /tmp/key.pem 2048

# Generate certificate (10 year validity)
openssl req -new -x509 -key /tmp/key.pem \
    -out /tmp/cert.pem -days 3650 \
    -subj "/CN=inetsim.local/O=INetSim/C=US"

# Copy to INetSim directory
sudo cp /tmp/cert.pem /etc/inetsim/certs/
sudo cp /tmp/key.pem /etc/inetsim/certs/
sudo chown root:root /etc/inetsim/certs/*.pem
sudo chmod 600 /etc/inetsim/certs/*.pem

Fake File Responses

HTTP File Serving

# Create fake executable
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile

# Add Windows executable stub
sudo cp /usr/share/windows-binaries/nc.exe \
    /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile/payload.exe

# Configure in inetsim.conf
echo "http_fakefile_dir /var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile" | \
    sudo tee -a /etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf

Multiple Instance Configuration

Run Multiple INetSim Instances

# Create config copies
sudo cp /etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf \
    /etc/inetsim/inetsim-instance2.conf

# Modify port bindings in instance2
sudo sed -i 's/dns_port 53/dns_port 5353/g' \
    /etc/inetsim/inetsim-instance2.conf

# Start instances
sudo inetsim -c /etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf &
sudo inetsim -c /etc/inetsim/inetsim-instance2.conf &

Log Analysis

Log File Locations

/var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log          # Main log
/var/log/inetsim/dns.log              # DNS queries
/var/log/inetsim/http.log             # HTTP requests
/var/log/inetsim/ftp.log              # FTP activity
/var/log/inetsim/smtp.log             # SMTP activity
/var/log/inetsim/pop3.log             # POP3 activity
/var/log/inetsim/imap.log             # IMAP activity

Log Parsing Examples

Extract DNS Queries

grep "^2" /var/log/inetsim/dns.log | \
    awk '{print $NF}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Extract HTTP User-Agents

grep "User-Agent:" /var/log/inetsim/http.log | \
    sed 's/.*User-Agent: //' | sort | uniq

Find C2 Communication Patterns

# Look for regular polling
grep "GET\|POST" /var/log/inetsim/http.log | \
    grep -i "php\|asp\|cgi"

# Extract suspicious domains
grep "Connection from" /var/log/inetsim/inetsim.log | \
    grep -v "127.0.0.1"

Docker Integration

Docker Compose Configuration

version: '3.8'

services:
  inetsim:
    image: ubuntu:22.04
    container_name: inetsim-sandbox
    ports:
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "21:21"
      - "25:25"
      - "80:80"
      - "110:110"
      - "143:143"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./inetsim.conf:/etc/inetsim/inetsim.conf:ro
      - ./logs:/var/log/inetsim
      - ./fakefile:/var/lib/inetsim/http/fakefile:ro
    command: /usr/bin/inetsim
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    networks:
      - analysis-net

networks:
  analysis-net:
    driver: bridge

Running with Docker

# Build and start
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f inetsim

# Stop services
docker-compose down

Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

# Check what's using port 80
sudo lsof -i :80

# Kill process if needed
sudo kill -9 <PID>

# Restart INetSim
sudo systemctl restart inetsim

DNS Not Resolving

# Test DNS from malware VM
nslookup example.com <host-ip>

# Check DNS service is running
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep :53

# Review DNS logs
grep "query" /var/log/inetsim/dns.log | tail -20

SSL Certificate Issues

# Verify certificate validity
openssl x509 -in /etc/inetsim/certs/cert.pem -text -noout

# Regenerate if expired
sudo rm /etc/inetsim/certs/cert.pem /etc/inetsim/certs/key.pem
# Follow custom SSL section above

Permission Denied Errors

# Check INetSim service user
ps aux | grep inetsim

# Fix log directory permissions
sudo chown -R root:root /var/log/inetsim
sudo chmod 755 /var/log/inetsim

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart inetsim

Best Practices

Security Isolation

• Run INetSim in isolated VM environment
• Use separate network interface for malware analysis
• Implement iptables rules to prevent outbound traffic
• Regularly reset analysis VM to clean state
• Keep INetSim updated with latest patches

Analysis Optimization

• Configure only needed services to reduce noise
• Use custom SSL certificates for HTTPS analysis
• Maintain clean log files between analyses
• Document network behavior patterns
• Create baseline logs for comparison

Log Management

• Archive logs regularly
• Use log rotation to prevent disk fill
• Parse logs with scripts for automated analysis
• Compare logs across samples for patterns
• Maintain malware analysis database

Resources

• Official Website: http://www.inetsim.org/
• Configuration Guide: http://www.inetsim.org/documentation.html
• Community Forum: Active user community
• GitHub Mirror: Mirror of latest releases
• Man Pages: man inetsim and man inetsim.conf

Version Information

Current stable: INetSim 1.3.3 Cross-platform: Linux, Windows (with Cygwin) Architecture: x86_64 Language: C/Perl License: GPL-3.0 Dependencies: Perl, OpenSSL, libssl-dev