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Python Client

The Assemblyline Python client facilitates issuing requests to Assemblyline.

Installing the client

pip install assemblyline_client

Connecting to Assemblyline

You can instantiate the client by using the following snippet of Python code:

You will need an API key.

from assemblyline_client import get_client
al_client = get_client("https://yourdomain:443", apikey=('user', 'key'))

from assemblyline_client import get_client
al_client = get_client("https://yourdomain:443", auth=('user', 'password'))
from assemblyline_client import get_client
# If your Assemblyline server is using a self-signed certificate
al_client = get_client("https://yourdomain:443", cert='/path/to/cert/file.pem')
When connecting to Assemblyline, you can provide a certificate for SSL or ignore the certificate error
    al_client = get_client(..., verify='/path/to/server.crt')

    al_client = get_client(..., verify=False)
The client is fully documented in the docstrings so that you can use the 'help' feature of IPython or Jupyter Notebook
    al_client.search.alert?

    Signature: al_client.search.alert(
        query,
        filters=None,
        fl=None,
        offset=0,
        rows=25,
        sort=None,
        timeout=None,
    )
    Docstring:
    Search alerts with a Lucene query.

    Required:
    query   : Lucene query. (string)

    Optional:
    filters : Additional Lucene queries used to filter the data (list of strings)
    fl      : List of fields to return (comma separated string of fields)
    offset  : Offset at which the query items should start (integer)
    rows    : Number of records to return (integer)
    sort    : Field used for sorting with direction (string: ex. 'id desc')
    timeout : Max number of milliseconds the query will run (integer)

    Returns all results.
    File:      /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/assemblyline_client/v4_client/module/search/__init__.py
    Type:      method

Examples

Submit a file, URL or SHA256 for analysis

There are two methods for sending a file/URL/SHA256 to Assemblyline for analysis: Ingest and Submit.

In most cases, you want to use the Ingest API via the CLI

The default limit for sample size is 100mb, this is also the case in the UI and the use of the API is the only workaround. In order to circumvent this, the option ignore_size=True must be used when submitting via the API.

(Optional) Customizing your submission

Note: Service names are case-sensitive

# Submission parameters (works for both Ingest and Submit)
settings = {
    'classification' : 'TLP:A',     # classification
    'description' : 'Hello world',  # file description
    'name' : 'filename',            # file name
    'deep_scan' : False,            # activate deep scan mode
    'priority' : 1000,              # queue priority (the higher the number, the higher the priority)
    'ignore_cache' : False,         # ignore system cache
    'services' : {
        'selected' : [              # selected service list (override user profile)
            'CAPE','Extract'
        ],
        'resubmit' : [],            # resubmit to these services if file initially scores > 500
        'excluded': [],             # exclude these services
    },
    'service_spec': {               # provide a service parameter
        'Extract': {
            'password': 'password'
        }
    }
}

# Adding metadata (such as the source of the files or anything you want!)
my_meta = {
    'my_metadata' : 'value',     # any metadata of your liking
    'my_metadata2' : 'value2'     # any metadata of your liking
}

You can find all parameters and their default values in the SubmissionParams class.

For submitting a URL instead of a file, use the url argument instead of path

For submitting a SHA256 instead of a file, use the sha256 argument instead of path. You may use external sources with params={"default_external_sources":["VirusTotal","Malware Bazaar"]}

Ingest

The Ingest API supports two additional functionalities over the Submit API:

  • By passing the argument alert=True, the system will generate an alert if the score is over 500
  • By passing the argument nq='notification_queue_name', you can use the client to poll a notification queue for a message indicating if the analysis has been completed
    • If you don't need to know when the analysis completes, then you can omit the nq argument and ignore the subsequent code that interacts with the notification queue
ingest_id = al_client.ingest(path='/pathto/file.txt', nq='my_queue_name', params=settings, metadata=my_meta)

# If you use a notification queue you can get your asynchronous results with:
from time import sleep
message = None
while True:
    message = al_client.ingest.get_message("my_queue_name")
    if message is None:
        sleep(1)    # Poll every second
    else:
        do something ...

Submit

submit_results = al_client.submit(path='/pathto/file.txt', fname='fname', params=settings, metadata=my_meta)
Submission details

To get the details about a submission, you simply need to pass the client a submission ID (sid)

submission_details = al_client.submission("4nxrpBePQDLH427aA8m3TZ")

More details about Search

You can use the search engine in the client by simply passing a Lucene query.

In the following example, we want to retrieve the first page of submissions made by user:

search_result = al_client.search.submission("params.submitter:user")

Using search iterator

Instead of using search and getting a page of results, you can use the search iterator stream to go through all the results.

Streamed results only return indexed fields. If you want the full result, you must go get it via the client

for submission in al_client.search.stream.submission("params.submitter:user"):
    submission_id = submission["sid"]
    full_submission = al_client.submission(submission_id)

Using search parameters

In the following example, we want to retrieve the first page of submissions that were submitted in the last week, and we only want the submission IDs:

submission_results = al_client.search.submission('times.submitted:[now-7d TO now]', fl='sid')

fl defaults to a list of predefined fields that we deemed important; you may use fl="*" to get all fields. You can view the fields that we deem important under the 'Search Help' page on your Assemblyline instance. These fields have a stored attribute.

Using facet searching

In the following example, we want to retrieve the users who have made submissions in the last week, and the number of submissions that they have made:

submission_results = al_client.search.facet.submission('params.submitter', query='times.submitted:[now-7d TO now]')

Using the Command line Tool

By installing the assemblyline_client PIP package, a command line tool al-submit is installed. In case you don't want to use Python code to interface with the Assemblyline client, you can use this tool instead. You can view the user options via al-submit --help.

(Optional) Configuration file example

Rather than passing authentication and server details as parameters in a command line, you can use a configuration file. This configuration file should be placed at ~/.al/submit.cfg. A template for this configuration file can be found below. NOTE: You can use = or : as the delimiter between key and value.

[auth]
#   Username for the Assemblyline account.
user =
#   There are three methods to authenticate a user account. Choose one:
#   - Password Provided via User Prompt
#       Leave the `password' configuration value below empty.
#   - Password Provided in Configuration File
#       Enter the password for the Assemblyline account in plaintext.
password =
#   - API Key in Configuration File
#       Enter the API key to use in plaintext for the user to login.
#       NOTE: The API key must have WRITE access for INGEST and WRITE+READ for SUBMIT.
apikey =
# Skip server cert validation.
# Value can be one of: true, false, yes, no
# If not supplied, the default value is: false
insecure =
[server]
# Method of network transport.
# If not supplied, the default value is: https
transport =
# Domain of Assemblyline instance.
# If not supplied, the default value is: localhost
host =
# Port to which traffic will be sent.
# If not supplied, the default value is: 443
port =
# Server cert used to connect to server.
cert =