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GHOSTS ANIMATOR Overview

Animator Integration

As of GHOSTS v8.0, Animator functionality has been integrated directly into the main GHOSTS API. The standalone GHOSTS ANIMATOR repository has been archived.

All Animator features are now accessible through the GHOSTS API and UI. No separate installation is required.

What is Animator?

Animator is GHOSTS' NPC (Non-Player Character) generation and animation system. It creates realistic user profiles with extensive personal details and can dynamically update NPC behaviors during exercises and training events.

Animator brings NPCs to life in two ways:

  1. Initial Creation

    Animator creates the initial NPC profile, including details such as name, address, career, finances, and family members. Based on configuration, it can place users in a multi-level organizational structure, and establish relationships between users.

  2. Animation Jobs

    Via jobs that can be run during training and exercise events, Animator can update the NPC's preferences, beliefs, and relationships. This enables dynamic NPCs that change over time.

At its core, Animator is a realistic user detail generator. It creates sufficiently realistic identities with verbose portfolios of personal information. Each NPC has numerous categories of details and metadata that define who they are. Information is generated using sourced datasets to distribute characteristics realistically. As we like to say, it creates "NPCs so real, they sell for a premium on the dark web."1

Accessing Animator Features

Since Animator is now integrated into the GHOSTS API, you access it through:

1. GHOSTS API (Port 5000)

  • API endpoints for NPC generation and management
  • Programmatic access to all Animator functions
  • See API documentation at http://localhost:5000/swagger

2. GHOSTS UI (Port 8080)

  • Visual interface for generating and managing NPCs
  • Click "Generate Random NPCs" to create new characters
  • View and edit NPC details, organizational structure, and relationships
  • See the UI documentation for details

3. Animator Jobs (via UI or API)

  • Schedule jobs to update NPC behaviors dynamically
  • See the Jobs documentation for configuration details

Prerequisites

Animator is included when you install the GHOSTS API. If you haven't already:

  1. Follow the API installation guide
  2. Ensure all containers are running: docker ps -a
  3. Access the UI at http://localhost:8080

Use Cases

Animator-generated NPCs serve multiple purposes in training, research, and security contexts:

1. Training Machine Learning Algorithms

Animator creates large sets of hyper-realistic user data ideal for training ML models. The 100+ data points per NPC enable rapid training of anthropology-related algorithms without privacy concerns or data acquisition costs.2

Benefits:

  • Unlimited synthetic training data
  • Realistic demographic distributions
  • No privacy or compliance issues
  • Configurable characteristics

2. Honeypot and Deception Operations

NPC profiles are designed to be convincingly real while completely fabricated, making them perfect for deception operations.

Applications:

  • Honeypot user accounts that appear legitimate
  • Decoy documents with realistic author metadata
  • Fake employee directories
  • Realistic email conversations

3. Insider Threat Modeling

Each NPC receives an Insider Threat Profile based on CDSE (Center for Development of Security Excellence) Insider Threat Potential Indicators.

Profile Factors:

  • Financial stress indicators
  • Foreign contacts and travel
  • Criminal history
  • Mental health considerations
  • Social engineering vulnerability

This enables realistic insider threat scenarios and training for security teams.

4. Social Network and Relationship Modeling

Animator generates interconnected NPCs with realistic social relationships:

Features:

  • Family relationships (spouses, children, parents)
  • Professional networks (colleagues, supervisors)
  • Multi-level organizational structures
  • Friendship and social connections

Use this for social network analysis research, organizational simulations, or realistic communication patterns.

How NPC Generation Works

Step 1: Profile Creation

  • Animator creates an empty NPC profile template

Step 2: Data Point Generation

  • Iterates through 100+ data points including:
  • Personal: Name, age, gender, ethnicity
  • Location: Address, city, state, country
  • Professional: Career, employer, salary, job history
  • Financial: Bank accounts, credit score, assets
  • Social: Family members, relationships, social media
  • Background: Education, criminal history, military service
  • Health: Medical conditions, mental health status

Step 3: Weighted Randomization

  • Uses verified datasets to ensure realistic distributions
  • For example, name frequency matches real-world demographics
  • Geographic data reflects actual population distributions
  • Career choices align with education and location

Step 4: Relationship Establishment

  • Creates family structures (if configured)
  • Establishes organizational relationships
  • Generates social connections

Step 5: Storage

  • NPCs are stored in the Postgres database
  • Accessible via API and UI
  • Can be exported in various formats

Generating NPCs via UI

  1. Navigate to http://localhost:8080
  2. Click on the "NPCs" section
  3. Click "Generate Random NPCs"

  4. Configure generation parameters:

  5. Number of NPCs to create

  6. Campaign/Exercise name
  7. Organizational structure
  8. Enclave/Team assignments
  9. Click "Generate"
  10. NPCs appear in the list and can be assigned to machines

Generating NPCs via API

Generate NPCs programmatically:

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/npcs/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "count": 50,
    "campaign": "Exercise 2024",
    "enclave": "Brigade HQ",
    "team": "Operations"
  }'

Retrieve NPCs:

curl http://localhost:5000/api/npcs

See the Swagger documentation at http://localhost:5000/swagger for complete API details.

NPC Data Fields

Animator generates extensive data for each NPC. Key fields include:

Category Fields
Identity First name, last name, middle name, gender, date of birth, SSN
Contact Email, phone, address, city, state, ZIP, country
Employment Employer, job title, department, salary, hire date, employee ID
Financial Bank name, account number, routing number, credit score, assets
Education Degrees, institutions, graduation dates, major/minor
Family Spouse, children, parents, siblings (with details for each)
Background Military service, criminal record, security clearance level
Digital Social media accounts, online presence, browsing habits
Psychological Personality traits, insider threat indicators, vulnerabilities
Metadata Campaign, enclave, team, assigned machine

  1. The GHOSTS development team highly recommends Nick Bilton's book American Kingpin for insight into the early days of the dark web. ↩

  2. A key developer from the Animator team went on to a position in the SEI's AI division. AI models need data. You connect the dots. ↩