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GHOSTS PANDORA SERVER Overview

Pandora is part of GHOSTS

Pandora is within the GHOSTS Source Code Repository hosted on GitHub.

GHOSTS PANDORA is a web server that responds to a myriad of request types with randomized content generated in real-time. It can operate in two modes:

  1. Standard Mode - Serves randomly-generated content for various file types (HTML, PDF, Office documents, images, etc.)
  2. Social Mode - Enables POST/PUT/DELETE operations for social media simulation where NPCs can share content, images, and interact with each other

The mode is controlled by configuration, making Pandora a unified content server for all GHOSTS content generation needs. Used in conjunction with GHOSTS NPCs, Pandora provides agents with realistic content to download, post, and interact with beyond simple HTML and associated image, CSS, and js files.

Pandora

Running this server

Pandora runs as a Docker container, either on its own or under the Aspire host with the rest of the GHOSTS stack. Each works with no extra configuration:

Standalone Aspire host
Database SQLite in /app/db PostgreSQL on ghosts-postgres, database pandora
Activity reporting to the GHOSTS API off; set GHOSTS_API_URL to turn it on on
Address http://localhost:8000 http://localhost:8800

Standalone

Run the prebuilt image:

docker run -d -p 8000:5000 -v pandora-db:/app/db -v pandora-images:/app/wwwroot/images ghcr.io/cmu-sei/ghosts/pandora:latest

Or build it from source with the repository's docker-compose.yml:

git clone https://github.com/cmu-sei/GHOSTS.git
cd GHOSTS/src/Ghosts.Pandora/src
docker compose up -d

To report posts, likes and comments to a GHOSTS API as NPC activity, set GHOSTS_API_URL (for example -e GHOSTS_API_URL=http://ghosts-api:5000/api).

With the GHOSTS stack

The API's docker-compose.yml does not run Pandora. The n8n social workflows post to PANDORA_URL on n8n, a standalone Pandora on the Docker host at http://host.docker.internal:8000 by default; NPC chat posts to PANDORA_HOST on the API. Set either in the .env file next to that compose file to point elsewhere.

The Aspire host runs Pandora with the rest of the stack, on the stack's PostgreSQL and reporting activity to ghosts-api.

See the Pandora readme for all settings.

Capabilities

Handling requests by directory

  • /api - All requests beginning with /api automatically respond with json. This includes:
    • /api/users
    • /api/user/a320f971-b3d9-4b79-bb8d-b41d02572942
    • /api/reports/personnel
  • /csv - All requests beginning with /csv automatically respond with csv. Like the above, this includes urls such as:
    • /csv/users
    • /csv/user/winx.jalton
    • /csv/reports/HR/payroll
  • /i, /img, /images - All requests beginning with these directories automatically respond with a random image of type [gif, jpg, png]. Examples:
    • /i/v1/a9f6e2b7-636c-4821-acf4-90220f091351/f8f8b1f0-9aa5-4fc7-8880-379e3192748e/small
    • /images/products/184f3515-f49b-4e07-8c8b-7f978666df0e/view
    • /img/432.png
  • /pdf - All requests respond with a random pdf document. Examples:
    • /pdf/operations/SOP_Vault/a7f48bd5-84cb-43a1-8d3d-cd2c732ddff6
    • /pdf/products
  • /docs - All requests respond with a random word document
  • /slides - All requests respond with a random powerpoint document
  • /sheets - All requests respond with a random excel document

Handling requests by type

For requests indicating a specific file type, there are several specific handlers built to respond with that particular kind of file, such as:

  • .csv
  • Image requests [.gif, .ico, .jpg, .jpeg, .png]
  • .json
  • Office document requests
  • .doc, .docx
  • .ppt, .pptx
  • .xls, .xlsx
  • .pdf

So that a URL such as /users/58361185-c9f2-460f-ac45-cb845ba88574/profile.pdf would return a pdf document typically rendered right in the browser.

All unhandled request types, urls without a specific file indicator, or requests made outside specifically handled directories (from the preceding section) are returned as html, including:

  • /docs/by_department/operations/users
  • /blog/d/2022/12/4/blog_title-text
  • /hello/index.html

Social Mode

When configured for social media simulation, Pandora enables NPCs to interact with a realistic social platform. Social mode supports:

Request Response
POST /images responds with a url to the saved image file
POST / responds with a randomly-generated streamed video
POST /users/michelle_smith/af2d00aa-4a89-4af3-baff-1746b556e7a1/ responds with a reply to the original user's social post

Configuration:

Switch between standard and social mode by setting the appropriate environment variables or configuration file settings. See the repository's configuration examples for details on toggling social mode features.

Hiding malicious payloads for red-teaming

Pandora also can hide payloads in a particular request for things like red-teaming and such. This is done in the configuration file, and looks like this:

[payloads]
1=/1/,a.zip,application/zip
2=/2/users,b.zip,application/zip
3=/3/some/report/url,c.zip,application/zip

Each record must be an incrementing integer with no duplication. The values are:

  • The URL that this payload responds to
  • The local file (stored in ./payloads/) to be returned
  • The MIME type of the response

So for 1 in the example above, requests to /1/ return the a.zip file as an application/zip file.

Seeding social content and reporting NPC activity

In social mode, posts and profiles can be loaded by script. Both endpoints create the user if it does not exist, and take the theme from the theme query parameter, then the theme cookie, then DEFAULT_THEME.

Request Form fields
POST /api/posts user, message, and optionally created (an ISO-8601 date, UTC unless it carries an offset) to backdate the post and file to attach an image
POST /api/users/{username} bio and status; a field that is not sent is left as it was 
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:5000/api/posts?theme=linkedin' \
  -d user=jsmith -d 'message=Starting a new role this week' -d created=2025-03-01T14:30:00Z

curl -X POST 'http://localhost:5000/api/users/jsmith?theme=linkedin' \
  -d 'bio=Control systems engineer' -d status=Active

Sending the same backdated post twice stores it once. Pandora's cleanup job removes posts older than ApplicationConfiguration:CleanupAge (60 hours by default) by their post date, so deployments that seed backdated posts must raise it.

When GHOSTS_API_URL is set (for example http://ghosts-api:5000/api), every post, like, comment and direct message is reported to the GHOSTS API as activity of the NPC that owns the username, found with GET /api/npcs/lookup?username=: the username the NPC's machine reports, else the name part of the NPC's email, else first.last. Usernames with no NPC are skipped. Reports are sent in the background and carry the time they were sent, so a backdated post is recorded as activity of the moment it was loaded. The API stores one record for the same post reported twice within a few minutes, so a post or comment made in NPC chat and reported back by Pandora is kept once.

For NPCs to exist for the usernames that clients log in with, the API can create one per machine as it first checks in: set ApplicationSettings:NpcPerMachine to true (ApplicationSettings__NpcPerMachine=true in the environment), or call POST /api/npcs/generate/syncWithMachineUsernames for the machines already known.