Usage

Burp-UI has been written with modularity in mind. The aim is to support Burp from the stable to the latest versions. Burp exists in two major versions: 1.x.x and 2.x.x. The version 2.x.x is currently in heavy development and should bring a lot of improvements, but also a lot of rework especially regarding the status port which is the main communication system between Burp and Burp-UI.

Both Versions are supported by Burp-UI thanks to its modular design. The consequence is you have various options in the configuration file to suite every bodies needs.

There are also different modules to support Authentication and ACL within the web-interface.

Warning

Burp-UI tries to be the less intrusive as possible, nevertheless it ships with the ability to manage Burp‘s configuration files. This feature requires Burp-UI to be launched on the same server that hosts your Burp instance. You also have to make sure the user that runs Burp-UI has enough privileges to edit those files.

Configuration

The burpui.cfg configuration file contains a [Global] section as follow:

[Global]
# On which port is the application listening
port: 5000
# On which address is the application listening
# '::' is the default for all IPv6
bind: ::
# enable SSL
ssl: false
# ssl cert
sslcert: /etc/burp/ssl_cert-server.pem
# ssl key
sslkey: /etc/burp/ssl_cert-server.key
# burp server version 1 or 2
version: 1
# Handle multiple bui-servers or not
# If set to 'false', you will need to declare at least one 'Agent' section (see
# bellow)
standalone: true
# authentication plugin (mandatory)
# list the misc/auth directory to see the available backends
# to disable authentication you can set "auth: none"
auth: basic
# acl plugin
# list misc/acl directory to see the available backends
# default is no ACL
acl: basic

Each option is commented, but here is a more detailed documentation:

  • port: On which port is Burp-UI listening. This option is ignored when using Gunicorn.

  • bind: On which address is Burp-UI listening. This option is ignored when using Gunicorn.

  • ssl: Whether to enable SSL or not. This option is ignored when using Gunicorn.

  • sslcert: SSL certificate to use when SSL support is enabled.

  • sslkey: SSL key to use when SSL support is enabled.

  • version: What version of Burp this Burp-UI instance manages. Can either be 1 or 2. This parameter determines which backend is loaded at runtime.

    (see Versions for more details)

  • standalone: Burp-UI can run in two different modes. If it runs in standalone mode (meaning you set this parameter to true), you can only address one Burp server of the version specified by the previous parameter.

    If this option is set to false, Burp-UI will run as a proxy allowing you to address multiple Burp servers. In this mode, you need to configure at least one Agent section in your configuration file. You also need to run one bui-agent per server.

    (see Modes for more details)

  • auth: What Authentication backend to use.

  • acl: What ACL module to use.

There is also a [UI] section in which you can configure some UI parameters:

[UI]
# refresh interval of the pages in seconds
refresh: 180
# refresh interval of the live-monitoring page in seconds
liverefresh: 5

Each option is commented, but here is a more detailed documentation:

  • refresh: Time in seconds between two refresh of the interface.
  • liverefresh: Time in seconds between two refresh of the live-monitor page.

Modes

Burp-UI provides two modes:

These modes allow you to either access a single Burp server or multiple Burp servers hosted on separated hosts.

Standalone

This mode is the default and the easiest one. It can be activated by setting the standalone parameter in the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to true:

[Global]
standalone: true

That’s all you need to do for this mode to work.

Multi-Agent

This mode allows you access multiple Burp servers through the bui-agent. Here is a schema to illustrate the architecture:

+--------------------+       +--------------------+       +--------------------+       +--------------------+
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
|  burp-server 1     |       |  burp-server 2     |       |        ...         |       |  burp-server n     |
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
+--------------------+       +--------------------+       +--------------------+       +--------------------+
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
|                    |       |                    |       |                    |       |                    |
| +----------------+ |       | +----------------+ |       | +----------------+ |       | +----------------+ |
| |                | |       | |                | |       | |                | |       | |                | |
| |  bui-agent 1   | |       | |  bui-agent 2   | |       | |      ...       | |       | |  bui-agent n   | |
| |                | |       | |                | |       | |                | |       | |                | |
| +-------^--------+ |       | +-------^--------+ |       | +--------^-------+ |       | +-------^--------+ |
+---------|----------+       +---------|----------+       +----------|---------+       +---------|----------+
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |                             |                           |
          |                            |      +--------------------+ |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      |   front-server     | |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      +--------------------+ |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      |                    | |                           |
          |                            |      | +----------------+ | |                           |
          |                            |      | |                | | |                           |
          |                            +--------+  burp-ui front +---+                           |
          +-------------------------------------+                +-------------------------------+
                                              | +--------^-------+ |
                                              +----------|---------+
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                              +----------+---------+
                                              |                    |
                                              |      client        |
                                              |                    |
                                              +--------------------+
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              |                    |
                                              +--------------------+

To enable this mode, you need to set the standalone parameter of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to false:

[Global]
standalone: false

Once this mode is enabled, you have to create one [Agent] section per agent you want to connect to in your burpui.cfg file:

# If you set standalone to 'false', add at least one section like this per
# bui-agent
[Agent:agent1]
# bui-agent address
host: 192.168.1.1
# bui-agent port
port: 10000
# bui-agent password
password: azerty
# enable SSL
ssl: true
# socket timeout (in seconds)
timeout: 5

[Agent:agent2]
# bui-agent address
host: 192.168.2.1
# bui-agent port
port: 10000
# bui-agent password
password: ytreza
# enable SSL
ssl: true
# socket timeout (in seconds)
timeout: 5

Note

The sections must be called [Agent:<label>] (case sensitive)

To configure your agents, please refer to the bui-agent page.

Versions

Burp-UI ships with two different backends:

These backends allow you to either connect to a Burp server version 1.x.x or 2.x.x.

Burp1

The burp-1 backend can be enabled by setting the version option to 1 in the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file:

[Global]
version: 1

Now you can add burp-1 backend specific options:

# burp1 backend specific options
[Burp1]
# burp status address (can only be '127.0.0.1' or '::1')
bhost: ::1
# burp status port
bport: 4972
# burp binary
burpbin: /usr/sbin/burp
# vss_strip binary
stripbin: /usr/sbin/vss_strip
# burp client configuration file used for the restoration (Default: None)
bconfcli: /etc/burp/burp.conf
# burp server configuration file used for the setting page
bconfsrv: /etc/burp/burp-server.conf
# temporary directory to use for restoration
tmpdir: /tmp

Each option is commented, but here is a more detailed documentation:

  • bhost: The address of the Burp server. In burp-1.x.x, it can only be 127.0.0.1 or ::1
  • bport: The port of Burp‘s status port.
  • burpbin: Path to the Burp binary (used for restorations).
  • stripbin: Path to the Burp vss_strip binary (used for restorations).
  • bconfcli: Path to the Burp client configuration file.
  • bconfsrv: Path to the Burp server configuration file.
  • tmpdir: Path to a temporary directory where to perform restorations.

Burp2

The burp-2 backend can be enabled by setting the version option to 2 in the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file:

[Global]
version: 2

Now you can add burp-2 backend specific options:

# burp2 backend specific options
[Burp2]
# burp binary
burpbin: /usr/sbin/burp
# vss_strip binary
stripbin: /usr/sbin/vss_strip
# burp client configuration file used for the restoration (Default: None)
bconfcli: /etc/burp/burp.conf
# burp server configuration file used for the setting page
bconfsrv: /etc/burp/burp-server.conf
# temporary directory to use for restoration
tmpdir: /tmp

Each option is commented, but here is a more detailed documentation:

  • burpbin: Path to the Burp binary (used for restorations).
  • stripbin: Path to the Burp vss_strip binary (used for restorations).
  • bconfcli: Path to the Burp client configuration file.
  • bconfsrv: Path to the Burp server configuration file.
  • tmpdir: Path to a temporary directory where to perform restorations.

Authentication

Burp-UI provides some authentication backends in order to restrict access only to granted users. There are currently two different backends:

To disable the authentication backend, set the auth option of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to none:

[Global]
auth: none

LDAP

The ldap authentication backend has some dependencies, please refer to the requirements page. To enable this backend, you need to set the auth option of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to ldap:

[Global]
auth: ldap

Now you can add ldap specific options:

# ldapauth specific options
[LDAP]
# LDAP host
host: 127.0.0.1
# LDAP port
port: 389
# Encryption type to LDAP server (none, ssl or tls)
# - try tls if unsure, otherwise ssl on port 636
encryption: tls
# specifies if the server certificate must be validated, values can be:
#  - none (certificates are ignored)
#  - optional (not required, but validated if provided)
#  - required (required and validated)
validate: none
# SSL or TLS version to use, can be one of the following:
#  - SSLv2
#  - SSLv3
#  - SSLv23
#  - TLSv1
#  - TLSv1_1 (Available only with openssl version 1.0.1+, requires python 2.7.9 or higher)
version: TLSv1
# the file containing the certificates of the certification authorities
cafile: none
# Attribute to use when searching the LDAP repository
#searchattr: sAMAccountName
searchattr: uid
# LDAP filter to find users in the LDAP repository
#  - {0} will be replaced by the search attribute
#  - {1} will be replaced by the login name
filter: (&({0}={1})(burpui=1))
#filter: (&({0}={1})(|(userAccountControl=512)(userAccountControl=66048)))
# LDAP base
base: ou=users,dc=example,dc=com
# Binddn to list existing users
binddn: cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com
# Bindpw to list existing users
bindpw: Sup3rS3cr3tPa$$w0rd

Note

The host options accepts URI style (ex: ldap://127.0.0.1:389)

Basic

In order for the basic authentication backend to be enabled, you need to set the auth option of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to basic:

[Global]
auth: basic

Now you can add basic specific options:

# basicauth specific options
# Note: in case you leave this section commented, the default login/password
# is admin/admin
[BASIC]
admin: password
user1: otherpassword

Note

Each line defines a new user with the key as the username and the value as the password

ACL

Burp-UI implements some mechanisms to restrict access on some resources only for some users. There is currently only one backend:

To disable the acl backend, set the acl option of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to none:

[Global]
acl: none

Basic ACL

The basic acl backend can be enabled by setting the acl option of the [Global] section of your burpui.cfg file to basic:

[Global]
acl: basic

Now you can add basic acl specific options:

# basicacl specific options
# Note: in case you leave this section commented, the user 'admin' will have
# access to all clients whereas other users will only see the client that have
# the same name
[BASIC:ACL]
# Please note the double-quote around the username on the admin line are
# mandatory!
admin: ["user1","user2"]
# You can also overwrite the default behavior by specifying which clients a
# user can access
user3: ["client4", "client5"]
# In case you are not in a standalone mode, you can also specify which clients
# a user can access on a specific Agent
user4: {"agent1": ["client6", "client7"], "agent2": ["client8"]}

Warning

The double-quotes are mendatory