kb. A minimalist knowledge base manager

Date: 2022-09-21

Version: 0.1.7

Purpose
Installation
Docker
Usage
UPGRADE
FAQ
DONATIONS
COPYRIGHT

Purpose

kb is a text-oriented minimalist command line knowledge base manager. kb can be considered a quick note collection and access tool oriented toward software developers, penetration testers, hackers, students or whoever has to collect and organize notes in a clean way. Although kb is mainly targeted on text-based note collection, it supports non-text files as well (e.g., images, pdf, videos and others).

The project was born from the frustration of trying to find a good way to quickly access my notes, procedures, cheatsheets and lists (e.g., payloads) but at the same time, keeping them organized. This is particularly useful for any kind of student. I use it in the context of penetration testing to organize pentesting procedures, cheatsheets, payloads, guides and notes.

I found myself too frequently spending time trying to search for that particular payload list quickly, or spending too much time trying to find a specific guide/cheatsheet for a needed tool. kb tries to solve this problem by providing you a quick and intuitive way to access knowledge.

In few words kb allows a user to quickly and efficiently:

collect items containing notes,guides,procedures,cheatsheets into an organized knowledge base;
filter the knowledge base on different metadata: title, category, tags and others;
visualize items within the knowledge base with (or without) syntax highlighting;
grep through the knowledge base using regexes;
import/export an entire knowledge base;

Basically, kb provides a clean text-based way to organize your knowledge.

Installation

You should have Python 3.6 or above installed.

To install the most recent stable version of kb just type:

pip install -U kb-manager

If you want to install the bleeding-edge version of kb (that may have some bugs) you should do:

git clone https://github.com/gnebbia/kb
cd kb
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py install

# or with pip
pip install -U git+https://github.com/gnebbia/kb

Tip for GNU/Linux and MacOS users: For a better user experience, also set the following kb bash aliases:

cat <<EOF > ~/.kb_alias
alias kbl="kb list"
alias kbe="kb edit"
alias kba="kb add"
alias kbv="kb view"
alias kbd="kb delete --id"
alias kbg="kb grep"
alias kbt="kb list --tags"
EOF
echo "source ~/.kb_alias" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.kb_alias

Please remember to upgrade kb frequently by doing:

pip install -U kb-manager

Installation from AUR

Arch Linux users can install kb or kb-git with their favorite AUR Helper.

Stable:

yay -S kb

Dev:

yay -S kb-git

Installation from pkgsrc

Of course it runs on NetBSD (and on pkgsrc). We can install it from pkgsrc source tree (databases/py-kb) or as a binary package using pkgin:

pkgin in py38-kb

Note that at the moment the package is only available from -current repositories.

Installation with homebrew

To install using homebrew, use:

brew tap gnebbia/kb https://github.com/gnebbia/kb.git
brew install gnebbia/kb/kb

To upgrade with homebrew:

brew update
brew upgrade gnebbia/kb/kb

Notes for Windows users

Windows users should keep in mind these things:

DO NOT USE notepad as %EDITOR%, kb is not compatible with notepad, a reasonable alternative is notepad++;
%EDITOR% variable should ALWAYS be enclosed within double quotes;

EDITOR=C:\Program Files\Editor\my cool editor.exe      -> WRONG!
EDITOR="C:\Program Files\Editor\my cool editor.exe"    -> OK!

To set the "EDITOR" Environment variable by using cmd.exe, just issue the following commands, after having inserted the path to your desired text editor:

set EDITOR="C:\path\to\editor\here.exe"
setx EDITOR "\"C:\path\to\editor\here.exe\""

To set the "EDITOR" Environment variable by using Powershell, just issue the following commands, after having inserted the path to your desired text editor:

$env:EDITOR='"C:\path\to\editor\here.exe"'
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('EDITOR','"C:\path\to\editor\here.exe"', [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)

Setting Aliases for cmd

Open a cmd.exe terminal with administrative rights and paste the following commands:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v "AutoRun" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%USERPROFILE%\autorun.cmd"
(
echo @echo off
echo doskey kbl=kb list $*
echo doskey kbe=kb edit $*
echo doskey kba=kb add $*
echo doskey kbv=kb view $*
echo doskey kbd=kb delete --id $*
echo doskey kbg=kb grep $*
echo doskey kbt=kb list --tags $*
)> %USERPROFILE%\autorun.cmd

Setting Aliases for Powershell

Open a Powershell terminal and paste the following commands:

@'
function kbl { kb list $args }
function kbe { kb edit $args }
function kba { kb add  $args }
function kbv { kb view $args }
function kbd { kb delete --id $args }
function kbg { kb grep $args }
function kbt { kb list --tags $args }
'@ >  $env:USERPROFILE\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1

Docker

A docker setup has been included to help with development.

To install and start the project with docker:

docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec kb bash

The container has the aliases included in its .bashrc so you can use kb in the running container as you would if you installed it on the host directly. The ./docker/data directory on the host is bound to /data in the container, which is the image's working directly also. To interact with the container, place (or symlink) the files on your host into the ./docker/data directory, which can then be seen and used in the /data directory in the container.

Usage

A quick demo of a typical scenario using kb:

A quick demo with kb aliases enabled:

A quick demo for non-text documents:

List artifacts

List all artifacts contained in the kb knowledge base

kb list

# or if aliases are used:
kbl

List all artifacts containing the string "zip"

kb list zip

# or if aliases are used:
kbl zip

List all artifacts belonging to the category "cheatsheet"

kb list --category cheatsheet
# or
kb list -c cheatsheet

# or if aliases are used:
kbl -c cheatsheet

List all the artifacts having the tags "web" or "pentest"

kb list --tags "web;pentest"

# or if aliases are used:
kbl --tags "web;pentest"

List using "verbose mode"

kb list -v

# or if aliases are used:
kbl -v

Add artifacts

Add a file to the collection of artifacts

kb add ~/Notes/cheatsheets/pytest

# or if aliases are used:
kba ~/Notes/cheatsheets/pytest

Add a file to the artifacts

kb add ~/ssh_tunnels --title pentest_ssh --category "procedure" \
    --tags "pentest;network" --author "gnc" --status "draft"

Add all files contained in a directory to kb

kb add ~/Notes/cheatsheets/general/* --category "cheatsheet"

Create a new artifact from scratch

kb add --title "ftp" --category "notes" --tags "protocol;network"
# a text editor ($EDITOR) will be launched for editing

Create a new artifact from the output of another program

kb add --title "my_network_scan" --category "scans" --body "$(nmap -T5 -p80 192.168.1.0/24)"

Delete artifacts

Delete an artifact by ID

kb delete --id 2

# or if aliases are used:
kbd 2

Delete multiple artifacts by ID

kb delete --id 2 3 4

# or if aliases are used:
kbd 2 3 4

Delete an artifact by name

kb delete --title zap --category cheatsheet

View artifacts

View an artifact by id

kb view --id 3
# or
kb view -i 3
# or 
kb view 3

# or if aliases are used:
kbv 3

View an artifact by name

kb view --title "gobuster"
# or
kb view -t "gobuster"
# or
kb view gobuster

View an artifact without colors

kb view -t dirb -n

View an artifact within a text-editor

kb view -i 2 -e

# or if aliases are used:
kbv 2 -e

Edit artifacts

Editing artifacts involves opening a text editor. Hence, binary files cannot be edited by kb.

The editor can be set by the "EDITOR" environment variable.

Edit an artifact by id

kb edit --id 13
# or
kbe 13
# or if aliases are used:
kbe 13

Edit an artifact by name

kb edit --title "git" --category "cheatsheet"
# or
kb edit -t "git" -c "cheatsheet"
# or if git is unique as artifact
kb edit git

Grep through artifacts

Grep through the knowledge base

kb grep "[bg]zip"

# or if aliases are used:
kbg "[bg]zip"

Grep (case-insensitive) through the knowledge base

kb grep -i "[BG]ZIP"

Grep in "verbose mode" through the knowledge base

kb grep -v "[bg]zip"

Grep through the knowledge base and show matching lines

kb grep -m "[bg]zip"

Import/Export/Erase a knowledge base

Export the current knowledge base

To export the entire knowledge base, do:

kb export

This will generate a .kb.tar.gz archive that can be later be imported by kb.

If you want to export only data (so that it can be used in other software):

 kb export --only-data

This will export a directory containing a subdirectory for each category and within these subdirectories we will have all the artifacts belonging to that specific category.

Import a knowledge base

kb import archive.kb.tar.gz

NOTE: Importing a knowledge base erases all the previous data. Basically it erases everything and imports the new knowledge base.

Erase the entire knowledge base

kb erase

Manage Templates

kb supports custom templates for the artifacts. A template is basically a file using the "toml" format, structured in this way:

TITLES   = [ "^#.*", "blue",  ]
WARNINGS = [ "!.*" , "yellow",]
COMMENTS = [ ";;.*", "green", ]

Where the first element of each list is a regex and the second element is a color.

Note that by default an artifact is assigned with the 'default' template, and this template can be changed too (look at "Edit a template" subsection).

List available templates

To list all available templates:

kb template list

To list all the templates containing the string "theory":

kb template list "theory"

Create a new template

Create a new template called "lisp-cheatsheets", note that an example template will be put as example in the editor.

kb template new lisp-cheatsheets

Delete a template

To delete the template called "lisp-cheatsheets" just do:

kb template delete lisp-cheatsheets

Edit a template

To edit the template called "listp-cheatsheets" just do:

kb template edit lisp-cheatsheets

Add a template

We can also add a template from an already existing toml configuration file by just doing:

kb template add ~/path/to/myconfig.toml --title myconfig

Change template for an artifact

We can change the template for an existing artifact by ID by using the update command:

kb update --id 2 --template "lisp-cheatsheets"

Apply a template to all artifacts of a category

We can apply the template "lisp-cheatsheets" to all artifacts belonging to the category "lispcode" by doing:

kb template apply "lisp-cheatsheets" --category "lispcode"

Apply a template to all artifacts having zip in their title

We can apply the template "dark" to all artifacts having in their title the string "zip" (e.g., bzip, 7zip, zipper) by doing:

kb template apply "dark" --title "zip" --extended-match
# or 
kb template apply "dark" --title "zip" -m

We can always have our queries to "contain" the string by using the --extended-match option when using kb template apply.

Apply a template to all artifacts having specific properties

We can apply the template "light" to all artifacts of the category "cheatsheet" who have as author "gnc" and as status "OK" by doing:

kb template apply "light" --category "cheatsheet" --author "gnc" --status "OK"

Integrating kb with other tools

kb can be integrated with other tools.

kb and rofi

We can integrate kb with rofi, a custom mode has been developed accessible in the "misc" directory within this repository.

We can launch rofi with this mode by doing:

rofi -show kb -modi kb:/path/to/rofi-kb-mode.sh

Experimental

Synchronize kb with a remote git repository

Synchronization with a remote git repository is experimental at the moment. Anyway we can initialize our knowledge base to a created empty github/gitlab (other git service) repository by doing:

kb sync init

We can then push our knowledge base to the remote git repository with:

kb sync push

We can pull (e.g., from another machine) our knowledge base from the remote git repository with:

kb sync pull

We can at any time view to what remote endpoint our knowledge is synchronizing to with:

kb sync info

UPGRADE

If you want to upgrade kb to the most recent stable release do:

pip install -U kb-manager

If instead you want to update kb to the most recent release (that may be bugged), do:

git clone https://github.com/gnebbia/kb 
cd kb
pip install --upgrade .

FAQ

Q) How do I solve the AttributeError: module 'attr' has no attribute 's' error?

A) Uninstall attr and use attrs:

pip uninstall attr
pip uninstall attrs
pip install attrs
pip install -U kb-manager

DONATIONS

I am an independent developer working on kb in my free time, if you like kb and would like to say thank you, buy me a beer!

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

gnebbia/kb

gnebbia

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