Cytool for Windows - Administrator Guide - 8.0 - 7.9 - 7.8 - Cortex XDR - Cortex XDR Agent - Advanced Endpoint Protection - Cortex

Cytool is a command-line interface (CLI) that is integrated into the Cortex XDR agent and enables you to query and manage both basic and advanced functions of the agent. Any changes you make using Cytool are active until the agent receives the next heartbeat communication from Cortex XDR.

On Windows endpoints, you can access Cytool using a Microsoft command prompt that you run as an administrator. Cytool is located in the C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps folder on the endpoint.

The following table displays the Cytool options available on Windows endpoints.

Note

Since the Cortex XDR agent 7.6 release for Windows, the cyserver.exe process includes and replaces the previous CyveraService.exe, tlaservice.exe, and twdservice.exe high-privileged processes.

Command Option

Password Required

Description

enum

Enumerate protected processes.

Usage: cytool enum

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
enum
Process ID      Agent Version
4448            7.0.0.27797
1188            7.0.0.27797
10980           7.0.0.27797
1160            7.0.0.27797
11756           7.0.0.27797
11080           7.0.0.27797
11432           7.0.0.27797
9432            7.0.0.27797
9424            7.0.0.27797
9752            7.0.0.27797
9404            7.0.0.27797
11872           7.0.0.27797
12272           7.0.0.27797
6864            7.0.0.27797
12532           7.0.0.27797

Note

If you change the action mode for protected processes in the Exploit Security Profile in Cortex XDR, you must restart the protected processes for the security policy to be enforced on the processes and its forked processes, and only then you will see them on this list.

protect

Enable or disable a protection feature.

Usage: cytool protect <action> <feature>

where:

<action>—Changes protection for an agent feature. Options are: enable, disable, policy, and query. The query option displays the protection status for each feature.
<feature>—Specifies the feature for which you want to change the protection status. Options are process for agent core processes, registry for agent registry keys, file for agent files, and service for agent services.

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
protect disable process
Enter supervisor password:

Protection      Mode            State
Process         Disabled        Disabled
Registry        Policy          Enabled
File            Policy          Enabled
Service         Policy          Enabled

startup

Enable, disable, or query the startup state of the Cortex XDR agent components.

Usage: cytool startup <action> <component>

where:

<action>—Changes startup action for an agent component. Options are: enable, disable, and query. The query option displays the startup status for each component.
<component>—Specifies the component for which you want to change the startup action. To change the startup action for multiple components, list them with spaces separating each component. Options are: cyverak, cyvrmtgn, cyvrfsfd, cyserver , and telam.

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
startup disable cyverak cyvrfsfd
Enter supervisor password:

Service         Startup
cyverak         Disabled
cyvrmtgn        System
cyvrfsfd        Disabled
cyserver        Automatic
telam           Automatic

runtime

Stop or start product components.

Usage: cytool runtime <action> <component>

where:

<action>—Changes startup runtime action for an agent component. Options are: start, stop, and query. The query option displays the startup status for each component.
<component>—Specifies the component for which you want to change the runtime action, or you can specify all components by not including any in this command. To change the runtime action for a subset of components, list them with spaces separating each component. Options are: cyverak, cyvrmtgn, cyvrfsfd, and cyserver.

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps> cytool
runtime stop cyserver cyverak
Enter supervisor password:

Service         State
cyverak         Stopped
cyvrmtgn        Running
cyvrfsfd        Running
cyserver        Stopped

policy

Query or compare the applied policy for a process.

Usage: cytool policy <action> <process>

where:

<action>—Options are: query and compare. The query option displays the current applied policy for the process; the compare option enables you to compare the policy against the policy for another process or against the default policy.
<process>—Either the process name or process ID (PID).

For example, to query the policy for future executions of notepad.exe:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
policy query notepad.exe
Enter supervisor password:

Generic
  Enable         0x00000001
  LongHooks                     0x00000000
  StaticHooks                   0x00000000
  NoCallSplitting               0x00000000
  InitSecurityCookie            0x00000000
  DontInjectThinApp             0x00000001
  LeanInjection                 0x00000000

B01
  Enable                        0x00000000
  BlockAPI                      0x00000000
[...]

For example, to compare the policy for future executions of notepad.exe to the default policy:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
policy compare notepad.exe default
Enter supervisor password:

Generic
  Enable                            0x00000001                 0x00000001
  LongHooks                         0x00000000                 0x00000000
  StaticHooks                       0x00000000                 0x00000000
  NoCallSplitting                   0x00000000                 0x00000000
  InitSecurityCookie                0x00000000                 0x00000000
  DontInjectThinApp                 0x00000001                 0x00000001
  LeanInjection                     0x00000000                 0x00000000

B01
  Enable                            0x00000000                 0x00000000
  BlockAPI                          0x00000000                 0x00000000
[...]

adaptive_policy

Adaptive policy agent commands.

Usage: cytool adaptive_policy <interval> <collect_stats> <recalc> <query>

where:

interval —Sets a recalculation interval override (in seconds), or reset an override. Options are: seconds policy
collect_stats —Initiates a collection of internal statistics.
recalc —Triggers a recalculation of the adaptive policy.
query —Query the current interval and APEX.

trace

Operate product trace sessions.

Usage:

cytool trace start <log size>—Starts the trace session and logs the results to a file with a maximum <logsize> in MB (up to 25MB).
cytool trace stop—Stops the trace session.
cytool trace reset—Resets all tracing configurations to their default values. If an active logging session exists, Cytool will restart the session.
cytool trace set <component> <level> <flag>, where:
- <component> can be either all (set the log level for all components) or one of the following individual components: cyvrlpc, cyvrfsfd, cyverak, cyvrmtgn, cyreport, cyserver, cyapi, cylnk, cyrprtui, cytray, tlacore, cytool, cyverau, cyinjct, cyvrtrap, cyvera, ntnativeapi, winutils, or panwd.
- <level> can be one of the following log levels: NONE, CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, or ALL.
- <flag> is the mask (hex) of one or more trace flags (a maximum of 31) separated by spaces that the agent assigns to each trace when a program runs on the endpoint (for example 0x7FFFFFFF, or 0x5). The trace flag is a property of a trace provider (in this case, Cortex XDR) and determines which events the agent generates. You can use the trace flag to filter events that the agent traces.
cytool trace convert <etl_file> [<tmf_file>]—Extract the encoded event trace log (ETL) file using a trace message format (TMF) file as a key to a file with the same name and store the result in %ProgramData%\Cyvera\Logs\Log.txt. When a TMF file is not supplied, Cytool uses the default TMF file stored in the %ProgramData\Cyvera\Logs\ folder to convert the ETL file.
Note
This command is not supported on Windows XP SP3.

quarantine

View and restore quarantined files.

Usage:

cytool quarantine list—List all quarantined files.
cytool restore <ID> [<path>]—Restore files to their original location or to a path, if specified, by specifying the file ID.

stat

—

Query Cortex XDR agent statistics from a running process.

Usage: cytoolstat <pid>

where <pid> is the process ID (PID).

For example, to display statistics about the Chrome process identified by PID 4080:

c:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps> cytool
stat 4080
DllSec Invocations: 0
DllSec Time: 00:00:00.0
G01 Invocations: 0
G01 Time: 00:00:00.0
G01 Thunk 00 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 01 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 02 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 03 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 04 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 05 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 06 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 07 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 08 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 09 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 10 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 11 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 12 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 13 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 14 Resolution: 0
G01 Thunk 15 Resolution: 0
G01 Stack Walk Resolution: 0
J01 Minimum Stack Depth: 166
J01Checks: 25
J01 Stack Walk Checks: 0

tla

View the history of the agent local analysis module.

Usage: cytool tla query

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
tla query
Model: PE
Build:     1800
Timestamp: Tuesday, November 26, 2019, 15:23:20

Model: Visual Basic Application Macro
Build:     1801
Timestamp: Tuesday, November 26, 2019, 12:40:07

info

—

Display general Cortex XDR agent information.

Usage: cytool info [query]

To display the agent version, run the cytool info command without any additional arguments. To display additional details about the agent, such as the version of the default policy and the specific build number, add the query argument. For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
info
Cortex XDR (R) supervisor tool 7.0.0.27797
(c) Palo Alto Networks, Inc. All rights reserved

General Cortex XDR information.

USAGE: cytool info query

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool info query
Content Type: 113
Content Build: 18279
Content Version: 113-18297
Event Log: 1

wf

—

Local verdicts cache operations.

Usage: cytool wf query [<hash>]

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
wf query 6D712E38945275FC534042191B02A8B34AA1CCED82486C98C1CE8935DDCF
Enter supervisor password:

Hash,Verdict,Override,Local Verdict,Model Version,Size,Type,Path,Time Stamp,Publishers
6d712e38945275fc534042191b02a8b34aa1cced82486c98c1ce8935ddcf,
Unknown(2),No Override,Malware(1),593,55296,Executable(1),
"\\?\C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.
MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\TempState\Downloads\test-pe.exe",
"Monday, July 12, 2019, 20:14:07","",Root,

image

—

Display information about a PE file (executable or DLL).

Usage: cytool image <filename>

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool image json.dll
Image Information
Location:     json.dll
Size:         176.98 KB (181224 bytes)
File SHA256:  a46b8e1ad9a808fb09e7b79bd03b66a611d0c7aa71291c216be555af14d16421
Architecture: x86-64
Subsystem:    Windows GUI
PE Size:      156.00 KB (159744 bytes)
PE SHA256:    8cbca46419bf7260c99aaa3c73a6944e97f5c5b053a8b88e9a17367439b08d7d

imageprep

Prepare a golden image by submitting files for cloud analysis and generate a threats report.

Usage: cytool imageprep [scan] [timeout <scan timeout>][upload <upload timeout>] [path <full path>]

where:

<scan timeout>—The number of hours the scan is permitted to run before reporting an error.
<upload timeout>—The number of minutes the agent can take to upload unknown files to Cortex XDR before reporting an error.
<full path>—Path to store the scan report. If no path is specified, Cytool saves the scan report to the local Cytool directory. To save files to this folder, you must disable service protection using the cytool protect disable command.

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
imageprep scan timeout 4 upload 60 path c:\report
Start Time       : 17:56:46
Elapsed Time     : 00:04:17
State            : Running
Scanned Files    : 5427
Suspicious Files : 0
Failed Files     : 9
Volume Root Path : \\?\C:\
Window Usage     : 0                       236                       20000
Path             : ...t\cache2\entries\9B982CE198BF046E6CCF25478920DDFD9E5842E5

Scan completed successfully

Complete report can be found at: C:\report\imageprep_2019-03-06_08-59-30.xml

scan

—

Scan operations.

Usage: cytool scan <action>

where <action>:

start—Scans the endpoint for malware.
stop—Stops a scan.
query—Displays the progress if a system scan is active.

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
scan start
Enter supervisor password:

The operation completed successfully.

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool scan query
Enter supervisor password:

Start Time       : 9:09:0648
Elapsed Time     : 00:00:51
State            : Running
Scanned Files    : 3944
Suspicious Files : 0
Failed Files     : 1\?\C:\
Volume Root Path : \\?\C:\                                      8                                            20000
Window Usage     : 0                                           14                                            20000
Path             : ...m.BubbleWitch3Saga_6.1.0_x86__kgqvnymyfvs32\res_output\particles\collected_counter_feathers.xml
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool scan stop
Enter supervisor password:

The operation completed successfully.

persist

The Cortex XDR agent stores policy and security event information, such as the list of trusted signers, local verdicts, and one-time actions in local databases on the endpoint. To troubleshoot policy issues and security events, you can use cytool persist operations to import, export, and view information stored in the local database.

Usage: cytoolpersist <action>

where <action>:

list—Lists the local databases on the endpoint.
export [<database name> | <databasepath>]—Exports the database table to a file in the C:\Users\<user>\Documents\PaloAltoNetworks\Traps\cytool directory.
import [<database name> | <databasepath>] <file name>—Adds the records in a JSON file to the database.
print <database name> | <databasepath> [csv]—Prints the records in the database to a CSV file.

To view a list of all local databases, use the cytool persist list command.

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool
persist list
Enter supervisor password:

Persistent database list:
            security_events.db          Database of security events (preventions)
                file_upload.db          Database of files being uploaded to ESM
            hash_containers.db          Database of files and containers
                 hash_paths.db          Database of file paths
              agent_actions.db          Database of one time actions
             agent_settings.db          Database of agent settings
               esm_frontend.db          Database of ESM frontend settings
                esm_reports.db          Database of ESM reports
             cloud_frontend.db          Database of Cloud frontend settings
              cloud_reports.db          Database of Cloud reports
             post_detection.db          Database of post-detection candidates
         remediation_events.db          Database of remediation events

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool persist export
file_upload.db                 
Enter supervisor password:
persistence::DB: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\persistence\file_upload.db: Open
persistence::DB: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\persistence\file_upload.db: Close

log

—

Set log level for the desired process.

Usage: cytool log set_level <log_level> <components>

where:

<log_level>—An integer value corresponding to the log level:
- 0—Disable logging
- 1—Fatal
- 2—Critical
- 3—Error
- 4—Warning
- 5—Notice
- 6—Information
- 7—Debug
- 8—Trace
<components> can be all or it can be one or more of the following agent components: trapsd, authorized, pmd, or cortex xdr.

Then use the cytool log collect command to generate a support file archive of all logs in a TGZ file.

checkin

—

Initiate check-in to the server.

Usage: cytool checkin

To verify the checkin, view the check-in time on the agent console.

last_checkin

—

Display the time of the last successful check-in.

Usage: cytool last_checkin

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool last_checkin
Persistent Last Check-In time
Database agent_settings:
persistence::DB: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\Persistence\\agent_settings.db: Open
persistence::DB: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\Persistence\\agent_settings.db: Open: IO error: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\Persistence\\agent_settings.db\LOCK: Could not lock file.
Last Check-In time (UTC): 2020-01-27T09:53:50Z
Last Check-In time (local): 2020-01-27T11:53:50Z
Total: 1 records
persistence::DB: C:\ProgramData\Cyvera\LocalSystem\Persistence\\agent_settings.db: Close

edr

—

EDR operations.

Usage:

cytool edr stats—Display EDR stats collected on the endpoint.

payload_execution

Stop or query payload execution status. Relates to Live Terminal and script execution.

Usage:

cytool payload_execution quey—Display current payload execution status.
For example:
cytool payload_execution quey—Stop payload execution.

websocket

—

Display current websocket connection status.

Usage: cytool websocket query

For example:

C:\Program Files\Palo Alto Networks\Traps>cytool websocket query
Current status of websocket connection is:
server: wss://ch-panw-61-beta.traps.paloaltonetworks.com/operations/socket
connected: true
enabled: true
uptime: 00:39:46.444

reconnect

Try reconnecting to the server if communication has been disabled, or force registration with a new distribution_id.

Usage:

cytool reconnect—Reconnects the Cortex XDR agent to the management application on the server, either Traps management service or Cortex XDR.

vdi

Perform VDI operations.

Usage: cytool vdi <operation>

where <operation> is currently only:

update—Update the golden image name and ID in the persistent database.

For example:

proxy

Set or query cloud-defined proxies for the agent.

Usage:

cytool proxy query—Display the current status of cloud-defined proxy settings.
cytool proxy set <list>—Set cloud-defined proxy settings to the proxies defined in <list>. For example: cytool proxy set "192.168.50.1:8080,192.168.60.2:808"
cytool proxy set “”—Disable cloud-defined proxy.

event_collection

Start or stop event collection (EDR/DSE).

Usage: cytool event_collection <operation>

cytool event_collection query—Display current event collection status.
cytool event_collection enable—Start or stop event collection as set by policy.
cytool event_collection disable—Forcibly stop event collection.
cytool event_collection logstat—Write internal statistics to the log file.

isolate

Release endpoint from network isolation.

Usage: cytool isolate stop

token

—

Displays the current token hash of the endpoint.

Usage: cytool token query

endpoint_tags

Usage: cytool endpoint_tags <action>, where <action> can be:

add—Add tags to the endpoint tag list.
remove—Remove the given tags from the list of endpoint tags.
list—Display the available list of endpoint tags.

Note

Tags should be passed as one string, separated by commas, and with no spaces.

For example:

cytool endpoint_tags add “tag1[,tage2,...,tagN]”
cytool endpoint_tags add “tag1[,tage2,...,tagN]”
cytool endpoint_tags add “tag1[,tage2,...,tagN]”

Cytool for Windows - Administrator Guide - 8.0 - 7.9 - 7.8 - Cortex XDR - Cortex XDR Agent - Advanced Endpoint Protection - Cortex - Security Operations

Cortex XDR Agent Administrator Guide

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