Using AI to Generate Commands and Run it From Linux Command Shell

Shell GPT (SGPT) is a command-line tool that integrates with OpenAI’s GPT-4 models to enable natural language processing (NLP) from your Linux shell. It’s designed to simplify repetitive tasks, generate scripts, and assist with coding, all from within the terminal environment. SGPT is a powerful tool that brings the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT models directly into the Linux command line.

SGPT itself is free to install and use, but you will need an OpenAI API key, which may come with costs depending on your usage tier. SGPT requires an active internet connection as it relies on OpenAI’s cloud-based API to function.

 

Requirements

• Python Version: Python 3.6 or later
• OpenAI API Key: You will need an API key from OpenAI to access GPT models.

Install SGPT

Step 1: Install Python

SGPT requires Python to run. Most Linux distributions come with Python pre-installed, but if not, you can install it using:

sudo apt install python3

Step 2: Install pip (Python Package Installer)

You’ll need a pip to install SGPT. Install it using the following command:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Step 3: Install SGPT

Now that Python and pip are installed, you can install SGPT using pip:

pip install shell-gpt --break-system-packages

note: you will need to add --break-system-packages at the end of command. Else, you will get some warning messages and installation will be stopped. 

You can use pip3 install shell-gpt as well. 

Step 4: Verify Installation

Once the installation is complete, verify that SGPT has been installed correctly by running:

┌──(root㉿kali)-[~/.config/shell_gpt]
└─# sgpt --version                                                                                       
ShellGPT 1.4.4

This should ask you to enter openai api key, then return the installed version of SGPT, confirming that it’s ready for use.

Setting up OpenAI API Key

 

Step 1: Get the OpenAI API Key

• Go to the OpenAI API website.
• Sign up or log in to your account.
• Navigate to the API section and generate a new API key.

After you set up your account, click on your account name at the top right and go to your profile. You will then set up billing and limits to fund your account. 

You will want to fund your account. As a beginner or hobbyist, $5 USD is more than enough for most people to get started. I would also recommend disabling auto billing/funding and setting limits. If you don't want any surprises, set up your account properly. 

Usage:

Step 2: Set API Key in Environment Variables

zsh and bash are different shells that can be used on macOS and other Unix style OSes (Linux, BSD, macOS …). zsh is similar to bash but has some additional features. 
zsh is the default shell in more recent macOS versions while bash is the default for older ones. You can change what shell gets used when you open an new tab or window in Terminal by going to the Terminal preferences. Both zsh and bash have a number of different shell files that get run at different times. The one you want to edit is either .zshrc or .bashrc (depending on your choice of shell) - these specific files contain shell commands that are run every time you open a new Terminal window or tab.

Once you have your API key, set it as an environment variable to allow SGPT to use it:

• export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Alternatively, you can add this line to your ~/.zshrc to persist the key across sessions:

• echo 'export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"' >> ~/.zshrc 
• source ~/.zshrc

Configuring SGPT for Usage

 

Config File:SGPT creates a configuration file at ~/.config/shell_gpt/config.yaml where you can adjust default behaviour like:

• Default model: Choose between GPT models.
• Temperature: Control randomness in responses.

You can edit the configuration by running:

• nano ~/.config/shell_gpt/config.yaml

sgpt usage Examples: Query

 Full list of arguments

--model                           TEXT     OpenAI model name. [default: text-davinci-003]
--max-tokens                      INTEGER  Strict length of output (words). [default: 2048]
--shell         --no-shell                 Get shell command as output. [default: no-shell]
--execute       --no-execute               Used with --shell, will execute command. [default: no-execute]
--code          --no-code                  Provide only code as output. [default: no-code]
--spinner       --no-spinner               Show loading spinner during API request. [default: spinner]
--animation     --no-animation             Typewriter animation. [default: animation]
--help                                     Show this message and exit.

Query Examples:

• sgpt --shell "make all files in current directory read only"
• # -> chmod 444 *
• sgpt "Explain how HTTP works."
• sgpt "Write a bash script to back up /home/user/documents to /backup."
• sgpt "Explain this Python code: def factorial(n): return 1 if n == 0 else n * factorial(n-1)"
• sgpt "Create a bash script to back up /var/log to /backup/log every night."
• sgpt "create a cron job script to run a database backup at midnight every day."

sgpt usage Examples:

Execute the shell code: 

sgpt --shell --execute "make all files in current directory read only"
# -> chmod 444 *
# -> Execute shell command? [y/N]: y
# ...

• sgpt --chat fp --shell "use fping  to find active hosts in local network 192.168.2.0/24"
• fping -a -g 192.168.2.0/24 2>/dev/null
• sgpt --chat footprint --shell "Use filetype search operator to obtain pdf files on the target website eccouncil.org and store the result in the ec-recon.txt file."
• curl -s "https://www.google.com/search?q=site:eccouncil.org+filetype:pdf" -A "Mozilla/5.0" | grep -oP 'https?://[^"]+\.pdf' > ec-recon.txt
• sgpt --chat footprint --shell "Use inurl search operator to obtail the Fortinet VPN login pages"
• curl -s "https://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:%22/remote/login%22+Fortinet+VPN" -A "Mozilla/5.0" | grep -oP 'https?://\S+'
• sgpt --chat domain --shell "Discover all the subdomains of ‘google.com’ using dig command."
• sgpt --chat footprint --shell "Use Sublist3r to gather a list of subdomains of the target organization eccouncil"
• sgpt --chat fp --shell "Use theHarvester to gather hosts associated with 'microsoft.com', limiting results to 200, and leveraging 'duckduckgo' as a data source"
• baidu can be source as well
• sgpt --shell "what is my computer's dns configuration"
• nmcli dev show | grep 'IP4.DNS'
• 
  

Outputs:

──(root㉿kali)-[~]
└─# sgpt --chat fp --shell "Use theHarvester to gather subdomains associated with 'microsoft.com', limiting results to 200, and leveraging 'duckduckgo' as a data source"
theHarvester -d microsoft.com -l 200 -b duckduckgo
[E]xecute, [D]escribe, [A]bort: E
Read proxies.yaml from /root/.theHarvester/proxies.yaml
*******************************************************************
*  _   _                                            _             *
* | |_| |__   ___    /\  /\__ _ _ ____   _____  ___| |_ ___ _ __  *
* | __|  _ \ / _ \  / /_/ / _` | '__\ \ / / _ \/ __| __/ _ \ '__| *
* | |_| | | |  __/ / __  / (_| | |   \ V /  __/\__ \ ||  __/ |    *
*  \__|_| |_|\___| \/ /_/ \__,_|_|    \_/ \___||___/\__\___|_|    *
*                                                                 *
* theHarvester 4.6.0                                              *
* Coded by Christian Martorella                                   *
* Edge-Security Research                                          *
* [email protected]                                   *
*                                                                 *
*******************************************************************
[*] Target: microsoft.com 
[*] Searching Duckduckgo. 
[*] No IPs found.                                            
[*] No emails found.                                          
[*] Hosts found: 27                                                                                                   
---------------------                                                                                                 
2Fblogs.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
2Fdocs.microsoft.com                                                                                                  
2Fdownload.microsoft.com                                                                                              
2Fmsdn.microsoft.com                                                                                                  
2Fnews.microsoft.com                                                                                                  
Docs.microsoft.com                                                                                                    
account.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
appsource.microsoft.com                                                                                               
azure.microsoft.com                                                                                                   
azuremarketplace.microsoft.com                                                                                        
blogs.microsoft.com                                                                                                   
browserdefaults.microsoft.com                                                                                         
careers.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
choice.microsoft.com                                                                                                  
copilot.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
developer.microsoft.com                                                                                               
docs.microsoft.com                                                                                                    
download.microsoft.com                                                                                                
go.microsoft.com                                                                                                      
learn.microsoft.com                                                                                                   
msdn.microsoft.com                                                                                                    
news.microsoft.com                                                                                                    
privacy.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
schemas.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
support.microsoft.com                                                                                                 
techcommunity.microsoft.com                                                                                           
visualstudio.microsoft.com   

Usage Examples for Vulnerability Scanning

example 1: Scan for open ports

sgpt --shell "Scan 192.168.2.22 for open ports"

• nmap -p- 192.168.2.22

example 2: Scan for vulnerabilities

sgpt --shell "Scan 192.168.2.21 for vulnerabilities"

• nmap -sV --script=vuln 192.168.2.21

example 3: Use Nikto to scan for web vulnerabilities

sgpt --shell "use Nikto scan 192.168.2.20 for vulnerabilities"

• nikto -h 192.168.2.20

Videos

 

References

• https://github.com/TheR1D/shell_gpt
•