console/terminal logs ftw

Occasionally I find myself wishing I had logged the output of some command for later reference and often during those occasions I find myself wishing it had a time stamp. So here is a nice reminder to myself, next time make sure my pentesting machine has these modifications.

• Make sure my prompt includes the time
• Log everything

bash prompt with time stamp (.bashrc)

#example of what we want:
#PS1="\n[\t] \u@\h:\w\$ "
#embedded in the default ubuntu options "\n[\t] "

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\n[\t] \u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\n[\t] \u@\h:\w\$ '
fi

bash with continuous logging (.bashrc)
make sure we always log our stuff. Note when doing interactive stuff the logs get a little but ugly…but we can live with that
Courtesy of: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1796500 & https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+question/7131

if [ -z "$UNDER_SCRIPT" ]; then
        logdir=$HOME/conlogs
        if [ ! -d $logdir ]; then
                mkdir $logdir
        fi
        #gzip -q $logdir/*.log
        logfile=$logdir/$(date +%F_%T).$$.log
        export UNDER_SCRIPT=$logfile
        script -f -q $logfile
        exit
fi

References

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1796500
• https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+question/7131
• http://www.lifeaftercoffee.com/2006/10/31/customize-your-bash-prompt/
• https://makandracards.com/makandra/1090-customize-your-bash-prompt
• http://divby0.blogspot.nl/2008/09/howto-timestamp-your-bash-prompt.html