Assignment: Creating a Tripwire Script

Scenario

You are a software specialist given the task of creating a tripwire script that can be executed on various directories. By comparing the directory content against a static$/$pre$-$existing record, the tripwire script will determine whether files have been added, removed or altered.

Review the example below before following the instructions that follow.

Example of how a tripwire script works

A script is run as "python tripwire.py tripwireDir tripwireRecord c$"$ where the tripwire.py is your script.

"tripwireDir" is the name of the directory that needs to be evaluated.

"tripwireRecord" is the name of the record file.

$"$c$"$ stands for "create" in order to create a record file containing the static information

$($i$.$e$.,$ the four arguments$).$

When the above command is run on a given directory, the script will read all of the files that currently exist in that directory. The files will be read one at a time

The script will then run a hash algorithm on each file to come up with a checksum, and then write that information into a "tripwireRecord" file in that same directory. The file will contain a heading that specifies the directory that was evaluated. The file will also contain the filename and hash pair. These will look similar to the following example:

Ideally, this tripwireRecord file will be stored securely in another directory so that it cannot be altered.

The directory content is evaluated against the static "tripwireRecord" content.

a$.$ The script will run as "python tripwire.py tripwireRecord" where the

tripwire.py is your script and the "tripwireRecord" is the name of the record file $($two arguments$).$