* Add plugin update checking
Report available updates to the installed MVT plugin packages in the
startup banner, for plugins installed from a package index and for
plugins installed directly from a repository. Repository installs pinned
to a commit or a tag are never reported as outdated.
MVT only prints the command which upgrades a plugin. Installing the
update stays a deliberate choice of the analyst. The check runs at most
once every twelve hours, and in between prints the findings of the
latest check which still apply to what is installed.
Nothing about the check can interrupt a running command: the parts of
the suggested command come from package metadata and are quoted for the
shell, the repository query refuses to prompt for credentials and never
passes metadata as a git option, and a corrupt or stale cache is
discarded rather than trusted.
* Add a plugins command to list installed plugins and check updates
Add a "plugins" command to the platform-neutral mvt command. "plugins
list" shows every installed plugin package with its version, where it was
installed from, how many forensic modules it contributes and which
commands it adds. "plugins check-updates" checks for updates immediately,
without waiting for the automatic check, and prints the command which
upgrades a plugin instead of installing anything.
It lives on mvt only. The packages it lists extend mvt-ios and mvt-android
too, but auditing them is not the job of a command which analyses one
platform, and the two platform CLIs should not carry commands which are
not about an acquisition.
The command is registered as a built-in, before any external command, so
that an installed package cannot replace this audit surface.
* Add namespaced plugin configuration support
Plugin packages need somewhere to keep their own settings, but MVT
rewrites its config.yaml with only the fields it knows about, so any
foreign section is dropped. Add MVTPluginSettings, a pydantic-settings
base class that gives each plugin its own file under the MVT config
folder and its own MVT_PLUGIN_<NAME>_ environment variable namespace.
Settings resolve from constructor arguments, then the environment, then
the plugin file, then the field defaults. Saving skips the values the
environment currently supplies, so credentials passed as environment
variables are not copied to disk, and writes through a private temporary
file so a settings file is never partially written or briefly readable
by other users.
* Add per-plugin data folders
Plugins had no sanctioned place to keep the data they persist, so the
plugin configuration documentation suggested a CACHE_FOLDER setting
defaulting to ~/.cache/example-plugin. That is a Linux convention which
is wrong on macOS, nothing expands or creates it, and it turns a path
into a setting a user can be asked to configure.
Add plugin_data_folder(), which returns the folder a plugin should use
for caches, downloaded artifacts, synchronization state or anything
else it writes to disk, and creates it if it is missing. The plugin
name is validated before anything is created, so a name holding a path
separator raises an error and leaves no folder behind, and calling the
function again returns the same folder with its contents untouched.
The folder sits under plugin-data rather than under the plugins folder
which holds the settings files. On macOS the configuration folder and
the data folder are the same directory, so reusing the plugins name
would leave each plugin's data folder in among the settings files.
Both the plugin-data folder and the folder of each plugin are created
with 0700 permissions. MVT is a forensic tool, and what a plugin keeps
there, such as API responses or sample metadata, is private by default.
The path is resolved on every call, as the configuration folder already
is, so it follows the current environment rather than whatever it was
when MVT was imported.
The documentation now points plugins at the helper, and the example
settings class carries a plain integer setting in place of its cache
folder.
* Derive the data folder of a plugin from its settings class
A plugin with a settings class already names itself in `plugin_name`;
passing the name again to plugin_data_folder() repeats it and can drift.
Add a `data_folder()` class method on MVTPluginSettings which returns
plugin_data_folder() for the class's validated plugin name (works on the
class and on an instance); plugin_data_folder(name) stays as the function
underneath for plugins without a settings class.
---------
Co-authored-by: Donncha Ó Cearbhaill <google@donncha.is>
The Development section holds more than one page and will grow further,
so give it its own directory. development.md becomes development/index.md,
which keeps its published URL, and the custom CLI command page moves
alongside it.
Update the nav, the cross-link between the two pages, and the README
link to the custom command documentation, which is now published at
/development/custom_commands/.
Introduces docs/android/intrusion_logs.md covering the check-intrusion-logs
command and the recommended AndroidQF + check-androidqf workflow, notes
intrusion logging as an Advanced Protection opt-in, links the page from
the Android methodology page, and wires it into the mkdocs navigation.
* Run bugreport and backup modules during check-androidqf
Adding support to automatically run ADB backup and bugreport modules
automatically when running the check-androidqf command. This is a first
step to deduplicate the code for Android modules.
* Deduplicate modules which are run by the sub-commands.
* Raise the proper NoAndroidQFBackup exception when a back-up isn't found
* Remove check-adb command and update docs
* Remove check-apk code and old dependencies
* Major refactor to add structured alerting and typed indicators
This commit makes a structural change to MVT by changing binary
detected/not detected logic into a structured multi-level system
of alerts. This gives far more power to extend MVT and manage
alerts.
This commit also begins the process of adding proper typing for
key objects used in MVT including Indicators, IndicatorMatches,
and ModuleResults. This will also be keep to programmatically using
the output of MVT.
* Fix up, remove ADB module base
* Rework old detections tracking into stuctured alert levels
* Quote STIX path in log line
* Fix profile events log line
* Close open archive (zip/tar) file handles
* Fix root_binaries and mounts modules to use alertstore
* Update tests to use alertstore instead of detected attribute
* Fix alertstore method calls - use high() instead of warning()
* Fix remaining test errors
- Add log_latest() call in root_binaries to log each alert
- Fix UnboundLocalError in cmd_check_androidqf by initializing bugreport variable
- Remove incorrect backup.close() call since load_backup() returns bytes
- Remove duplicate from_ab method in cmd_check_backup that was using old attributes
* Log alerts on add
* Remove slug from alertstore calls
* update alerts.py
* update alerts.py
* move indicator_match to alert object
* .
* - Remove timeline_detected and route to alertstore
* fix typing for mypy
* Remove unused type imports
* Fix check_receiver_prefix and check_android_property_name
- check_receiver_prefix() used dict syntax (ioc["value"]) on Indicator
dataclass objects from get_iocs(). Changed to ioc.value/ioc.name.
- check_receiver_prefix() returned raw ioc instead of IndicatorMatch.
Now returns IndicatorMatch with descriptive message.
- Fixed return type annotations on both methods to Optional[IndicatorMatch].
- Removed unused Union import.
* Fix residual self.detected usage in packages and dumpsys_receivers
These modules still used self.detected.append() which no longer exists
after the alertstore migration. Converted to alertstore calls:
- packages.py: ROOT_PACKAGES detection → alertstore.high()
- dumpsys_receivers.py: receiver IOC match → alertstore.critical()
* Fix SMS module alertstore.high() call passing slug as message
The first argument was self.get_slug() (module slug) instead of a
human-readable message. The module is already auto-detected via
AlertStore._get_calling_module(). Also removed redundant log_latest().
* Apply suggestions from code review
Fix JSON serialization in `module.save_to_json` and fix argument order in iOS alertstore calls.
Co-authored-by: tes <tesitura@users.noreply.github.com>
* Remove unsupported ADB modules
* Fail removed check-adb command
* Fix alert serialization and logging
* Close sqlite connections in iOS modules
* Fix DEBUG messages not reaching handlers, save_to_json for dictionary results and TypeError on mixed event_time types in safary_history
* add matched_indicator via alertstore instead of directly modifying json objects
* Alert on battery daily uninstall and downgrade
* Lower alert severity to medium for suspicious items
* Switch version to 2026.4.28 CalVer
---------
Co-authored-by: Donncha Ó Cearbhaill <donncha.ocearbhaill@amnesty.org>
Co-authored-by: tes <tesitura@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Janik Besendorf <janik.besendorf@reporter-ohne-grenzen.de>
Donncha Ó Cearbhaill