Website prank

This prank generator creates a Bash script which you can use to trick your friend or colleague.

The generated prank script adds a given domain to the /etc/hosts file, starts a small service listening on port 80 and serving a prank webpage. The webpage shows a full screen image that you set using the generator.

Disclaimer

I made this script to trick one of my colleagues who sent a funny email using my name and email address. We laughed together on the prank, nobody got hurt.

The script should run alright on Ubuntu 16.04 with a basic setup, no special Bash aliases set. However in a customized environment it can have unexpected effects, so please examine the script templates first and check if they are OK for your system.

Use it at your own risk, I take absolutely no responsibility.

Usage

Generating a prank script:

./prank_generator.sh -h 'prank.loc' -t 'Prank!' -m 'image/jpeg' -i prank.jpg > prank.sh
chmod +x prank.sh

Parameters:

• -h or --hostname: The domain that will be written to the /etc/hosts file.
• -t or --pagetitle: The title of the served web page.
• -m or --imagemime: The mime type of the image, e.g.: "image/jpeg".
• -i or --imagpath: The path to the image that will be shown on the served webpage.

Starting the prank

sudo ./prank.sh

You can now use a link with the given domain, e.g. http://prank.loc/h8d7ash9, it will show the given image.

Stopping the prank

Well, it's a little more difficult.

Run:

sudo lsof -i tcp:80

Find the PID (process ID) of the Python script serving the prank webpage.

Kill the server Python script:

sudo kill {the PID of the Python script}

Restoring /etc/hosts if something goes wrong

The script creates a backup of the /etc/hosts file on the first run, you can find it under: /etc/hosts.backup_before_prank_{UUID}