Rendertron Install for Dummies

This is just a simple repository of how to setup and install "Rendertron" (by Google).

What is Rendertron

Github Link

To qoute their github page:

"Rendertron is designed to enable your Progressive Web App (PWA) to serve the correct content to any bot that doesn't render or execute JavaScript. Rendertron runs as a standalone HTTP server. Rendertron renders requested pages using Headless Chrome, auto-detecting when your PWA has completed loading and serializes the response back to the original request. To use Rendertron, your application configures middleware to determine whether to proxy a request to Rendertron. Rendertron is compatible with all client side technologies, including web components."

What this really means for Bug Bounty Hunters and Pentesters is a way to inline render/compile javascript with command line tools.

Quick Setup

git clone https://github.com/gromhacks/rendertron-install-for-dummies.git

cd rendertron-install-for-dummies

chmod +x install.sh

./install.sh

How to Create a Rendertron Server in Digital Ocean or with a VPS Provider

1. Create a droplet with the following specs ( This is all you really need, don't spend to much money.)

• 1 GB Memory
• 1 Intel vCPUs
• 25 GB Disk
• Ubuntu x64 (Other Linux distro's will work)

2. SSH into the instance and run apt update and upgrade

   apt update -y && apt upgrade -y

3. Make tools directory

   mkdir tools

4. Install Google Chrome for x64 linux.

   wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

   apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb -y

5. Install NPM

   apt install npm -y

6. Install Rendertron

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleChrome/rendertron.git

   cd rendertron

   npm install

   npm run build

7. Run Rendertron

   npm run start

8. Test Rendertron

   curl http://<rendertron-server-ip>:3000/render/

9. Shutdown Rendertron

   poweroff

10. (Optional) If you want rendertron to start and stop automatically as a systemctl service do the following.

    nano /etc/systemd/system/rendertron.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Rendertron Server Daemon
    After=network.target
    
    [Service]
    Type=simple
    User=root
    UMask=777
    ExecStart=npm run start --prefix /root/tools/rendertron
    Restart=on-failure
    
    # Configures the time to wait before service is stopped forcefully.
    TimeoutStopSec=300
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    

    systemctl enable rendertron

    systemctl start rendertron