Adventures in VirtualBox
By far the easiest method of getting a cyber lab up and running is using virtualbox or vmware. I’m partial to virtualbox because it’s free and my pockets love free. Using virtualbox one can build out a connected network that is separate from their actual machine (connection-wise). Using one or more of the vulnerable VMs on Vulnhub they can also test out and learn how to conduct a penetration test/hack a machine. They say the best way to learn is by doing. So, my first cyber lab has been through virtual machines.
There are a number of good/great youtube tutorials on how to set-up VMs for a cyber lab so, I’m not going to rehash that. I will link to a couple that I found particularly helpful with this iteration of my lab:
The reasons I went in this direction for my first cyber lab is because it’s cost effective and easy to set-up, maintain, and ultimately breakdown. Making snapshots make making mistakes (it happens and crashing a lab and having to start all over is the worst) not as nerve-wrecking as it would be if you infected and crashed you actual machine. A virtual lab allows for a user to test networking, penetration testing, monitoring , and more without having to buy a lab. I would definitely recommend as a starting point if someone was trying to find a way to sharpen/grow their skills.
Recommended Virtual Machines
- Kali Linux
- Parrot OS
- Metasploitable 2 (Great Beginner machine to hack)
- A Windows Machine (7 or Better) [Available from Microsoft]
Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows Vista or Higher (I’d recommend at least 7) or
- Apple OS X (at least 10.9) or
- The Most current update for the Linux Distro of your choice
- RAM depends on the number of VMs running (16 GB is a good number)
- Storage is based on the number of VMs running (30 MB for Virtualbox; At least 10GB per VM)
Build A Security Ninja 