Setting Up a Basic Pen Testing Environment Guide

1. Introduction

This guide will take you through the procedure you will need to follow in order to set up a basic Penetration (“Pen”) Testing Environment using commonly used tools and platforms.

2. Download the required installation files

Download the “VirtualBox 5.0.20” installation disk image file for your platform from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (note that this will already include the latest VirtualBox Guest Additions installer image)

Download the “VirtualBox 5.0.20 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack” installation file from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

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Download the “Kali Linux 64 bit” installation ISO file from https://www.kali.org/downloads/

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Download and extract the “Metasploitable 2 Linux” virtual machine installation zip file from https://sourceforge.net/projects/metasploitable/files/Metasploitable2/

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3. Install VirtualBox and the Extension Pack

Browse to where you downloaded the “VirtualBox 5.0.20” installation disk image file and run it. You should see a screen similar to the one below. Just click “Continue”.

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You'll be presented with a screen similar to the one below. Just click “Install”.

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Once the installation completes your screen should like similar to the one below. Just click “Close”.

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Browse to where you downloaded the “VirtualBox 5.0.20 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack” installation file and run it. VirtualBox will open and you should see a screen similar to the one below. Just click “Install”.

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The installer will require you to scroll through the “VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL)” and click “I Agree” similar to the screenshot below. Click “I Agree”.

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The installer will provide the following notification when installation is complete. Click “OK”.

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You will be presented with the VirtualBox Welcome screen. Congratulations you have completed the base installation of VirtualBox. There is more configuration to come.

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4. Create the Virtual Host Virtual Machines and Configure Virtual Host Networking

4.1. Create Kali Linux Host Virtual Machine and Basically Configure

Open VirtualBox and Click on the “New” icon at the top left of the VirtualBox user interface

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Once you have clicked the “New” icon at the top left of the VirtualBox user interface, you should be presented with a screen similar to the following. In this screen enter “Kali Linux” in the “Name” field, “Linux” in the “Type” field and “Debian (64-bit)” in the “Version” field. Once done, click “Continue”.

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You should now be presented with the following screen. Enter “1024” for the memory size, then click “Continue”.

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You'll now be asked to create a virtual hard disk via a number of options. Select the “Create a virtual hard disk now” option then click the “Create” button.

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You'll then be asked to choose the type of file that you would like to use for the new virtual hard disk. Select “VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)” then click “Continue”.

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The next screen requests whether you want a dynamically allocated size or a fixed size per below. Select the “Dynamically allocated” option then click “Continue”.

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The next screen asks where you'd like to store the virtual hard disk and also its maximum size. The name field should read “Kali Linux” and the size field should ideally be “20” Gbs. Once done, click “Create”.

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You should now see the following screen detailing the key configuration information for this virtual machine. Click the “Settings” icon at the top left of the screen.

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You should now see the following settings interface. Click on the “System” icon appearing at the top menu.

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Once you've clicked on the “System” icon, click on the “Processor” tab, select the “Enable PAE/NX” extended features option.

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Next click on the “Display” icon appearing at the top menu, then under the “Acceleration” options, select “Enable 3D Acceleration” then click “OK” to save these basic configuration settings (we'll be doing some final network configuration later).

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4.2. Create Metasploitable 2 Linux Host Virtual Machine and Basically Configure

Open VirtualBox and Click on the “New” icon at the top left of the VirtualBox user interface. Once you have clicked the “New” icon at the top left of the VirtualBox user interface, you should be presented with a screen similar to the following. In this screen enter “Metasploitable 2 Linux” in the “Name” field, “Linux” in the “Type” field and “Ubuntu (32-bit)” in the “Version” field. Once done, click “Continue”.

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You should now be presented with the following screen. Enter “512” for the memory size, then click “Continue”.

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You'll now be asked to create a virtual hard disk via a number of options. Select the “Use an existing virtual hard disk file” option and navigate to where you extracted the “Metasploitable 2 Linux” virtual machine installation zip file, and locate and select the “Metasploitable.vmdk” file. Once done, click the “Create” button.

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Once you click “Create” you should now be taken back to the main screen and see both your virtual machines setup and ready to host the Kali Linux and Metasploitable 2 Linux Operating Systems that we'll install soon. First of all we need to complete some basic networking configuration.

4.3. Basic Networking Configuration

Open the “VirtualBox” menu and click on “Preferences”.

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Within the “Preferences” interface select the “Network” top level menu item, click on host only networks, then click on the “Add new host only network” icon to the right.

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Once you add the new host only network, a new “vboxnet0” network is created that requires some further configuration.

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Select the vboxnet0 network then click on the “Edit selected host only network” icon to the right to display the following dialog.

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Click on the “DHCP Server” tab and fill in the details as shown in the screenshot below. Once done, click “OK”.

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Click “OK” again to go back to the main screen.

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Now we need to configure the Virtual machines. We'll configure the Kali Linux “Attacker” machine with two network adapters (one for acces to the internet, the other for access to the “Target” network/machine).

We'll start with the Kali Linux virtual machine. Select the Kali Linux machine in the main window and click the “Settings” icon.

Screenshot 31

Once you've clicked the “Settings”, click on the “Network” menu item across the top, then click on the “Adapter 1” tab. In this tab select the “Enable Network Adapter” option and in the “Attached to:” select “Bridged Adapter”. Also select “Name:” as your host machine's network adapter. Finally, click on the “Advanced” roll-up and ensure that “Cable Connected” is checked.

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Click on the “Adapter 2” tab and select the “Enable Network Adapter” option and in the “Attached to:” select “Host-only Adapter”. Also select “Name:” as the “vboxnet0” adapter you setup earlier. Finally, click on the “Advanced” roll-up and ensure that “Cable Connected” is checked.

Screenshot 33

We'll finish with the Metasploitable 2 Linux virtual machine. Select the Metasploitable 2 Linux machine in the main window and click the “Settings” icon. Once you've clicked the “Settings”, click on the “Network” menu item across the top, then click on the “Adapter 1” tab. In this tab select the “Enable Network Adapter” option and in the “Attached to:” select “Host-only Adapter”. Also select “Name:” as the “vboxnet0” adapter you setup earlier. Finally, click on the “Advanced” roll-up and ensure that “Cable Connected” is checked.

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Congratulations, you have successfully completed the VirtualBox setup. Now on to installing the Linux operating systems on the virtual machines.

5. Install Kali Linux and Complete Network Configuration

Click on the Kali Linux virtual machine and then click on the “[Optical Drive]” link under “Storage” at the “IDE Secondary Master:” and when the menu appears select the “Choose disk image ...” option and when the file chooser appears open the “Kali Linux 64 bit” installation ISO file you downloaded earlier. Once done, click on the “Start” icon at the top of the screen to start the Kali Linux virtual machine with the loaded “Kali Linux 64 bit” installation disk image.

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The following screen will load within the Kali Linux virtual machine. When the “Boot menu” appears select the “Graphical install” option using the cursor keys and hitting Enter.

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In the following screen, select your language (I've used English) then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select your location (I've used United Kingdom) then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select your keyboard language (I've used British English) then click Continue.

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The installer will now load.

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In the following screen, select your network interface then click Continue.

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In the following screen, enter the host name as “kali” then click Continue.

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In the following screen, enter the domain name as “vbnet” then click Continue.

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In the following screen, create the root password then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select the “Guided – use entire disk” partitioning option then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select the vbox hard disk then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select the “All files in one partition” for the partitioning scheme then click Continue.

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In the following screen, select “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” then click Continue.

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A confirmation defaulting to “No” will display as follows that you'll need to change to “Yes” in order to progress with the install. Then click “Continue”.

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The installation will start as follows.

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Once the installer has finished copying the files to the virtual hard disk, the “Configure the package manger” screen will display. Select “Yes” in response to “use a network mirror?” then click Continue.

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In this next screen, leave the proxy information blank and click Continue.

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The package manager will now be setup.

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Once this is done, the GRUB boot loader installation options will appear. Select “Yes” to installing the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record then click Continue.

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The GRUB bootloader installation will then ask what disk to install GRUB to. Selct the disk containing the text “VBOX_HARDDISK” then click continue.

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The installation will then finish as follows.

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Once the installation is complete the system will show the following screen. Click Continue to finish the remaining install and restart.

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Once the restart is complete you should see the login screen. Enter “root” in the Username field and hit Enter.

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Enter the root password you set earlier into the Password field and hit Enter (or click “Sign In”).

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You should now be logged in and able to se your Kali Linux desktop. There is some more configuration to go yet.

For the next part of the setup we're going to use the Terminal. Open the Kali Linux Terminal and run the following commands:

• apt-get update
• apt-get dist-upgrade -y
• apt-get install dkms linux-source linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Restart the virtual machine and login. Once at the desktop select the VirtualBox “Devices” menu and then the “Insert Guest Additions CD Image...” item.

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The CD will autoload and if so, then Cancel the autoloader.

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Return to the Kali Linux terminal to run the following commands (as root):

• cd /media/cdrom
• cp VBoxLinuxAdditions.run /root/
• chmod 775 /root/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run /root/
• cd ~
• ./VboxLinuxAdditions.run

Once the VboxLinuxAddtiona.run file has completed its execution, restart the virtual machine. We'll now complete the Kali Linux setup by assigning the DHCP server to the vboxnet0 facing Kali Linux host interface. Run the following command in the Terminal to open the network interface configuration file:

• #vi /etc/network/interfaces

Then insert the following lines and write and quit (“i” to insert; esc then :wq to write changes to disk and quit vi):

# The host-only network interface

auto eth1

iface eth1 inet dhcp

Restart networking by running he following command:

• service networking restart

Restart the virtual machine. You have now successfully and fully installed your Kali Linux host. Now to see if we can connect the Kali host to the Metasploitable 2 Linux Host (prebuilt through use of the previously downloaded VMDK image file).

6. Checking Connectivity between the two Virtual Hosts

Open the Terminal on the Metasploitable Linux host (by the way the username is msfadmin and the password is msfadmin) and type:

• ifconfig -a

You should be able to see a 192.168.56.XXX address (mine is 192.168.56.150). This is the address we are going to ping from the Kali Linux host.

Open the Terminal on the Kali Linux host and ping the Metasploitable 2 Linux host IP address using:

• ping 192.168.56.150 -c 10

If the ping command pings and comes back with 10 packets received then we're in business. Congratulations you have now completed the Setting Up a Basic Pen Testing Environment Guide. You will now be able to use this as an initial testing ground to practice and try out your penetration testing skills.