Building A Home Lab
Lets Build A Lab!
You Want to jump right in and hack some stuff, but what? Legally you can not just go out and hack anything. There are online 'cyber ranges' such as Hack The Box, but these may not be what you are looking for as a beginner. The best thing to do is to build a home lab. This will have machines you can hack on your own time and pace.
We are building a ready to go Virtual Machine for you to get started with. As of this writing its not ready yet, but here is a step by step on how it is built. This is for those of you willing to do some research and googling on your own to learn how it all works. Lets Get Started!
This system will run on your current machine. You could also install it on a older laptop or desktop system. It starts with downloading Virtual Box for your operating system. If you are serious about getting into this, most hackers and security people run Linux operating systems on their laptops. Ubuntu is a good place to start, then install the tools yourself as you go!
Once you have Virtual Box installed, the next step is to download the latest version of Ubuntu Server. We will be running some Docker Containers that contain vulnerable websites on the Ubuntu Server. Download the 18.04 LTS version.
Next step is to install the Ubuntu Server as a virtual machine.
Download the GWH VM
We are currently working on a pre configured VM for download. Once it becomes available it will be linked right here!
Setting Up the VM
Ubuntu Server VM Build
The first step is to mount the Ubuntu server installer into Virtural Box. First you will need to build a new machine.
Select "New" in the tool bar.
Name the machine something descriptive like "Lab Server 01"
Select Type "Linux" and "Ubuntu (64 bit)" from the drop downs
Click "Next"
Memory - 2048 MB should be more than enough, don't put more than your host machine can spare. The red bar is a warning you are giving the machine more memory than you should!
Click Continue
Next we will be building the virtual hard drive. We will just be using the defaults:
"Create a virtual disk now" should be selected, click "Create"
VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image - Click "Continue"
Dynamically Allocated - Click "Continue"
Name your drive "Lab01Drive" and change it to 5GB
Click "Create"
You now have a VM built! Except there is no operating system installed! Lets do that next.
Installing Ubuntu
installing the server into the VM
Remember that Ubuntu Server operating system you downloaded earlier? Lets install it!
Click on the Storage section.
...TO BE CONTINUED...
