We will be using vagrant to standardise the environment so following the lesson plan is easy. The Vagrantfile will provision the appropriate pre-requisites but please go through this document to get an understanding of the steps required to prepare the testing environment.
Mandatory Steps
First, install vagrant and virtualbox. Vagrant can be downloaded from this link. Virtualbox can be downloaded from here.
Next, clone the repository onto your host machine. If you have messed up somewhere along the course and want to revert the state of the repository, just delete the entire directory and perform this step again.
amon@bethany:~/sproink/linux-exploitation-course$ vagrant up
Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> default: Importing base box 'ubuntu/xenial64'...
==> default: Matching MAC address for NAT networking...
==> default: Checking if box 'ubuntu/xenial64' is up to date...
==> default: Setting the name of the VM: linux-exploitation-course_default_1483872823092_95278
==> default: Clearing any previously set network interfaces...
==> default: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...
default: Adapter 1: nat
==> default: Forwarding ports...
default: 22 (guest) => 2222 (host) (adapter 1)
==> default: Running 'pre-boot' VM customizations...
==> default: Booting VM...
==> default: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
default: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2222
default: SSH username: ubuntu
default: SSH auth method: password
default:
default: Inserting generated public key within guest...
default: Removing insecure key from the guest if it's present...
default: Key inserted! Disconnecting and reconnecting using new SSH key...
... snip ...
Once the provisioning finishes, you can ssh into the vagrant box.
amon@bethany:~/linux-exploitation-course$ vagrant ssh
Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64)
* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage
Get cloud support with Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Guest:
http://www.ubuntu.com/business/services/cloud
0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.
ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~$ ls -la
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 Jan 8 10:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 8 10:54 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 220 Aug 31 2015 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 3771 Aug 31 2015 .bashrc
drwx------ 2 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 Jan 8 10:54 .cache
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 655 Jun 24 2016 .profile
drwx------ 2 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 Jan 8 10:54 .ssh
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 0 Jan 8 10:54 .sudo_as_admin_successful
ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~$
The course repository directory you clone previously will be mounted at /vagrant so you can use your preferred text editor.
Now, we need to start the docker containers for the exercises you will be working on. To do this, perform the following steps:
ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:/vagrant$ ./builddocker.sh
Building lessons/3_intro_to_tools/services/gdbreversing
Sending build context to Docker daemon 16.38 kB
Step 1 : FROM ubuntu:latest
---> 104bec311bcd
... snip ...
Step 17 : CMD /usr/sbin/xinetd -d
---> Using cache
---> 257fc44d2439
Successfully built 257fc44d2439
ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:/vagrant$ ./deploydocker.sh
Stopping all docker containers.
b70d9d49b7b9
... snip ...
432be332c15e037a3b0c2bc7465db673e8777bce0b0fe823cfbc8161eeeaf066
ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:/vagrant$
You do not need to rebuild the docker containers after you have built them once but you may need to redeploy the docker containers if you restart the machine.
Windows Users
For Windows users there are two options:
Start a virtual machine containing Ubuntu 16.04 and run the provisioning script found below. Next, manually clone the course repository into the machine. Note that directory locations may be different from the code listings in the course if you go down this route. The choice of virtualisation software you choose is up to you.
Install Vagrant and Virtualbox for Windows. This allows you to follow the instructions above almost identically.
One caveat with Option 2 is that your Windows Installation might not have SSH installed previously. When you invoke vagrant ssh, you might receive a message as follows:
D:\linux-exploitation-course>vagrant ssh
`ssh` executable not found in any directories in the %PATH% variable. Is an
SSH client installed? Try installing Cygwin, MinGW or Git, all of which
contain an SSH client. Or use your favorite SSH client with the following
authentication information shown below:
Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 2222
Username: ubuntu
Private key:
D:/linux-exploitation-course/.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key
In that case, simply follow the instructions to SSH into the newly provisioned system with an SSH client of your choice such as Putty or SmarTTY.
