INSTALLING TOUR KALILINUX IN VIRTUALBOX

                  INSTALLING TOUR KALILINUX IN VIRTUALBOX

VirtualmachineshavemultiplebenefitsforKaliLinuxusers.Theyareespeciallyusefulifyouwant totryoutKaliLinuxbutaren’treadytocommittoinstallingitpermanentlyonyourmachineorif youhaveapowerfulsystemandwanttorunmultipleoperatingsystemssimultaneously. Thisisa popularchoiceformanypenetrationtestersandsecurityprofessionalswhoneedtousethewide rangeoftoolsavailableinKaliLinuxbutstillwanttohavefullaccesstotheirprimaryoperating system. Thisalsoprovidesthemwiththeabilitytoarchiveorsecurelydeletethevirtualmachine andanyclientdataitmaycontainratherthanreinstallingtheirentireoperatingsystem. Thesnapshotfeaturesofvirtualizationsoftwarealsomakeiteasytoexperimentwithpotentially dangerousoperations,suchasmalwareanalysis,whileallowingforaneasywayoutbyrestoring aprevioussnapshot.

24 Kali Linux Revealed

Therearemanyvirtualizationtoolsavailableforallmajoroperatingsystems,includingVirtualBox®, VMwareWorkstation®,Xen,KVM,andHyper-V tonameafew. Ultimately,youwillusetheonethat bestsuitsyoubutwewillcoverthetwomostfrequently-usedinadesktopcontext: VirtualBox® and VMwareWorkstationPro®, both running on Windows 10. If you don’t have corporate policy constraintsorpersonalpreference,ourrecommendationisthatyoutryoutVirtualBoxfirst,asit isfree,workswell,is(mostly)open-source,andisavailableformostoperatingsystems. Forthenextsections,wewillassumethatyouhavealreadyinstalledtheappropriatevirtualization toolandarefamiliarwithitsoperation.

Preliminary Remarks

To fully benefit from virtualization, you should have a CPU with the appropriate virtualization featuresandtheyshouldnotbedisabledbytheBIOS/UEFI.Doublecheckforany“Intel®VirtualizationTechnology”and/or“Intel®VT-dFeature”optionsintheSetupscreens. Youshouldalsohavea64-bithostoperatingsystem,suchasamd64architectureforDebian-based Linuxdistributions,x86_64architectureforRedHat-basedLinuxdistributions,andWindows... 64bitforWindows. Ifyoulackanyoftheprerequisites,eitherthevirtualizationtoolwillnotworkproperlyoritwill berestrictedtorunningonly32-bitguestoperatingsystems. Sincevirtualizationtoolshookintothehostoperatingsystemandhardwareatalowlevel,there are often incompatibilities between them. Do not expect these tools to run well at the same time. Also, beware that professional versions of Windows come with Hyper-V installed and enabled,whichmightinterferewithyourvirtualizationtoolofchoice. Toturnitoff,execute“Turn windowsfeaturesonoroff”fromWindowsSettings.

25Chapter 2 — Getting Started with Kali Linux

VirtualBox

After the initial installation, VirtualBox’s main screen looks something l

ClickonNew(Figure 2.7,“NameandOperatingSystem”[page27])tostartawizardthatwillguide youthroughthemultiplestepsrequiredtoinputalltheparametersofthenewvirtualmachine.

Inthefirststep,showninFigure 2.7,“NameandOperatingSystem”[page27],youmustassigna nametoyournewvirtualmachine. Use“KaliLinux.” Youmustalsoindicatewhatkindofoperatingsystemwillbeused. SinceKaliLinuxisbasedonDebianGNU/Linux,selectLinuxforthetype andDebian(32-bit)orDebian(64-bit)fortheversion. AlthoughanyotherLinuxversionwillmost likelywork,thiswillhelpdistinguishbetweenthevariousvirtualmachinesthatyoumighthave installed.

Inthesecondstep,youmustdecidehowmuchmemorytoallocatetothevirtualmachine. While therecommendedsizeof768 MBisacceptableforaDebianvirtualmachineactingasaserver,it isdefinitelynotenoughtorunaKalidesktopsystem,especiallynotforaKaliLinuxlivesystem since the live system uses memory to store changes made to the file system. We recommend increasingthevalueto1500 MB(Figure 2.8,“MemorySize”[page28])andhighlyrecommendthat youallocatenolessthan2048 MBofRAM.

Inthethirdstep(showninFigure 2.9,“Harddisk”[page29]),youarepromptedtochooseaphysicalorvirtualharddiskforyournewvirtualmachine. Althoughaharddiskisnotrequiredtorun KaliLinuxasalivesystem,addoneforwhenwedemonstratetheinstallationprocedurelater,in chapter 4,“InstallingKaliLinux”[page66].

Thecontentoftheharddiskofthevirtualmachineisstoredonthehostmachineasafile. VirtualBoxisabletostorethecontentsoftheharddiskusingmultipleformats(showninFigure 2.10, “Hard Disk File Type” [page 30]): the default (VDI) corresponds to VirtualBox’s native format; VMDKistheformatusedbyVMware;QCOWistheformatusedbyQEMU.Keepthedefaultvalue, becauseyoudon’thaveanyreasontochangeit. Theabilitytousemultipleformatsisinteresting mainlywhenyouwanttomoveavirtualmachinefromonevirtualizationtooltoanother.

TheexplanationtextinFigure 2.11, “StorageonPhysicalHardDisk”[page31]clearlydescribes theadvantagesanddrawbacksofdynamicandfixeddiskallocation. Inthisexample,weaccept thedefaultselection(Dynamicallyallocated),sinceweareusingalaptopwithSSDdisks.Wedon’t wanttowastespaceandwon’tneedtheextrabitofperformanceasthemachineisalreadyquite fasttobeginwith.

Thedefaultharddisksizeof8 GBshowninFigure 2.12,“FileLocationandSize”[page32]isnot enoughforastandardinstallationofKaliLinux,soincreasethesizeto20 GB.Youcanalsotweak thenameandthelocationofthediskimage.Thiscanbehandywhenyoudon’thaveenoughspace onyourharddisk,allowingyoutostorethediskimageonanexternaldrive.

Thevirtualmachinehasbeencreatedbutyoucan’treallyrunityet,becausethereisnooperating system installed. You also have some settings to tweak. Click on Settings on the VM Manager screenandlet’sreviewsomeofthemostusefulsettings.

In the Storage screen (Figure 2.14, “Storage Settings” [page 33]), you should associate the Kali LinuxISOimagewiththevirtualCD/DVD-ROMreader. First,selecttheCD-ROMdriveintheStorageTreelistandthenclickonthesmallCD-ROMiconontherighttodisplayacontextualmenu whereyoucanChoose Virtual Optical Disk File....

IntheSystemscreen(Figure 2.15,“SystemSettings:Motherboard”[page34]),youwillfindaMotherboardtab. Makesurethatthebootorderindicatesthatthesystemwillfirsttrytobootfrom anyopticaldevicebeforetryingaharddisk. Thisisalsothetabwhereyoucanaltertheamount ofmemoryallocatedtothevirtualmachine,shouldtheneedarise.

In the same screen but on the “Processor” tab (Figure 2.16, “System Settings: Processor” [page 35]),youcanadjustthenumberofprocessorsassignedtothevirtualmachine. Mostimportantly, ifyouusea32-bitimage,enablePAE/NXortheKaliimagewillnotbootsincethedefaultkernel variantusedbyKalifori386(aptlynamed“686-pae”)iscompiledinawaythatrequiresPhysical AddressExtension(PAE)supportintheCPU. Therearemanyotherparametersthatcanbeconfigured,likethenetworksetup(defininghow thetrafficonthenetworkcardishandled),buttheabovechangesaresufficienttobeabletoboot aworkingKaliLinuxlivesystem.Finally,clickBootandtheVMshouldbootproperly,asshownin Figure 2.17,“KaliLinuxBootScreeninVirtualBox.

AND ENJOY YOUR KALILINUX LET'S THE HACKING AND ANOTHER TIPS IS SEE YOU UPDATED NEWS FOR HACKING OR LEARN.