From: Shenk, Jerry A (jshenk@decommunications.com)
Date: Sat Aug 11 2007 - 22:24:50 EDT
You definitely want something that you can exploit so that you can lean
how the exploits work. You also want to have a variety of operating
systems with a variety of patch levels. I'd also recommend having
enough stuff so that you can test a lot of the operating system that
you'll run into. Having said that, you also need to start
somewhere...then you lab can grow.
I think I'd start with an unpatched Windows 2000 server. There are a
ton of exploits and you can get a good handle on how stuff works.
Honestly, you aren't gonna run into too many unpatched W2K boxes out
there so once you have that box set up, image the drive and start
applying service packs. You will run into W2K boxes with a couple
service packs but not all of them. You'll also want to have a box set
up that is fully patched so that you can understand how your exploits
work against a patched OS.
Another really nice, fun system is a Windows 2003 server without any
patches. You'll also want to take that unpatched W2003 server and take
an image of that up to the end of March. That's fairly current but
still vulnerable to some REALLY nasty exploits - RPC/DNS for one lets
you own the box and in most cases, the box you'd be owning would be the
DNS server which also has AD so you can create a user and make them an
enterprise admin...definitely a HUGE hole for a relatively recent OS.
BTW, you can also play with that same exploit on any other DNS server
that's a DC....really nasty!
You want to play with some workstation-class exploits too. Set up a
mail server and an exchange client so you can do some of the exchange
client exploits.
When I'm talking about "setting up a box", I have a couple old servers
with drives that I swap around for this type of stuff....stuff people
were throwing out. So for me, "a box" is really just a single drive.
If you get used equipment, wipe the drives before you mess with 'em.
You really don't want to accidently leak somebody else' data. I know
this is a lab environment and it shouldn't "leak" but still...they
probably didn't wipe the drive or I certainly wouldn't trust 'em.
VMware is also very popular. Each individual machine also fits my
definition of "a box". I would recommend that you have at least a
couple "real machines" that you use but VMware is a really slick way to
test things out. There are some attacks that act differently on VMware
and a "real machine"....that's why you have a lab, so you can learn
those differences.
-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com [mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com]
On Behalf Of Peter Manis
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 6:40 PM
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Lab OS Choices
I am new to the world of pen testing and am working on building a lab.
What operating systems and versions do you recommend for a good all
around lab. Windows of course is a big one, but do you go back to 98?
Being a beginner I would think having all the patches on XP or Vista
might make it difficult to learn. I would also think adding a secure
OS like openbsd would be a waste of time for a beginner to try to gain
access to. All advice is appreciated.
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