Simple AD Cyber Security Lab (Part 2) - Host Setup VirtualBox

     In part one, I went over the reason and design for this lab environment.  In part two we will start to build it.

The Hardware

    Again this doesn't need to be new or powerful hardware to prove this I will be using a pretty low-power system that can be had for under $150 US.  You can easily use an existing computer if it has the resources to spare, when the lab is not running it uses no CPU or RAM it will still take up disk space though.  Old used laptops can also work well having a built-in keyboard and monitor if you have the space or want it to be portable.

Any supported version of Windows will work along with MacOS and Linux, this guide will only focus on Windows but the steps will be similar on MacOS or Linux(with Desktop).

Note on MacOS, this should work on recent MacOS systems I'm not sure what the performance will look like on Arm-based Macs though.

This is what I will be using, you don't need the same thing 

Host

• Windows 10 Home Standard
• 4 core 4 thread Intel N100(4 Intel efficiency cores that boost up to 3.6Ghz, not a powerhouse by any means)
• 12GB of Ram
• 512GB NVME SSD
• Single 1Gbps NIC
• WiFi 5

The Software

    The main piece of software we will be using is Oracles VirtualBox.  This is a type-2 hypervisor, meaning it runs on top of an existing OS such as Windows.  There are some other core differences between type-1 and type-2 hypervisors but they don't really matter for our needs here.

Before we get started, feel free to use any other hypervisor you are familiar with we will be using only very basic networking features so almost any hypervisor should work. I will only be covering VirtualBox though as it is very accessible.


Downloading VirtualBox

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Select the "VirtualBox Platform Package" for your OS in my case Windows

Let's also get the "VirtualBox Extension Pack"  There is a license agreement and it is free for personal use but it is just nice to have not needed, it is up to you.

On Windows, VirtualBox requires Microsoft Visual C++ runtimes installed.  So we will need to install or upgrade it if not on the current version.

The current download is here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

We will also need 7-Zip later to extract some of the install images.  We might as well install that now.

Download here https://www.7-zip.org/

With everything downloaded let's get started installing. 

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime

VirtualBox needs the Visual C++ runtimes, so let's install that now.  Just open the installer.

Check the license agreement box and install it.

The installer needs admin access so you should be prompted by User Access Control, select Yes to continue.

After a brief install, we now have the runtimes installed.

Oracle Virtual Box

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to installing VirtualBox.  Launch the VirtualBox installer.  The installer requires admin access so you should again be prompted by User Access Control.  Select Yes to continue.

Select Next

More license agreements, accept and select Next.

We won't need Python support for what we are doing so let's set that to disabled and select Next.

This is warning us there will be a short network interruption, select Yes when you are ready to continue.

We want to leave the Register file associations checked the rest are up to your preferences.  Select Next to continue.

Last install confirmation page, click Install to continue.

7-Zip

Lastly, let's install 7-Zip, launch the installer, and select install.

The install is very fast

Configure

Oracle Virtual Box

Open VirtualBox and select File then Preferences.

Set the Default Machine Folder to your storage location.  By default, it will be under your user profile.  You can leave it here or move it to another location, wherever it needs to be an SSD and have space for the VMs.

Lastly, we will set up a new network, I prefer not to use the default network.  Select network then create.

That should have created a new Host-Only network.  Host-Only networks are virtual and only accessible to the Host and VMs with interfaces we place on that network but the VMs on that network can communicate with each other.  Select our new Host-Only Network.

We only need to configure the IPv4 Address and IPv4 Network Mask, apply and we are done!

• IPv4 Address: 172.16.254.254
• IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0

Wrap up

    Now we have VirtualBox setup for what we will need.  In the next part, we will set up a firewall.  The firewall will act as a gateway giving our lab access to the Internet but keeping it from accessing the rest of our network.