CS 231: Computer Security

Setting up your work environment

Folder: setup [see below for what this means]

You'll need to work on your own for this, since it involves setting up your own computer. But take advantage of our class Slack workspace to ask questions if you get stuck. Also, if you have a friend in the class, doing this setup side-by-side or while connected over Zoom can make it more fun and probably more productive.

Goals

Resources mentioned below

Here are a few potentially useful resources all in one place. See below for details on what these resources are for.

Your tasks, part 1: Slack

Your tasks, part 2: Kali Linux

For many of our investigations into practical computer security this term, we're going to use tools installed on the Kali distribution of Linux. If you had the spare computer, the time, the right kind of computer, and the inclination, you could install Kali as your computer's operating system. But that's impractical for most of us, so instead, we're going to use Kali installed in a virtual machine. To do so, you have a few options, depending on your situation.

  1. Use REMOTELAB. Carleton's ITS has set up a system of virtual machines that you can use remotely, as though you were in one of Carleton's physical labs. The REMOTELAB computers are all set up, like Carleton's physical lab machines, to boot either Windows or macOS. They also have the app VirtualBox installed, with virtual machines for Kali and Metasploitable preconfigured and ready to use.

    Here's a short video demonstrating REMOTELAB that I made for you.

    Note that REMOTELAB has a limited number of simultaneous users for the entire Carleton community (43 at this writing), so if you are able to use one of the other options for accessing Kali, you might want to do so.

  2. Use the computers in Olin 304, 308, and 310. Launching Kali via VirtualBox on the macOS installations in these socially distanced labs is pretty much identical to doing so on REMOTELAB.

  3. Install Kali in VirtualBox on your own computer. This would be ideal for most of you, for your own convenience. However, there are a couple caveats:

    • If you are using a Mac with an Apple M1 processor, VirtualBox won't work.
    • If you are using a Windows machine that does not support virtualization, VirtualBox won't work.

    If either of these situations applies to you, you will need to use REMOTELAB or the Olin labs to do the exercises that require Kali.

    How can you tell whether your Windows 10 machine supports virtualization? Right-click on the task bar (the bar on the bottom of the screen) and select Task Manager. Then select the Performance tab. Look in the bottom right of the Performance screen:

    If it says "Virtualization: Enabled" in the bottom right, then you've hit the jackpot—not only does your computer support virtualization, but it's already turned on and you're ready to use VirtualBox. If it says "Virtualization: Disabled", you will need to enable virtualization, which will require you to interact with the BIOS on your computer before VirtualBox will work.

    I made a video showing the installation of VirtualBox and Kali on a Windows 10 computer. The BIOS part and some of the pre-VirtualBox shenanigans are Windows-specific, but the rest of it applies to both Windows and macOS.

So IN SUMMARY:

Your tasks, part 3: git and GitHub

To submit your work for this class and to support collaborative work with your classmates, you will use a git repository to store your code, documentation, presentations, etc.

Here's the short version of your git setup tasks:

Don't know anything or much at all about git? Follow these detailed git startup instructions.

Your tasks, part 4: what to hand in, and how

All done

That's all for now. Next up: we'll start learning how to use Kali and its many tools.