Projects Category: System Security

Metasploitable 2 is an intentionally vulnerable virtual machine built by metasploit. It’s goal is to allow hackers or penetration testers practice on existing vulnerabilities without impacting real world systems. To do so in our case, we are going to isolate the metaploitable 2 VM in our internal network protected by pfSense, our virtual firewall. Download the Metasploitable 2 VM following the link bellow: 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/metasploitable

• Once downloaded, unzip the file. You should have a new folder similar to the screenshot bellow. 

• Now that this is done, open your VirtualBox Machine and click on New button. For the name, enter Metasploitable 2; for type select Linux;  and for version select Ubuntu (64-bit). Click Next; make no changes to the page and click Next. 

• Select Use and Existing Virtual Hard Disk File; click on the Folder icon and click on the Add button and navigate to the folder in which metasploitable was unzipped in to select your file. Click the Choose button. 

• Click Next  then Finish. 
• Right click on the metasploitable 2 machine created and click on Setting then Network. Under Adapter 1,  check the box Enable Network Adapter and under Attached to, select Internal Network. Select Internal LAN (the internal network we previously created) and press OK. 

• Double clcik on the Metasploitable 2 machine to open it.  

Login is msfadmin and password is msfadmin 

PfSense is an open source router/firewall that we are going to use to protect our virtual environment (virtual machines) from the internet, and therefore avoid external attacks. 

The steps to get this set up are the following: 

• Download the pfSense software at the link https://www.pfsense.org/download/. Select Download button (Fig. 1). 

Fig. 1 

• For the Installation Image, select AMD64 ISO IPM/Virtual Machine. Click on the Add to Cart  button then click Enter Cart button. Checkout by entering your email and password. Create an account if you don’t have one. 

Fig. 2 

• Once the checkout is done, you can download the software by selecting the Download button. 

Fig. 3 

• Once downloaded, use the gunzip command to unzip the file from your terminal 

Fig. 4 

• Open VirtualBox App and select New  button. Enter the information below in Fig. And select the ISO file from the folder in which was unzipped into. Then click Next. 

 Fig. 5 

Fig. 6 

• Keep the memory to 1024MB and the CPU to 1CPU then click Next. 

Fig. 7 

• Create a Virtual Hard Disk of size 5GB and click Next. Review then click Finish. 

Fig. 8 

Before we can add the vulnerable machines, we need to secure/isolate our internal network from the outside to avoid external attackers. 

• Right click pfSense VM and select Setting. Click on Network  and enable Attached to to Bridged Adapter. As of Name, select the name of your wired/wireless network. 

Fig. 9 

• In Adapter 2,  activate Enable Network Adapter. For Attached to, select Internal Network. For name, enter Internal LAN. Click OK 

Fig. 10 

Now that we have the network set up, we are going to configure pfSense. 

• To start, double click on the pfSense VM and click Accept. 

Fig. 11 

• Next, select OK for Install | install pfSense. Then OK for continue | Proceed with the Installation 

Fig. 12 

Fig. 13 

• Next, select OK  for stripe | Stripe  – No Redundancy 

Fig. 14 

• Press  OK to proceed. 

Fig. 15 

• Exit out of the pfSense VM. Note: Do not reboot 

Fig. 16 

• Right click on the pfSense VM and select Setting. Select Storage. Right click on the disc and click delete the optical drive. Click Remove. 

Fig. 17 

• Now double click on the pfSense to open it. Your screen should resemble the figure bellow. 

Fig. 18 

Next Step is: Building A CyberLab: Setting up Metasploitable 2 VM

The objective of this project is to build a virtual cyberlab composed of many virtual machines. This virtual environment will allow us to mimic real life hacking scenarios and serve as the foundation of future projects. The environment we want to build will consist of seven (07) to virtual machines (VMs): 

• Kali Linux: One of the virtual machines that will contain hacking tools. 
• Parrot Security: The second virtual machine that will contain hacking tools. 
• Two Ubuntu Linux: The virtual machines that will serve to demonstrate attacks on Linux based environments. 
• Metasploitable 1 and metasploiatble 2: The virtual machines that will be used to demonstrate attacks on Linux servers. 
• PfSense: The virtual router/firewall to isolate our lab environment and protect the vulnerable machines from outside attackers. 
• Main internal network: this network is isolated from the internet by the pfSense firewall. 
• Private network: this network is isolated from the main network behind the metasploitable servers. It is used to explore attacks. 

The topology below (Fig. 1) shows an overview of the lab environment. 

Fig. 1

A. Setting Up VirtualBox 

VirtualBox is a hypervisor, a program that will allow us to build the virtual machines/computers. To download Virtual VirtualBox for your computer (Windows, Linux, MacOS) follow the link below. In my case, I will download and install on a Ubuntu Linux machine. 

The download link is the following: https://www.virtualbox.org//wiki/Downloads 

For Linux users specifically Ubuntu, follow the steps below: 

• Select Linux Distributions 

Fig. 2

• Select latest version of Ubuntu; in my case Ubuntu 24.04. If you’re not sure which version of Ubuntu you’re using, go in Setting –> System –> About 

Fig. 3

• Save the file in your preferred directory; here in Download directory 

Fig. 4

To install VirtualBox on your machine, for my fellow Linux users, open your terminal and follow the steps bellow: 

Sudo apt-get update 

Enter your system’s password 

Fig. 5

Go to the directory where you saved the VirtualBox download. In my case it’s in the Download directory. Once in the directory, do a quick ‘ls | grep “virtualbox” command to make sure your file is in the directory. 

Fig. 6

Run the following command to install virtualbox. In my case I already have virtual box 

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-7.1_7.1.0-164728~Ubuntu~noble_amd64.deb  

Fig. 7

IF THIS METHOD DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU, THE ALTERNATIVE SHOULD WORK: 

Run the following command: sudo apt install virtualbox 

The command should install the latest version of virtualbox for you. 

Fig. 8

After installation, open the VirtualBox by running the command virtualbox. This will automatically open the App for you. 

Fig. 9

Illustration with a Banking App