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Virtual Machines for the Security Labs

This page documents virtual machines that I have prepared for students in my class to use to complete the labs.

Setting up your virtual lab

I have created a Kali virtual machine image on Google Cloud Platform which is using nested virtualization to host within it several virtual machines: a Windows instance, a Metasploitable2 instance, and a security onion instance. They are hosted using kvm and libvirt and accessed using virt-manager .

Read these instructions to get oriented to and set up on Google Cloud Platform, and to get access to the Kali virtual machine. Anyone should be able to see and use the custom class kali image if they join this Google Group (public access):

infosec-net Network Map

The network map is as follows:

IPv4 network block in CIDR block notation: 192.168.56.0/24

Using the virtual machines within Kali

The virtual machines are accessed using virt-manager . First, you should make sure that your user account is a member of the libvirt group.

Alternatively, log in as root (password toor ):

Then, from a terminal, run virt-manager to get an interface such as the following:

This shows that three virtual machines are available, but that none are running.

In the virt-manager interface, try running:

• Add Connection...
• Connect (accept defaults)

Starting and accessing virtual machines

Start a virtual machine by selecting it, and pressing the “play” icon. The virtual machine should then update to show that it is running.

To view the running virtual machine, highlight it and click “Open”. A new window will appear.

You can click into this window and interact with it via keyboard, and mouse if it has a GUI.

Details of a virtual machine can be viewed and edited from the “details” pane.

A network is set up to enable the host (Kali) and the guests (e.g., Metasploitable2, Windows 7) to network with one another. Try ping ing metasploitable2 from Kali, and Kali from metasploitable2, using the network map ip addresses above.

Updating the virtual machines

The following scripts will update the respective lab virtual machines installed on the kali pentest lab image.

Update SecurityOnion

To update Security Onion, run the following:

Update Windows Server 2019

To update Windows Server 2019, run the following:

Update Metasploitable2

To update Metasploitable2, run the following:

Using snapshots

Virtual machines in virt-manager can be “snapshotted”, which lets you restore the virtual machine to a previous state if you mess it up by doing something such as deploying malware to it.

Creating a snapshot

To create a snapshot, first, shut down the virtual machine . Then, click the “snapshot” button on the virtual machine pane, then + , then set a name, and “Finish.”

Restoring a snapshot

To restore to a snapshot, select your snapshot, and then “play” it. You do not need to shut down the virtual machine before restoring a snapshot.

How I created the virtual machines

If you are curious how the lab was set up, then browse this github repository .

Extra VMs and apps

De-ice vulnhub.

A fun hack-the-box challenge. From https://www.vulnhub.com/entry/de-ice-s1100,8/ .

See deargle/lab-de-ice-s1-100 for instructions.

From https://github.com/WebGoat/WebGoat :

WebGoat is a deliberately insecure web application maintained by OWASP designed to teach web application security lessons.

The easiest way to run WebGoat is to run it as a Docker container:

DVWA directly on Kali

There is already an older version of a DVWA server running on the metasploitable2 VM bundled with Kali, but the below instructions will run the latest DVWA directly on Kali as a containerized process and not in a virtual machine.

If you copy-paste everything above into a shell in Kali, DVWA should be accessible from Kali. It does the following:

• First, from whatever starting directory, makes directory DVWA and cd s into it
• Then, creates a file called compose.yml , which specifies a group of docker containers for dvwa: one called dvwa , and another called db . These will be on their own virtual docker network namespace, isolated from other docker containers that might be running on kali. The compose.yml file is exactly the same as the one in the dvwa gitub repo , except I pinned the dvwa image to tag 1232568 (which was the most recent tag at time of writing) instead of the ‘latest’ tag, which can migrate and potentially break things unexpectedly, which is Bad Business for teaching.

The last command, docker compose up -d , starts the containers. The dvwa web application interface will be accessible from Kali at 127.0.0.1:4280

Note that because of the restart:unless-stopped configuration, the docker daemon will always run this container, even after a reboot, until the user runs sudo docker compose down from within the DVWA directory.

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List Azure deny assignments

• 6 contributors

Similar to a role assignment, a deny assignment attaches a set of deny actions to a user, group, or service principal at a particular scope for the purpose of denying access. Deny assignments block users from performing specific Azure resource actions even if a role assignment grants them access.

This article describes how to list deny assignments.

You can't directly create your own deny assignments. Deny assignments are created and managed by Azure.

How deny assignments are created

Deny assignments are created and managed by Azure to protect resources. You can't directly create your own deny assignments. However, you can specify deny settings when creating a deployment stack, which creates a deny assignment that is owned by the deployment stack resources. Deployment stacks is currently in preview. For more information, see Protect managed resources against deletion .

Compare role assignments and deny assignments

Deny assignments follow a similar pattern as role assignments, but also have some differences.

Deny assignment properties

A deny assignment has the following properties:

The All Principals principal

To support deny assignments, a system-defined principal named All Principals has been introduced. This principal represents all users, groups, service principals, and managed identities in a Microsoft Entra directory. If the principal ID is a zero GUID 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 and the principal type is SystemDefined , the principal represents all principals. In Azure PowerShell output, All Principals looks like the following:

All Principals can be combined with ExcludePrincipals to deny all principals except some users. All Principals has the following constraints:

• Can be used only in Principals and cannot be used in ExcludePrincipals .
• Principals[i].Type must be set to SystemDefined .

List deny assignments

Follow these steps to list deny assignments.

You can't directly create your own deny assignments. Deny assignments are created and managed by Azure. For more information, see Protect managed resources against deletion .

• Azure portal
• Azure PowerShell

Prerequisites

To get information about a deny assignment, you must have:

• Microsoft.Authorization/denyAssignments/read permission, which is included in most Azure built-in roles .

List deny assignments in the Azure portal

Follow these steps to list deny assignments at the subscription or management group scope.

In the Azure portal, open the selected scope, such as resource group or subscription.

Select Access control (IAM) .

Select the Deny assignments tab (or select the View button on the View deny assignments tile).

If there are any deny assignments at this scope or inherited to this scope, they'll be listed.

To display additional columns, select Edit Columns .

Add a checkmark to any of the enabled items and then select OK to display the selected columns.

List details about a deny assignment

Follow these steps to list additional details about a deny assignment.

Open the Deny assignments pane as described in the previous section.

Select the deny assignment name to open the Users page.

The Users page includes the following two sections.

System-Defined Principal represents all users, groups, service principals, and managed identities in an Azure AD directory.

To see a list of the permissions that are denied, select Denied Permissions .

For the example shown in the previous screenshot, the following are the effective permissions:

• All storage actions on the data plane are denied except for compute actions.

To see the properties for a deny assignment, select Properties .

On the Properties page, you can see the deny assignment name, ID, description, and scope. The Does not apply to children switch indicates whether the deny assignment is inherited to subscopes. The System protected switch indicates whether this deny assignment is managed by Azure. Currently, this is Yes in all cases.

• Microsoft.Authorization/denyAssignments/read permission, which is included in most Azure built-in roles
• PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell or Azure PowerShell

List all deny assignments

To list all deny assignments for the current subscription, use Get-AzDenyAssignment .

List deny assignments at a resource group scope

To list all deny assignments at a resource group scope, use Get-AzDenyAssignment .

List deny assignments at a subscription scope

To list all deny assignments at a subscription scope, use Get-AzDenyAssignment . To get the subscription ID, you can find it on the Subscriptions page in the Azure portal or you can use Get-AzSubscription .

You must use the following version:

• 2018-07-01-preview or later
• 2022-04-01 is the first stable version

List a single deny assignment

To list a single deny assignment, use the Deny Assignments - Get REST API.

Start with the following request:

Within the URI, replace {scope} with the scope for which you want to list the deny assignments.

Replace {deny-assignment-id} with the deny assignment identifier you want to retrieve.

List multiple deny assignments

To list multiple deny assignments, use the Deny Assignments - List REST API.

Start with one of the following requests:

With optional parameters:

Replace {filter} with the condition that you want to apply to filter the deny assignment list.

List deny assignments at the root scope (/)

Elevate your access as described in Elevate access to manage all Azure subscriptions and management groups .

Use the following request:

Replace {filter} with the condition that you want to apply to filter the deny assignment list. A filter is required.

Remove elevated access.

• Deployment stacks

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Additional resources

Security Officer Network

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Popular Free Resources

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In 2020, facing a surge of unrest in downtown Portland, Oregon, and with an overwhelmed police bureau, local business owners turned to Echelon Security. Founded in 2019, Echelon has pioneered a shared security model, allowing businesses in close proximity to collectively address common challenges, such as vagrancy and public drug use. This approach not only reduces costs but also enables officers to engage proactively with the community, reminiscent of the traditional "officer on the beat" method. The company's success, coupled with its commitment to community welfare through charitable endeavors, positions Echelon as a leading example of the evolving face of public safety in an era where traditional police services are strained. --> READ MORE

The Media Flip-Flop on Private Security

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So how much does it cost to get away from the big security companies and start a security company?

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Security Guards: How to Get Free College Credits with FEMA Courses.

There are other benefits. These courses may entitle you to free college credits. For example: Charter Oak State College in New Britain, Connecticut, is known to accept these credits at no cost to its distance-learning students.

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Which U.S. States Require State Licensing of Security Officers and Which Do Not?

38 states and the District of Columbia require state-level licensing/certification of security officers.

12 states do not require security guards to register with the state; although, depending on location, the officer may need to register with the local city government, e.g., neither Kansas nor Missouri require state licensing but officers from both states are required to register with their respective city governments. --> View Breakdown of States

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Practice Test

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The forty question, free practice exam will test your unarmed security knowledge . It's the perfect test prep for those who must sit an exam before getting licensing.

Job Interview Guide

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State & City Resources

• Chicago & PERC/Blue Cards
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Most Frequently Asked Questions

• How Much Money Does it Take to Start a Security Company?
• Where Do I Get the PDF of Unarmed Security Test Questions and Answers?
• What Type of Duty Gear Should I Buy and How Can I get it for Cheap?
• Should I Start a Security Guard Company?
• What are the Components of the Security Guard Company Business Plan?
• Where Can I Find a Security Survey for Apartment Complexes?
• The Three Laws all Security Officers Must Know
• Why 2024 Is the Perfect Time To Have a Security Guard Card?
• How Do I Pass Time as a Security Guard
• Is It Safe to Be a Security Guard?
• Which Security Shift Should I Choose?
• How Much Do Security Guards Make in 2023?
• Where Do I Find Clients for My Security Company
• How Much Do Security Guard Companies Charge?
• How Hard is The Unarmed Security Test
• Should I Work for Allied Universal?

Security Officer Network Advisories

In the news.

• 2023.12.09 Allied Universal's CEO Declares The End of The "Big, Burly, Often 'Male' Security Guard. Is He Right?
• 2023.12.04 Allied's Exit From Israel Illustrates the Dangers of Working and Doing Business With Allied Universal Security
• 2023.11.08 Why Aren't More Celebrities Speaking Out on Controversial San Francisco Walgreens Security Officer Use of Force Incident?
• 2023.11.02 Not Just Mall Cops: More Security, Less Police
• 2023.10.18 The money-making model of private security in the 21st century.
• 2023.10.18 The mainstream media flip-flops on private security.
• 2023.07.27 Security guard steals the show during police arrest gone bad.
• 2023.04.04 ADT Commercial has just introduced its Gemini private security robot to the public. Will this replace unarmed security officer jobs?
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