Welcome to part one of this module.
This first video is going to be covering the basics of virtual private servers which have been mentioned
many times over the course of this class.
A virtual private server or CPS is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service.
Another way to think about it is to say that a regular server is running several virtual systems at
once and you're renting one of these for your own purposes.
This tends to be a lot cheaper and less technically involved than running your own full blown server.
But why would a penetration tester or even a black hat hacker choose to do this.
Well the ability to have either a virtual server or a full server running at all times can be quite
handy.
And oftentimes these don't require a lot of power to black cats frequently use virtual private servers
run by so-called bullet proof hosts as a command and control center for malware bought nets just as
one example.
Since the IP address that an infected computer connects to can be easily traced.
This gives the black hat a degree of anonymity provided that there is no way to determine who is renting
the service in question.
When I use the phrase bullet proof hosting I am speaking of servers or virtual private servers in the
case of this tutorial that are located in parts of the world that are shall we say unfriendly to inquiries
from the penetration testers country of origin.
In other words an American Black Hat might anonymously purchase a VPN in let's say Russia using some
form of cryptocurrency or other anonymous payment method.
It is unlikely that the Russian government will respond to demands to either shut the service down or
share information about it provided that the blackout in question isn't using it against Russia.
Now as lawful pen testers we need to be aware of this so that we can defend against it because this
is the sort of tactic that is really going to allow attackers a lot of leeway in which to operate.
Another scenario imagine that we purchase a VPN anonymously and then provision it with Cally or some
other penetration testing distribution.
Ideally you'd probably start with some base flavor of Linux and then build your own penetration testing
operating system based on your particular needs installing tools as you require them.
In this video we're going to see exactly that.
We will be looking at a virtual private server which is running Cally Linux on it.
Now obviously we won't be doing anything illegal here but a less ethical individual could set up such
a VPN anonymously connect to it anonymously and then run attacks that originate from that remote server
not their home computer.
If the VPN does not keep logs and is quote unquote bullet proof and if the black head in question is
connecting to it safely and anonymously at all times ideally from a connection not associated with their
personal identity then attribution becomes almost impossible.
All right enough preamble but before we begin.
One very quick disclaimer I purchased the VPN ask that you are about to see used as a demonstration
from a European provider.
Now obviously I intend to use it only for legal and ethical reasons as I'm sure you will.
Therefore ensuring that the provider was bullet proof was not a priority for this demonstration.
I am not advocating the specific service that you're about to see one cloud hosting.
It is adequate for the purposes of this class but whether or not it is the right choice for your privacy
needs is something only to think long and hard about.
There are a great many choices out there and some research on your part is going to be necessary.
I will speak more on the subject of bullet proof hosting and how to find it a bit later for right now.
Here we have the client web interface for the CPS itself.
I have to say that every service out there has a slightly different console and some are a bit more
straightforward than others.
We can see here at the top of the screen the VPN Veep's host name.
I chose to name mine tutorial dot Kali dot com.
We have the IP address which will need to copy when it comes time to connect and we have the name servers
a little later will walk through how to set all this up our operating system.
In this case is Carly a flavor of Gnome or genome however you choose to pronounce it.
The server is presently off line and we have basic power options such as powering off the G.P.S. restarting
it from a powered on state and of course starting and stopping it.
Now I do have to say that most providers do not offer Carly or another penetration testing distribution
as an option but don't let that perturb you Debian is a very common choice and it is very easy to convert
the base Debian into Cali in any number of ways as we'll see demonstrated a little later in this module.
Most of these options that we are seeing are pretty self-explanatory and we can see that the server
is currently off line and by the way I don't plan to keep the server so please don't experiment using
the IP address as it will no longer be mine by the time you watch this video.
All right now below we have our VPN management panel.
As I said the look and feel of this panel is going to differ from service to service but the basics
are generally the same.
Some of these options as I said are self-explanatory like the change password option we can check logs
and it is important to note that this particular service does in fact keep logs.
We can schedule the G.P.S. to self shut down or any other tasks we want it to perform at particular
times.
We can also reinstall the operating system if we aren't happy with Carly usually to any other OS being
offered by the service provider we can install applications into rescue mode if we run into trouble.
OK.
The options we are most concerned with here are our connection methods.
We'll be using the most basic and straightforward for this demonstration and then is going to be no
machine but we can SSA to write in or use a VPN see if we prefer no machine is free and we're going
to need to download that so let's do that now.
The download is going to be pretty straightforward.
There's nothing special about the installation process.
However you will want to make sure that no machine is white listed by your Windows firewall.
If you're using Windows simply click download run the installer and follow the prompts.
It's very straightforward.
So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to turn on our server by clicking the play button
again the interface may vary depending on your service and this may take a minute to load.
Now you can just leave your server running all the time and I'm sure most of you will do that.
It's not always a good idea okay.
Here we are online and now we're gonna go ahead and we've installed no machine so we're going to launch
it.
No machine is pretty straightforward.
These bottom two buttons allow you to toggle full screen mode for the moment.
I'm going to leave it windowed click continue when you've made your selection.
As you can see I already have a connection created.
But if this is your first time you'll simply click new.
Leave it on the annex protocol click continue for the host We're going to give it the IP address of
our server which we copied from the panel.
This usually is located on your control panel.
Sometimes some services will send you the IP address only via your account acceptance email so you may
have to look around for it a little bit.
We'll leave the port as 4000 unless you set up a private key or use Kirby Ross select password and click
continue.
We also have the option of connecting via a proxy.
In this case we're just going to select no proxy.
Click continue and we can name our connection.
You can name it whatever you wish.
Click Done.
Select the connection and question and click.
Connect now we'll be prompted to provide our user name and password.
Once you've done this supplied your credentials click the OK button.
No machine is telling us about its screen settings.
This is very much like virtual box.
So if you are in full screen mode and you wish to access these buttons at any time you can use control
alt 0 or you can go up to the right hand corner of the screen which should cause these little tab buttons
to appear.
Click OK and you can read through this if you want to.
This is all pretty straightforward and not relevant to what we're doing right now.
You have the option to leave the menu panel displayed as a window.
I'm going to choose to do so.
If you find it irritating you can turn it off.
And finally no machine will usually resize your screen because I'm not in full screen mode.
The aspect ratio here isn't going to be absolutely perfect you're going to see a few black bars.
Now when you do choose full screen your virtual machines should automatically size to the no machine
window.
I do apologize for not doing that but it tends to slow things down quite a bit when I'm recording and
it's not really necessary for interacting with your virtual private server.
So when you're ready click OK.
Pretty simple.
And we're connected.
This works exactly like virtual box Cally.
We supply our user name which is going to be root in almost all cases.
And for our password it would normally be Tor.
But when we set up our our account will be asked to supply a password for the operating system.
So go ahead and supply your password.
Now it probably won't be tor unless you specifically set it up to be Tor and then click sign in.
Once you've entered your password click sign in.
And here we can see we're connected and I'm not going to update no machine right now.
And the aspect ratio as I said will correct itself when you choose full screen mode so here we are.
And this is basically Cally Linux exactly as it would be if you were running it inside a virtual environment
and you are in fact running it in a virtual environment.
It's just a remote one.
So everything works exactly the same.
We can open up our terminal.
We can and should do act get updates and act get upgrade.
But in most cases when you first install the operating system it will be fully updated and upgraded
already.
So that is something to keep in mind.
And once updated the sky's the limit in terms of what you can do here.
You could hypothetically speaking connect to this P.S. using proxy chains and Tor or a VPN then run
proxy chains and Tor on this server to connect remotely and lawfully for penetration testing against
yet another server you could upload the command and control server for a botnet and then bots on computers
that you personally own can connect to it and you can interact with them assuming that that's legal
in your particular area of the world you could store sensitive files that you do not want on your personal
computer or even experiment with potentially dangerous virus programs just like you could in a regular
old virtual box content to the knowledge that you can always reset the server.
Now provided that the host is trustworthy and that proper operational security is maintained on your
end the degree of anonymity here is extremely high.
OK so we'll see a bit more possible uses and ways to connect to this a little later.
But for right now how do we set it up.
As you can see it was not hard to connect once we have a server.
But how do we get a server.
OK a disconnect from no machine.
And I'm going to go ahead I'm going to shut down the server the PBS has been powered off and I'm going
to go ahead and log out of the client area.
OK I'm logged out so once again in the service that I'm using for this demonstration is one host cloud.
I want to be really clear that I'm not advocating this particular service but I am going to walk through
the process of signing up because signing up and setting up are really the same thing.
It won't be exactly identical with another service but the overall thrust of it should be the same.
A sign of a good CPS is that it will present you with a comprehensible method of setting up and connecting
to it once the server is up and running.
Usually it will give multiple methods if it doesn't.
You may want to consider using a different one.
So we're going to go to products in this case and this service offers Cally Linux CPS hosting back box
parent security Tor hidden services.
Most services will just be VPN hosting and then you would select from whatever selection of operating
systems that they have available.
In this case I'm going to click Cally we're going to scroll down to their pricing plan and we'll select
an appropriate plan.
Again every VPN is different but there are a couple of things you want to look at the 14 dollar a month
plan.
In this case gives us a server with one core two gigabytes of EDC memory 50 gigabytes of SSD storage
a 100 megabit port.
And it guarantees SS age and console access access no machine remote desktop and the cloud dashboard
are going to be some services will offer them and some won't.
So that's something to think about.
Pretty much all VPN services should offer some kind of a dashboard.
That is the page we saw a moment ago that allows you to control a server.
Sadly not all such dashboards are created equal.
And before you drop a lot of money on any service I recommend trying it on the cheap first and making
sure it offers you what you need.
Also pay close attention to what connection methods are actually supported.
At what price point.
Like I said some services do not offer no machine which may limit you to SSD age.
Some even seem to lack comprehensible console access.
So it really comes down to what service you're using the question of how much power you need is also
up to you.
Every service pretty much works this way in terms of cost where the cheaper you get the less Ram and
the less storage you are afforded.
It just depends on what you need.
Hopefully you have some idea of what you want to do with your VPN before you purchase it.
And once again there are different monthly offerings here.
Notice that it says 500 hours per month.
That is another thing you want to watch out for.
Some providers offer unlimited runtime per month.
Others will make you pay extra.
This one makes you pay extra bandwidth may also be a consideration so once we've got our billing plans
selected we'll need to give a host name.
In this case I'm going to use demo DOT KELLY dot com.
Yours can be anything you wish.
The root password is going to be the root password for the Cally operating system.
It is not your account password so please don't get those confused.
In this case I'm just going to go with Tor I'm not really signing up but you'll want to go with something
very secure for the name server.
You can really put anything here and this one and as to that will suffice.
This really only applies to normal VPN machines.
You can also alter your DNS plan if you wish and below and the drag down menu we have the various operating
systems that are being offered here.
Now in this case this particular service separates pen testing CPS from regular ordinary run of the
mill VPN is the service that you look at may not do that.
Generally speaking you'll have a choice between various flavors of Linux.
Sometimes a security oriented operating system will be offered usually not.
I find that although Windows systems are available they tend to run a little bit more expensive.
In other case we're being offered the choice of Cali X FC Cali no more genome.
However you pronounce it blackbox and parents security genome is the version of Cali that we are most
familiar with.
Visually speaking it is worth pointing out that except C is slightly faster in terms of its overall
performance with no machine.
There is some latency when you use no machine and a few other connection methods.
So this may be preferred.
I prefer genome.
This choice is not irrevocable.
We can reinstall the operating system at any time although doing so will obviously wipe any data we
have stored on the server.
And finally we want to note the fact that this particular service does not come with unlimited hours.
That costs extra.
So if you want that you would simply click this when you've made your selections click Continue.
Sometimes a VPN will offer a promo code for its longtime users.
If you have one this is where you enter it.
Click checkout and this is where you would enter your payment information.
But if we scroll down here this is also where you enter your account information.
And it is this password here that will allow you to log into your VPN server console through the client
area of the web page.
So it's important to keep both your passwords in mind and separate.
Now again if anonymity is a consideration you're going to want to pay with cryptocurrency or some other
safe method not with a credit card.
Some services let you do this and some don't.
Most do.
This is another consideration when choosing a VPN yes.
If you can pay with a gift card purchased with cash a cryptocurrency some other payment method great
otherwise you might want to pass depending on your security and anonymity needs.
Once you purchase a VPN.
It may take some time for it to be provisioned depending on the service provider.
Some providers are a little slower than others.
Anything more than 48 hours is quite unreasonable.
In general it should take only a few hours to get you up and running and that is about it in terms of
the subscribing and setting up process for the server.
As I said the exact process might be slightly different with another provider like for example digital
ocean.
But these are broad strokes of how it can be done.
You'll almost always have a dashboard console of some kind that lets you control the server from a web
browser and access your account.
Only the options being offered tend to vary from service to service in the next video we'll look at
more ways of interacting with our virtual private server.
Some fun things we can do with it and we'll also talk about finding what I was calling bullet proof
hosting.
And as always please only use the information shown in these videos in a lawful manner.
And remember that although we are looking at how black hats operate we do so from a perspective of defending
against such mischief when it is employed against our own computers and servers.
Please also be conscious not only of the law as it pertains to your country but also the laws of the
countries where your VPN is located in this demonstration.
I am based out of the United States subscribing to a company which is based out of the United Kingdom
and the server itself is located in France.
What is legal in one jurisdiction may not be illegal in another.
So please be very careful when you experiment with a VPN to avoid breaking any laws accidentally.
Thank you for your attention.