This post will get you started with the Pentest Linux distribution of choice, Kali (now in version 1.1.0 and formerly known as Backtrack). It will furthermore go a little into how the environment can be setup in order to provide anonymity and privacy.

Kali linux is maintained by Offensive Security and is based on a Debian Linux distribution, with a build-in base of approx. 600 various security tool. The distribution can be downloaded from here in various formats.

The easiest way of getting started (assuming a standard Windoze user) is by running it in a virtualized enviroment such as VMware Workstation or similar. Other install methods are also possible, as live USB boot etc. However for the casual user the VM installation should be just fine.

Lots of fine manuals as to get it up and running is available, so go Google it (pretty straightforward). Henceforth it it is assumed that the Kali installation is up and running 🙂

Update to latest and greatest versions

The first thing you will want to do (and do once in a while) is running the following one-liner from console:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y –force-yes && apt-get dist-upgrade -y –force-yes

This will update all the software packets and distribution to the latest and greatest versions.

Anonymity in Kali with TOR

TOR is a anonymous proxy network made freely available by privacy enthusiasts. It is curiously enough also a favorite way of hiding tracks (primary the Pentesters origin) when doing pentesting.

TOR is easily installed using the apt package. Simply issue from terminal:

apt-get install tor

The configuration file bundled is good to go for purposes described here, but should the need be to reconfigure the listening port or other config it can be done with:

nano /etc/tor/torrc

TOR is depended on accurate time information. Hence NTP should be updated (particulary if running on a VM installation which has been in hibernation). Run:

service NTP restart

Now the TOR service can then be started with:

service tor start

This will have created a sock5 listener on port 9050, which will forward trafic through the TOR network.

Next step is not necessary, but I usually recommend it. Run the trafic through another scrubber, Privoxy. Again install the program with APT.

apt-get install privoxy

To chain the privoxy trafic through TOR uncomment the 4 lines in the config file:

nano /etc/privoxy/config

forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
 #
 #
 # The public Tor network can’t be used to reach your local network,
 # if you need to access local servers you therefore might want
 # to make some exceptions:
 #
 forward 192.168.*.*/ .
 forward 10.*.*.*/ .
 forward 127.*.*.*/ .

The service is afterwards started with

service privoxy start

Privoxy will by default listen on localhost:8118 as a HTTP proxy. Note that it has to be issued ‘localhost’ and not ‘127.0.0.1’

 

Another little anonymity tip

Proxychains can be used to forward all network traffic from any program (ie. NMAP) through TOR. It is build-in to Kali but has as of current a small defunct. In order to fix it create a symbolic link with

ln -s /usr/lib/proxychains3/proxyresolv /usr/bin/

AND fix the config file with

nano /usr/lib/proxychains3/proxyresolv

so that the line here looks like below
 export LD_PRELOAD=libproxychains.so.3

now an anonymous nmap scan can be performed like so:

proxychains nmap -sT -PN -n -sV -p 80,443,21,22 1.1.1.1

Adding a secondary browser to Kali

An easy way of adding a secondary browser is the chromium browser. It can be installed with APT with

apt-get install chromium-browser -y

Since this browser will not run as root create a new non-priv user with
adduser -u chrome

and afterwards start the browser with

gksu -u chrome chromium-browser