Creating Our First Virtual Machine
Virtual Machines
Virtual machines (VMs) give us a pretty tremendous capability. A virtual machine is a virtual computer, running inside your normal operating system. The operating that is installed natively on your computer is called the host operating system. The host operating system is pretty vulnerable because it is exposed to all manner of threats. You can reduce this threat surface by conducting some of your especially risk activity in another operating system.
A virtual machine provides this second operating system without requiring separate hardware. It does so by borrowing some of your computer’s hardware resources (RAM, processor, and hard drive space) and using this borrowed hardware to run a separate operating system. The second OS is called the guest operating system.
Why would you want to use a virtual machine? Most importantly, it offers a tremendous layer of malware protection. Let’s say that you set up a VM for internet browsing. You visit a site and inadvertently download an infected file. That’s not great news, but it’s not the worst, either: if it is able to execute, it will still be inside the confines of the virtual machine. Your host operating system will still (probably) be safe, and the malware can only access what is in the VM.
A virtual machine even offers you the ability to go back in time by using snapshots. You can roll the virtual computer back to a time before it was exposed to malware. This means that even if your VM does get infected, it’s not that big a deal; if you’re using good snapshot practices it will only be infected for a portion of that that one session. I’m not going to cover snapshots in today’s post, but I will in the near future.
What You Need
It doesn’t take a lot to build and run a virtual machine. You’ll have to download a couple things, and follow these instructions. That’s about it. Here is what you will need:
Hypervisor Software: A hypervisor is the software that enables a VM. It is installed on your host operating system. The hypervisor borrows a portion your computer’s hardware and allocates it in such a way that the guest OS is able to install and run.
The hypervisor that we will use for this tutorial is VirtualBox. VirtualBox is free and open source, and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, and OpenSolaris hosts. Download VirtualBox here.
After you have downloaded VirtualBox, also download the VirtualBox Extension Pack for “All Supported Platforms”. The extension pack provides some additional functionality not native to VirtualBox, like the ability to work with USB 2.0 and 3.0 protocols. Install the Extension Pack AFTER you have installed VirtualBox.
Guest Operating System .iso: The next item we will need is an operating system file. VirtualBox can run a number of operating systems including Windows, Linux, and BSD. If you are using a Mac, it can also run macOS. For our purposes here we will use a Linux distribution called Ubuntu.
At this point you should have:
Downloaded and installed VirtualBox,
Download and run the VirtualBox Extension Pack, and
Downloaded the Ubuntu .iso file.
Setting Up a VM
Open VirtualBox and click the “New” badge. Disregard the list of VMs in the left column in the image below. In your brand new instance of VirtualBox this column will be empty.
A new dialogue will appear, asking you to name the VM and choose its operating system. If this is your first VM I recommend naming it “Ubuntu Practice” or similar.
Be sure you take the time to select the correct operating system in the “Type” and “Version” drop-downs! If this information is incorrect the VM likely will not run. For our purposes the type will be Linux and the version will be Ubuntu (64-bit). Click “Continue”.
Next, select amount of RAM you are willing to allocate to the VM. If you have enough available RAM I recommend giving the guest OS at least 2048 MB. For Ubuntu this is twice the recommended amount; more will help keep your VM running smoothly. Keep in mind your host OS also needs RAM, so don’t overdo it. Click “Continue”.
#EthicalHacking #WhatisEthicalHacking #EthicalHacker
#ethicalhackingcareer #EthicalHackingForBeginners #EthicalHackingCertifications #CEH #EthicalHackingTraining #EthicalHackingTutorial #CEHV10 #CertifiedEthicalHacke #learntocode2024 #codingforbeginners #freecourse #education #free #coding #learnpythonprogrammingforbeginners
To Learn Python programing. • Full Python Programming Course in 10 Hours...
What Is Ethical Hacking Ethical Hacking In 8 Minute. • What Is Ethical Hacking Ethical Hacking...
#codingforbeginners#howto #tolearntocode #learntocode2024 #top40learning #freecourse #top40list #top40websitestolearntocodeforfree #topnews #trendingvideo
Follow us.
Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Hacker.experts1/
Tiktok. tiktok.com/@hacker.experts
Whatsapp Channel. https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaids8NGk...