Setting up a Cybersecurity Homelab on VMware Workstation Pro

Motivation for setting up a home lab

In today's digital age, cybersecurity has become a critical concern for individuals and organizations alike. With the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber threats, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity concepts and practices and one effective way to enhance one's knowledge and skills in this field is by building a home lab dedicated to cybersecurity.

The home lab will provide me with a controlled environment where I can simulate real-world scenarios, test various security tools, and experiment with different techniques without compromising the security of my personal or professional networks hence allowing me to gain hands-on experience in identifying vulnerabilities, conducting penetration testing, and implementing effective security measures.

Setup

This whole setup will be broken down into the following series

• Installation of Vmware workstation pro

• Installation of Windows 10 in Vmware Workstation Pro (LAN - Victim Network)

• Installation of Metaspoiltable 2 - vulnerable server (LAN - Victim Network)

• Installation of Windows Server 2019 - Active Directory (LAN - Victim Network)

• Configuration of Windows Server 2019 - Active Directory (LAN - Victim Network)

• Create Users and Groups in Active Directory - Windows Server 2019

• Configure AD DNS server - Windows Server 2019

• Make Active Directory Vulnerable - Windows Server 2019

• Join the Windows 10 PC to the AD Domain

• Installation Pfsense firewall

• Installation of ParrotOS as an attack machine

• Setting up SOC for monitoring of logs

  • Install Ubuntu Desktop

  • Setup Splunk on Ubuntu Desktop

  • Optional: Installation of Splunk on Windows 10 Pro

  • Optional: Setup Receiving and Index on Splunk on Windows 10

  • Setup Splunk Forwarder on LAN Windows Server 2019

  • Configure and test Splunk on Ubuntu Desktop

• Installation of Security Onion

Laptop Features - Host Machine

Fortunately for me, I had a laptop that was functioning well, so didn't bother to build a host PC from scratch. Below are the features of the host machine.

• Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10300H CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz

• Brand: Lenovo IdealGaming 3

• Installed RAM: 24.0 GB (8GB at first and increased to 24GB)

• System type: Win 11 Pro 64-bit operating system

• Storage: 500GB SSD

Network Topology

I will be using VMware workstation pro 17 for virtualization instead of VirtualBox.

VMware Workstation is a line of Desktop Hypervisor products that let users run virtual machines, containers, and Kubernetes clusters.

Next in the homelab series: Installation of Vmware workstation pro