Background

I've been using Kali linux as my main ethical hacking OS for several years. I use it in the classroom and in ethical hacking ranges such as hackthebox. One issue is the best way to consistently store tools, proven exploit code and target information.

Vagrant allows you to consistently configure your VM to your specifications to include folders that are synchronized between guest and host. Simply do a git clone on your tools and exploit directories on your host and capture target data in the synchronized folder on your guest, and you end up with one consistent repository of data rather than having key resources trapped in a VM that you may not use again.

Proof of Concept

• Install Vagrant and provider

• Place Vagrantfile and provision-kali.yml in the same directory (example uses vmware provider)

• create a shared_directory directory

• run vagrant up

Vagrantfile

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "kalilinux/rolling"
  config.vm.provision :ansible do |ansible|
    ansible.limit = "all"
    ansible.playbook = "provision-kali.yml"
  end
  config.vm.provider "vmware_desktop" do |v|
    v.gui=true
    v.vmx["memsize"] = "8192"
    v.vmx["numvcpus"] = "2"
  end
  config.vm.synced_folder "shared_directory", "/host_data"
  
end

provision-kali.yml

- name: provision
  hosts: all
  tasks:

    - name: upgrade all packages
      become: yes
      apt:
        upgrade: yes
        update_cache: yes

    - name: install chrome
      become: yes
      apt:
        deb: "https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb"

    - name: install chrome remote desktop
      become: yes
      apt:
        deb: "https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/chrome-remote-desktop_current_amd64.deb"

    - name: install misc kali packages
      become: yes
      apt:
        pkg:
          - seclists
          - curl
          - feroxbuster
          - nbtscan
          - oscanner
          - redis-tools
          - smbclient
          - snmp
          - sslscan
          - sipvicious
          - tnscmd10g
          - wkhtmltopdf
          - python3-venv
          - python3-pip
          - gobuster
          - xlsx2csv
          - mingw-w64
          - flameshot
          - atftp
          - remmina
          - gcc-multilib
          - crowbar
          - libssl-dev
          - zlib1g-dev
          - libbz2-dev
          - libreadline-dev
          - libsqlite3-dev
          - wget
          - llvm
          - libncurses5-dev
          - libncursesw5-dev
          - xz-utils
          - tk-dev
          - liblzma-dev
          - git

    - name: add microsoft key
      become: yes
      apt_key:
        url: https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
        state: present

    - name: add vscode repo
      become: yes
      apt_repository:
        repo: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main
    - name: install vscode
      become: yes
      apt:
        name: code
        update_cache: yes
        state: latest

    - name: pip install nmap to csv
      pip:
        name: nmaptocsv


    - name: pip install csv to md
      pip:
        name: csv2md

    - name: download pyenv installer
      get_url:
        url: https://pyenv.run
        dest: /tmp/pyenv.run
        mode: 'u+rwx'

    - name: run pyenv installer
      shell: /tmp/pyenv.run
      args:
        creates: "/home/vagrant/.pyenv/README.md"

    - name: modify user path for pip and pyenv
      lineinfile:
        path: "/home/vagrant/.zshrc"
        line: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
        mode: 0644
        create: yes
      with_items:
      - 'export PATH=$PATH:/home/vagrant/.local/bin'
      - 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"'
      - 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"'
      - 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then; eval "$(pyenv init --path)";fi'

    - name: install pyenv for python 2.7.18
      shell: "/home/vagrant/.pyenv/bin/pyenv install 2.7.18"
      args:
        creates: "/home/vagrant/.pyenv/versions/2.7.18/include/python2.7/Python.h"

    - name: reboot your box
      become: yes
      reboot:

• run vagrant reload