Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: DigitalAlch on June 20, 2011, 07:10 am
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Setting up Ubuntu on VirtualBox in Windows
Yet another vital lesson. There are so many reason to only access the DeepWeb in a VirtualBox that I don't have time to mention them all, but needless to say whenever you taking your life and well being into risk the more security the better. Now this may seem like a daunting topic, but really it s quite simple. A Virtual Machine is simply a independent OS running within your OS by means of Software Emulation or Hardware Virtualization. What this means to you is you can install a program on windows and run Ubuntu Linux inside there. So first we are going to need that software. Go to your main web browser (the one not running Tor), and go to:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/DownloadsAnd download the VirtualBox for Windows hosts, and install. Nothing special to mention here. Now go download your .iso (Disc Image) of Ubuntu at
http://releases.ubuntu.com/maverick/You want the desktop CD, save it somewhere you will remember. Now launch VirtualBox from the start menu, click on New, and a little Virtual Machine Wizard will pop up, click next. Now you get to name the installation whatever you want (doesn't matter), you can call it Ubuntu for sake of ease, then specify the OS as Linux. On the next page VirtualBox will let you choose the amount of RAM you want to allocate to Ubuntu. If you have 1 GB or less of RAM, I would advise you stick with the recommendation. If, however, you have over 1 GB, about a quarter your RAM or less should be fine. For example, if you have 2 GB of RAM, 512 MB is fine to allocate. If you have 4 GB of RAM, 1 GB is fine to allocate. If you have no idea what RAM is or how much of it you have, just go with the default. Go to the next page and hit Create new Hard Disk, once again hitting next. Choose Dynamically Expanding, and keep it at 8 Gigs. This will create dynamically expanding hard drive the only expands to the size it is filling up to a maximum of 8 Gigs. Go ahead and click finish. Select your new installation and the click Settings and Storage. Then, under CD/DVD Devices next to the box tat says empty you will see a ittle folder icon. Click that and choose the .iso you downloaded earlier. Once you are finshed click ok.
Now, go ahead and start your new virtual machine up. Now install it just as if installing Unbutu regularly. Don't worry when it comes to the hard drive stuff, it is supposed to find that whole 8 gig, and install to it (it will format it but you will not lose anything).
Afterwards, in order to use your virtualized installation (instead of continually booting the live CD), you have to change the CD/DVD Device entry to be Empty again.
Peace,
DigitalAlch
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Running Tor inside the VM removes one of the main reasons to use a VM in the first place, primarily isolation of Firefox from Tor. I suggest doing this instead, credit to Envious:
In this tutorial we will walk you through how to isolate your Linux VM from the net unless routed through the Tor proxy (running on the host). This provides numerous security advantages. For instance, if you are rooted, it will make it impossible to get your IP address short of breaking out of the Vmware hypervisor. It also prevents you from accidentally accessing sites without using Tor. For us it is a must.
For this tutorial we are running Windows 7 with Vidalia bundle and Vmware Workstation installed. Ubuntu Linux is installed as the guest in Vmware. We will not provide steps for setting this part up. There is numerous guides all over the net. Use Google.
Step 1: Boot your guest in Vmware. Install Torbutton (not Tor!) for Firefox, and any other applications you wish to use in this VM. You will not be able to use the repositories after you isolate the VM.
Step 2: On the Vmware menu, navigate to VM → Settings → Network Adapter → Network Connection and select 'Host-only.' This will disable all network access in your VM for the moment. Click OK to close the dialog.
Step 3: On the Vmware menu, navigate to Edit → Virtual Network Editor. Now look for the adapter that is set to Host-only. Take note of the subnet address. For us the subnet address is 192.168.65.0. This means that the gateway for your VM is set to 192.168.65.1. This is a virtual NIC created by Vmware on the host.
Step 4: Minimize Vmware and right click the Vidalia icon on your system tray in Windows 7 and select 'Stop Tor.' Now right click it again and select 'Settings.' Once the dialog has appeared, navigate to the Advanced tab. Click the button that says 'Edit current torrc.'
Step 5: Once you are in the torrc configuration file, look for this line:
#SocksListenAddress 192.168.0.1:9100 # listen on a chosen IP/port too
Uncomment this line and replace the IP address with your gateway IP address. For us it looks like this:
SocksListenAddress 192.168.65.1:9100 # listen on a chosen IP/port too
Make sure save settings is checked and click OK to close the dialog. Now right click Vidalia and click 'Start Tor.' Wait for Tor to connect.
Step 6: Open Vmware and go back into your guest. Open a terminal and telnet your gateway on port 9100. It should connect. For us it looks like this:
dad@ubuntu:~$ telnet 192.168.65.1 9100
Trying 192.168.65.1...
Connected to 192.168.65.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
If it connects, you are now ready to route everything through Tor. If not, then you did something wrong and you need to review the previous steps. Press Ctrl-C to exit telnet.
Step 7: On the Gnome menu, navigate to System → Preferences → Network Proxy. Select 'Manual proxy configuration' and go down to Socks host. Enter your gateway IP (192.168.65.1) in the address box and 9100 in the port box. Click 'Apply System-wide' and enter your root password when it asks. Click close after you have done this.
Step 8: Open Firefox and right click the Torbutton icon and click 'Preferences.' Select 'Use custom proxy settings' and go down to SOCKS host. Make sure all other boxes are cleared. Put your gateway IP (192.168.65.1) in the address box and 9100 in the port box. Select 'SOCKS v5' and click 'Test Settings' to confirm it works. It is also a good idea to set your Torbutton preferences to start the browser in Tor mode while you are here. Click OK to close the dialog.
Step 9: To confirm you are isolated, open a terminal and type 'ping google.com.' You should not receive any ping responses. For us it looks like this:
dad@ubuntu:~$ ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
Congratulations, this means you have successfully isolated your VM from the net unless routed through Tor. You can route any program through Tor using the same proxy settings. Please post comments or improvements below.
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You may notice that is for Vmware, and if you read my post I am setting up VirtualBox...
I put up a rough guide before expanding as I have been up for many hours. While you do have a point, it was something I was getting to.
I will start writing final version before saving..
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the steps for virtualbox are essentially identical