Commando VM — Turn Your Windows Computer Into A Hacking Machine

FireEye today released Commando VM, which according to the
company, is a “first of its kind Windows-based security
distribution for penetration testing and red teaming.”

When it comes to the best-operating systems for hackers, Kali
Linux is always the first choice for penetration testers and
ethical hackers.

However, Kali is a Linux-based distribution, and using Linux
without learning some basics is not everyone’s cup of tea as like
Windows or macOS operating systems.

Moreover, if you are wondering why there is no popular
Windows-based operating system for hackers? First, because Windows
is not open-source and second, manually installing penetration
testing tools on Windows is pretty problematic for most
users.

To help researchers and cyber security enthusiasts, cybersecurity
firm FireEye today released ^[1] an automated
installer called Commando VM.

But don’t get confused with its name. Commando VM is not a
pre-configured snapshot of a virtual machine image with many tools
installed on a Windows system. It’s not even a
complete distribution.

Instead, Commando VM is an automated installation script
that turns your Windows operating system, running on a virtual
machine (VM) or even on the base system, into a hacking
machine.

“It is possible to archive the same result if you run the install
script on the base machine. However, we strongly discourage this
behavior. Commando VM downloads additional offensive and red team
tools on Windows. Many of these tools are flagged by windows
defenders as malicious. Therefore, we disable many Windows security
features. Running Commando VM on the host will leave it vulnerable,
and therefore strongly discouraged,” FireEye researcher confirmed
The Hacker News via an email conversation.

But, I have to mention that Commando VM is not the first of its
kind.

Available since 2015, PentestBox ^[2]
is a similar open-source tool, running which automatically installs
all the security tools as a software package directly on your
Windows computer.

Developed by Indian security researcher Aditya Agrawal,
PentestBox has been designed to eliminate the requirement of
virtual machines or dual boot environments on Windows.

Commando VM release 1.0 includes two different set-ups, one
works on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and another for users running
Windows 10 operating system.

Commando VM offers a smooth working environment by automatically
installing more than 140 tools, including Nmap, Wireshark, Remote
Server Administration Tools, Mimikatz, Burp-Suite, x64db,
Metasploit, PowerSploit, Hashcat, and Owasp ZAP, on your Windows
machine.

According to one of the authors ^[3] of Commando VMs, the
following are the top three features of the tool that make it more
interesting:

Native Windows protocol support (SMB, PowerShell, RSAT,
Sysinternals, etc.)
Organized toolsets (Tools folder on the desktop with Info
Gathering, Exploitation, Password Attacks, etc.)
Windows-based C2 frameworks like Covenant (dotnet) and PoshC2
(PowerShell)

“With such versatility, Commando VM aims to be the de facto Windows
machine for every penetration tester and red teamer,” FireEye says.

“The versatile tool sets included in Commando VM provide blue
teams with the tools necessary to audit their networks and improve
their detection capabilities. With a library of offensive tools, it
makes it easy for blue teams to keep up with offensive tooling and
attack trends.”

According to FireEye, Commando VM also uses Boxstarter, Chocolatey,
and MyGet packages to install all software packages. Running a
single command will automatically update all your installed hacking
software.
To use this on your Windows computer, you need at least 60 GB of
free hard drive space, 2GB of RAM and a freshly installed Windows
OS on a virtual machine software, like VMware or Oracle VirtualBox
installed on your system.

Installing Commando VM is pretty easy. Just download the Commando
VM ^[4], decompress it and then
execute the PowerShell script available in the package on your
VM-based Windows to complete the installation.

The remaining installation process will be done automatically,
which may take between 2 to 3 hours to finish depending upon your
Internet speed.

“The VM will reboot multiple times due to the numerous software
installation requirements,” FireEye says. “Once the installation
completes, the PowerShell prompt remains open waiting for you to
hit any key before exiting.”

After the completion of the installation process, you’ll be
presented with Commando VM, and all you need to do is reboot your
machine to ensure the final configuration changes take
effect.

References

^{^}
released
(www.fireeye.com)
^{^}
PentestBox
(pentestbox.org)
^{^}
authors
(www.reddit.com)
^{^}
download the Commando VM
(github.com)

References

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