I recently purchased VM Workstation so I can start working with various Linux products and security tools. I'm a network administrator and going into network security, so I wanted to get experience with vulnerability scanners like Nessus. Here's the background first:
I'm using Backtrack 5r3 for Linux. There's an upgrade called Kali, but a class I'm about to plunk $$ down for is still based on BT5r3. I'm running BT, Windows 7, and Mint in my VM envirorment on my host laptop, which I'll call MSI. So, MSI has an i7 CPU and 12 Gb of ram. I've given my Win VM 4 Gb ram, and the two Linux machines each 2 Gb. Obviously, I'm going to scan my VM environment, and see what I can break or prevent from breaking. I've set up the VM environment to use the Virtual DHCP environment. All VM machines can ping each other, and they can ping the virtual switch of the host MSI laptop.
The hiccup: Backtrack does not come with Flash. Backtracks forums are locked from posting due to the upgrade to Kali. The class is still based on BTr3, so I'm stuck. Besides, I'm over in Afghanistan working for a contracting company, and our internet sucks. I've tried d/ling the new Linux, and it's just not fast enough and reliable enough. So, BT it is. So where does Flash come into this, and what does this have to do with VMWorkstation? Well...
Nessus is loaded on my BT distro. But it's reporting tool/operating panel uses a webbrowser for scanning, reports, etc. And it requires FLASH:( . So, I've tried and tried and tried to d/l flash, and I've had no luck.
So I have another laptop that I'll call Ext. Ext, or external laptop, has Nessus successfully loaded on it, and it's worked between the two laptops tied together with a cross-over cable between the NICs. I can give EXT a 192.168.1.1, and MSI a 192.168.1.2, and they'll speak. EXT can run a Nessus scan on MSI just fine. Here's what I'm trying to do:
1. Can I use EXT, connected to MSI, to scan machines in my VM environment?
2. How do I need to set up the internal VM machines? Do I have them set to host only, bridge, or NAT? I don't want NAT I'm thinking, because then you'll have to deal with the external/internal IP address differences. I'm thinking host; make the host (the MSI machine) be 192.168.1.1, make the VM's 192.168.1.2 - 4, then make the EXT machine say .10. So my network would be a /28 (heck, I could do a /24, but I want to keep the scanning range down).
3. If not host mode, then bridge mode?
Thanks in advance!
Yallaen