Network Security Toolkit (NST)

The Network Security Toolkit is the brainchild of Paul Blankenbaker and Ron Henderson and is a Linux distribution that includes a vast collection of best-of-breed open source network security applications useful to the network security professional. The Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a Linux-based Live DVD/USB Flash Drive that provides a set of open source computer security and networking tools to perform routine security and networking diagnostic and monitoring tasks. The distribution can be used as a network security analysis, validation and monitoring tool on servers hosting virtual machines. The majority of tools published in the article "Top 125 security tools" by Insecure.org are available in the toolkit. NST has package management capabilities similar to Fedora and maintains its own repository of additional packages.he new version of NST was released June 5 and according to the NST Web site, this release includes:
 

• A Enterprise class patch management system for NST WUI updates and system file patches and updates.
   
• A new nstvmware script to facilitate the use of NST within a VMware virtual machine.
   
• The inclusion of the VMware Tools and modules to optimize the NST performance within a VMware virtual machine.
   
• Many new enhancements to the NST WUI database management pages for both the MySQL and PostgreSQL database servers.
   
• Replaced the NST WUI network protocol anaylzer capture engine: “tethereal” with the new light-weight “dumpcap” application which is part of the new “ethereal” v0.99.0 protocol analyzer suite.
   
• Many networking and security applications have been updated to their latest version.

Download Link :  https://sourceforge.net/projects/nst/files/latest/download?source=files

Size : 2.8 GB

The screen shots below show a run through while I installed the NST on a virtual box.

AS it completes the installation part below :

 

While you run the installed image for the first time,the interface will ask to create a basic user as below : 

Ready to go.....

Qubes OS Installation in VMWARE Workstation player

1.   Qubes OS is a security-focused desktop operating system that aims to provide security through isolation.Virtualization is performed by Xen, and user environments can be based on Fedora, Debian, Whonix, and Microsoft Windows, among other operating systems.In my earlier post here at http://anupriti.blogspot.in/2016/05/qubes-os-installation-issue-with.html,wherein I had shown the installation issue I faced in Virtual Box,here I put forth (a pretty longish installation though about 2 hours plus) a series of steps along with screenshots as I was able to install the Qubes OS in VMWARE Workstation player.

The only irritant thing is the installation time...it takes about 150 minutes to complete the entire installation.Rest any queries are welcome....

Qubes OS Installation issue with Virtual Box

1.    I have a habit of running most of the Operating systems in Virtual Environment(mostly Virtual Box) that I keep experimenting with.Till date I have had no issues running anyone of them inside Virtual Box including Ubuntu,Fedora ,Mint,BackBox , BackTrack ,Metasploit , Windows , Pentoo ,Knoppix ,Chromium OS, Arch Linux , Open Suse, Red Hat etc....in fact the list goes on.But whilst exploring the QUBES OS today...I found the Virtual Box unable to run it...and always getting the following screens :

2.   Qubes is a security-oriented operating system (OS) and an extract from the installation advise is shown below : 

Extract produced below :

Note: We don’t recommend installing Qubes in a virtual machine! It will likely not work. Please don’t send emails asking about it. You can, however, install it on an external USB hard drive and run from it, at least for testing.

3.  But further to my surprise,I found via Google searches that this OS works fine with VMWare workstation player.And after I tried it,I found it works perfectly fine as I show it in my next post.I though couldn't find a resolve or any kind of solution to run it fine on the Virtual Box but then till the time VMware workstation performs the task,I am ok :-)

Hardening Linux : BASTILLE-LINUX

1.   Linux is gaining its pace in gaining new user base daily pan globe and with this increase it becomes all the more important to harden it because now Linux will soon be of interest to hackers....and in this post I am giving a brief introduction about Bastille, a software tool that eases the process of hardening a Linux system, giving you the choice of what to lock down and what not to, depending on your security requirements. It bundles many of the tasks routinely done to securely configure a Linux system into one package.It is a set of Perl scripts that run as an interactive program, asking questions for each step of the hardening process. The scripts explain each step well, enabling you to understand what security measures will be introduced by any changes you make and why. Bastille can also optionally save your choice of options to a file for remote deployment to other machines.

2. Bastille currently works with Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Mandriva distributions, as well as HP-UX. A beta version is also available for Mac OS X. Most of the distributions Bastille supports have it available as a package that you can install with the default package manager for the distribution. Once it is installed, just run Bastille as root.After you install it vide the Ubuntu Software centre,the ways to use and configure is shown vide screen-shots below :