How to Make Your Own Penetration Testing Lab

If you want to go into penetration testing, a home lab is a must. In this article, we’ll discuss why a home lab can be useful, the pros and cons of virtualization and the cloud for a lab environment, and the tools and devices that a pentesting lab can and should include.

Why Set Up a Home Pentesting Lab?

The obvious reason for setting up a home pentesting lab is to provide a convenient way to test new pentesting skills and software. But beyond convenience, there are several reasons why setting up your own isolated lab is a good idea.

A home pentesting lab is a good way to hone skills while staying out of legal trouble. Hacking into other people’s computers and networks is illegal without prior consent, but it’s perfectly legal to set up your own lab that mimics someone else’s environment and then pentest your copy.

Penetration testing in an isolated lab is also good from a security standpoint. Some penetration-testing tools and techniques have the potential to damage or destroy the target computer or network. If malware is used in testing, there is the potential for infection and spread if testing in an Internet-connected testbed. A standalone, isolated testbed guarantees that the effects of the testing are limited to the lab hardware and software.

Finally, setting up a home pentesting lab can be useful for research and development of new pentesting tools and techniques. An isolated lab provides a controlled environment for testing and the ability to configure the target to the exact specifications needed for the test.

Virtualization and Cloud Technology

A major decision to make when setting up a pentesting environment is whether to use physical hardware, virtualization or a mix. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the main advantages of (Read more...)