"A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine. Virtual machines are separated into two major categories, based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine. A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform which supports the execution of a complete operating system (OS). In contrast, a process virtual machine is designed to run a single program, which means that it supports a single process. An essential characteristic of a virtual machine is that the software running inside is limited to the resources and abstractions provided by the virtual machine -- it cannot break out of its virtual world." --- from [1].
In general, virtual machines (VMs) are designed so that an entire computer system (hardware + software) is mimicked inside (however, Java Virtual Machine [JVM] is a case where it is "just the CPU-equivalent" without an actual operating system). The end effect is that we are able to run multiple systems "simultaneously" within another host system. For example, we can install a virtual machine on CentOS 5.5 and, within the VM on CentOS, run Windows XP, Windows Vista (if you have a desire to use that OS for some odd reason), OS-X, and Kubuntu 12.10. However, for this lab, we won't be doing anything nearly so complex. For the rest of this article, I will use 'host OS' to refer to the original operating system installed on a particular machine, and 'guest OS' to refer to an operating running within a virtual machine.
The operating systems running within the VM share the resources of the host system. Therefore, CPU and RAM are not dedicated. The partitions for the guest OS are actually virtual partitions created on a hard drive of the physical machine. For instance, the host OS may mount /dev/sda1 as the root drive (Remember, the 'a' refers to the first physical drive found, and the '1' refers to the first partition on that drive). The guest OS might see a 20GB drive available and mount it as its root, but that drive is only a portion of the real hard drive within an actual partition (such as /dev/sda1).
/var/ISO that has the following files
relevant to this article:
auditor-250405-01.iso, VMware-player-*.exe,
VMware-Player-*.x86_64.bundle
They can be used as NFS-mounted files. For better performance, copy the needed files to a local hard drive or USB drive.
The .bundle is a shell "script" for Linux 64-bit systems; install it as in /bin/sh VMware-Player-*.x86_64.bundle
mkdir -p /tmp/5
mount -o ro /dev/sda5 /tmp/5
In VMplayer or VirtualBox, give the iso path name as /tmp/5/boot/OSISO/auditor-250405-01.iso
dhclient eth0
Auditor distribution is by the same group that now releases Kali/ BackTrack. Auditor predates the many buffer overflow prevention techniques that are now standard in current Linux distros. Note in particular that Auditor does not support SATA HDDs -- only supports IDE drives.
If you have an old PC that has IDE hard drives, you will get a much faster Auditor by running the Auditor Live direct (without any VM).
Within Auditor, expect the results of modReturnAddress-acer602-20080507 to hold. If you notice discrepancies, please report.
#!/usr/bin/vmplayer config.version = "7" guestOS = "Linux" displayName = "Auditor Live" memsize = "512" ide1:0.present = "TRUE" ide1:0.fileName = "/tmp/5/boot/OSISO/auditor-250405-01.iso" ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image" Ethernet0.present = "TRUE" usb.present = "TRUE" floppy0.present = "FALSE"
"Failed to access the USB subsystem." VirtualBox access to USB devices can be enabled by adding user to the 'vboxusers' group. The user manual has a more detailed explanation. Install the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.
Richard van Hook wrote (2011) the section on Virtual Box, otis.4@wright.edu wrote (2010) the VMplayer section. I edited these.