Tag Archives: UEFI

Portable virtual lab that fits in your pocket

USB 3.1 Flash Drive BAR Plus 256GB Titan Gray Memory & Storage - MUF-256BE4/AM | Samsung US

Storage continues to get cheaper and cheaper. Above is a picture of a SAMSUNG BAR Plus flash drive. I was able to find one used on eBay for about $30 which has 256GB storage capacity.

My goal was to have a portable Linux distro that’s persistent on a larger capacity flash drive which I can use to run virtual machines on and containers. While I’m not opposed to *BSD derivatives and even took some time to test out NomadBSD, I wanted to have an operating system that is more flexible and has more hardware support. I decided to go with Linux Mint XFCE. This means the flash drive can work in legacy bios systems and UEFI systems (provided secure boot is disabled).  To make the persistent Linux USB drive, I used this guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/ .

A majority of computers for the past 20 years support virtualization. Granted, there are some rare systems that don’t support virtualization. (You can still install VirtualBox and have 32bit based guest operating systems.) My love and interest of type 1 hypervisors has lead me to experiment with hypervisors from different vendors. Linux KVM which has been around for 13 years, has become reliable and stable enough for production environments. To get Linux KVM up and running on my flash drive under Linux Mint, I simply used this tutorial: https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1727. Then to get have a nice web based gui to work with Linux KVM, I installed cockpit ( https://www.hiroom2.com/2018/08/02/linuxmint-19-cockpit-en/ ) .

The next evolution of virtualization in my humble opinion, is virtual container based systems such as Docker. While dockers and container based systems may not always be ideal or meet true isolation security requirements, docker adoption and usage has skyrocketed. One of the most useful uses that I have for docker, is when I need a quick isolated environment for testing software that isn’t permanent. Need to brush up on MariaDB programming? Awesome, spin up a docker. Have a package you need to use that installs libraries that breaks other things or even your package manager? Docker to the rescue. There are some CUI/GUI based tools that help you with docker as well if you’re not a big fan of typing commands. (Check out dockly and https://www.portainer.io/ . Cockpit can be used for managing dockers as well.)

To install docker on my persistent flash drive, was no problem (see this guide: https://linuxhint.com/install_docker_linux_mint/). However, to get it up and running was a bit more of a pain on a persistent Linux Mint flash drive.  You can’t use the default storage driver, overlay2, you have to use the VFS storage driver (see https://docs.docker.com/storage/storagedriver/vfs-driver/ ). Once you have done this, you can test docker by simply doing: docker run hello-world.

I also wanted to have secure remote access to the system running my persistent flash drive. I stumbled upon Tailscale and fell in love. Once you have tailscale up and running, you’ll have a tailscale0 interface. You can now ssh into your persistent flash drive from other places on the internet as long as you have tailscale configured on the client system. Tailscale can traverse NAT!

This persistent flash drive that I have is not without its issues. I have not been able to upgrade the kernel or upgrade to a new version of Linux Mint. Additionally, the mint user password does not persist after reboot (though the root password persists). To access ssh on my flash drive I had to enable root login for ssh, which I know is not ideal or very secure. Caveats aside, this has been a fun learning experience that I would recommend to any other computer enthusiast.

 

zitstif-multiboot-usb-yumi-uefi-0.0.0.6-2018-01-04-17-img(zitUSB-uefi)

Per http://zitstif.no-ip.org/?p=1240, I thought it would be a good idea to try to make another version of this flash drive but one that supports UEFI. Personally, I still like BIOS even though it has its limitations but UEFI is the wave of the future. Take note that the bootable flash drive needs to have secure boot disabled. Additionally, this flash drive is not meant to replace the original zitUSB. (URL to download is toward the bottom of the post).

Here’s the root of the flash drive:

Here is the `tree` of the drive: http://zitstif.no-ip.org/usbUEFI/tree.txt

Here’s a list of the distros/bootable OSes:

The first four will only work with BIOS/CSM mode. Additionally, this bootable flash drive isn’t perfect. Some UEFI systems result in this:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/images/tu201609/error-no-such-partition-1.jpg

The only way to get it to boot under this condition is to turn CSM/legacy mode. Other limitations include: no memory testing utilities (memtest or the like), no Hiren’s BootCD, no UBCD, or Windows 7 installer. As a quasi workaround for Hiren or UBCD like utilities, you can boot into balder10 (FreeDOS) and use DOS tools that are located under C:\DOSTools\(FreeDOS starts on A:):

There are no password cracking or clearing tools per se (like passcape), but Kali Linux should suit most of these needs.

TAKE NOTE THAT YUMI-UEFI-0.0.0.6 IS ON THE ROOT OF THE DRIVE, USE THIS VERSION FOR ADDING OR REMOVING DISTROS! IF YOU USE ANY VERSION DIFFERENT TO ADD OR REMOVE DISTROS, YOU WILL POTENTIALLY MAKE YOUR FLASH DRIVE UNBOOTABLE!

I made an image of my flash drive using clone-zilla-2.4.2-61-i686-pae, however that version or any newer version should work in creating your flash drive.

I am able to boot off of this flash drive using a Macbook (13-inch, Late 2009) without having to use Plop.

Requirements:

  • 1 Flash drive that is 64GB or larger
  • A computer with working USB ports
  • clone-zilla-2.4.2-61-i686-pae or newer and know-how for using clonezilla to restore an image (look here if needed)
  • patience to download a 20GB file
  • To use: a computer that can either be BIOS/legacy or UEFI, if UEFI, then secure boot needs to be disabled. System needs to be x64, ARM IS NOT SUPPORTED

Hashes:

zitstif-multiboot-usb-yumi-uefi-0.0.0.6-2018-01-04-17-img.rar
MD5: ee4f4c6d71332ef501960c55c6fd2702
SHA-1: e8d03189e0ab487aa3bc079b062315ec3d1f295c

Contents of rar archive:

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
c4eb71e8c57467fd842da72d6cb296f8 d24ffae736a23a611287f74ff5d98190db177046 blkdev.list

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
0a2b1205457eb388c51b31a45a06512e a1565d84e641c570a32a078bc2a50c1289d6f401 blkid.list

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
ed3757d3f740c038ba403f3543eef309 b573883b5b0a87004c6538c9ae00d57286bb894f clonezilla-img

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
60c92cb5ae1024b13cbbedb24588a5e8 eab6a5a6fe327e1aee0edb3173d35db0d6e55dd5 dev-fs.list

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
84f6bf10d84c171a2630a153ac12411b 8fdca4e3395cc1b00dcc5438212ce344f7873a8f disk

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
55dadb9b2c114d2ceee297ab803ac9dc 5c1f5da37633b6beb01aca124fbba8cfba315463 info-dmi.txt

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
3367baf790c137e1df89e3f48511b3cd 3078afe6ab9f8842ef7741ea1c1658fc4f94505d info-lshw.txt

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
42c2b29d859f7763d33df26ff3892977 631c8f0db755d2ee6251c9b7d01c202bfe7444f6 info-lspci.txt

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
4501bf778509426fba474f19fa0d0cf4 ea33bed911e69784fe550c7e062edf8b4263a648 info-packages.txt

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
5459baead8a74ed82df038ee42aaa0fe 943a89a635e752eede455ec312145a3f89df3748 info-saved-by-cmd.txt

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
4988b9e1d22f981cc09ebdfaf374da5b bb60b4ce7dfbb0d09e87c2c0aa13d36d9ae3f249 parts

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
fc00b4095d38499a5c564cc23f9e6f29 7a67e1d4ad2383c06b206bdcc3c05b08170e184a sda-chs.sf

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
ed356b009be474fef10efc60939de511 bfa8f7bae00715fb462198b3f9a6dcec0d8ed4d8 sda-hidden-data-after-mbr

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
7ee1f53bf0a1f5f79917e30da9c831c9 2286e00fa9738a2e5c98eaa234cbbdc589a40962 sda-mbr

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
2ec3808d83d88296f4cfc3aee315cdfc 06d33797d9a5b4db9c3cc73aef865b827e8eea85 sda-pt.parted

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
9c65b62f3539e9fdcf239753282458f5 a9974b1fc2d537b445b127ec4e30e52844fe0b16 sda-pt.parted.compact

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
9d18933aa845f01293a4080ce26e4957 803139ec7bf73cc404d9ebce5716cceaf05bfb85 sda-pt.sf

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
53bc4c570d657b342b8d758a84d52df4 71659410753ade5d22d200097b8a5ea1fcd77a16 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.aa

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
adbaec9fb7898d6ded83451b28b7c673 2dcb2789a17868218731d864b9e423451633c8b7 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.ab

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
66921c23d30fe2c790dca00014830dd3 018fa0b21de3aaa78b37133e7597e405a495a1f8 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.ac

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
2233bd350443971905318d97f26f46dc bd3f7378b3caee83f6eb21853d6f9d11ea5a5105 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.ad

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
0b48065e0a1ad87cdfb1ca63f610ca69 362ca476c881cfdeb568297304d6e4e4d53f5949 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.ae

MD5 SHA-1
————————————————————————-
111f63040c1a5a7fb8a74ed17713b5c1 8f9bb1e8ae0d977c0063fa10ff6e470b5f7b9678 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.gz.af

 

Download:

File is hosted on Google Drive:

http://zitstif.no-ip.org/usbUEFI/url.txt

sha1sum 244011a931e5abf1078ba46b3338f3091fe83637

Feel free to leave any feedback.

 

Creating Your Own USB Katana Sword

JP Dunning (https://twitter.com/r0wnin) is the creator of the Katana: Portable Multi-Boot Security Suite. Upon visiting www.hackfromacave.com, it appears that this projects have come to a halt. It is true that you can still obtain the Katana toolkit via torrents (http://securityiskey.blogspot.com/2012/08/katana-3-beta-torrent.html for those are interested). However, I can’t recommend downloading this toolkit as of now because a lot the Linux distributions within the Katana toolkit have been superseded by newer distributions. Another issue with Katana is that it’s kind of a pain to customize and add and remove distributions.

With that being said, this post’s objective is to inform those who how to create a multi-booting USB flash drive toolkit that is easily customizable for end user’s specific needs. For this we will be heavily relying on YUMI (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/). Using YUMI is pretty straight forward and I don’t believe there is a strong need for myself to create a tutorial (https://www.google.com/#q=YUMI+tutorial).

To create our “Home Made Katana”, you will need:

-Time
-32GB Flash drive (smaller may work but I recommend 32GB or larger)
-YUMI ( http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ )
-HomeMadeKatana.zip ( https://ia601401.us.archive.org/15/items/HomeMadeKatana/HomeMadeKatana.zip )

HomeMadeKatana.zip file hash
MD5: dc5b97133c9e6ca9a848b26b234f2210
SHA-1: 8a13ce78c380a05f60602a40790bf77021d52de9

NOTE: TOOLS IN THIS ARCHIVE WILL SET OFF AV SYSTEMS

The root directory of this zip file contains:

Disk Investigator
HxD
KatanaToolKit.exe
odbg201
PortableApps
Speccy
SysinternalsSuite
windows-binaries-from-Kali
zittools

I pulled the PortableApps directory and the KatanaToolKit.exe from the Katana:
Portable Multi-Boot Security Suite. I meant to add herdProtect portable scanner but forgot to. Feel free to add this if you want: http://www.herdprotect.com/installers/herdProtectScan_Portable.exe .

To create our “Home Made Katana”, do as follows:

1.) Backup any data you want on your flash drive
2.) Wipe the flash drive
3.) Download YUMI
4.) I recommend the following distributions/bootable tools:

Caine
Clonezilla (Backup + Clone Tool)
DBAN
Deft (Forensics)
GParted
Hiren’s Boot CD
Kali
Kon-Boot Floppy Image
Mint Linux
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Ophcrack Vista/7
Ophcrack XP
Tails
Ultimate Boot CD
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows Defender Offline

5.) Download and extract HomeMadeKatana.zip to the root of the flash drive.

You may ask yourself why would I recommend putting Windows 8 on your flash drive? I recommend this because newer systems are now using UEFI and a lot of systems are shipping without optical drives. For instance if you need to reset a Windows 8 local account password ( http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/reset-password-windows-8.htm ), having Windows 8 on your “Home Made Katana” would be of great use.

An additional note that should be taken into consideration when dealing with newer UEFI computers. To boot into Linux distros or even to boot from USB or optical drives with software that doesn’t necessarily support secure booting you will need to turn the secure boot option off and/or enable legacy booting and/or enable compatibility support module (CSM).

In retrospect, what we have done is create a mutlibootable and powerful flash drive with utilities for penetration testers, IT gurus and network administrators. In addition, I would also recommend getting a USB Rubber Ducky (https://hakshop.myshopify.com/collections/usb-rubber-ducky) especially if you’re into penetration testing. If you have any questions, comments or input feel free to post a comment below.