Kali Linux LXC/LXD Images
Content:
Overview
Command line Kali LXD container on Ubuntu host
Gui Kali LXD container on Ubuntu host
Privileged Kali LXC container on Kali host
Unprivileged Kali LXC container on Kali host
References
Overview
Kali Linux containers are the ideal solution to
run Kali Linux within other Linux distributions
provide isolated environments for development or testing activities
without the overhead of virtual machines. Docker is the preferred solution for applications whilst LXC/LXD are preferred for entire systems.
Linux containers provide features like snapshots and freezing which comes in very handy when developing or testing software.
Kali images are available on the image server for LXC and LXD and can easily be launched either in LXD using the “images:” image server or in LXC using the “lxc-download” template.
LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.
LXD is a next generation system container manager. It offers a user experience similar to virtual machines but using Linux containers instead. It’s image based with pre-made images available for a wide number of Linux distributions and is built around a very powerful, yet pretty simple, REST API.
LXD vs LXC:
LXD is the more convenient of the two but is only available in Ubuntu or other distributions (such as Kali) as snap package.
LXC is available in more distributions and preferred in Kali as it is supported natively and does not required snapd to be running.
Command line Kali LXD container on Ubuntu host
Installing a Kali Linux container in Ubuntu only requires a few steps:
Install LXD
Launch a Kali container
Install additional packages inside the container
Create non-root user
Login
1 - Install lxd via snap and perform initial setup:
:~$ sudo snap install lxd
:~$ lxd init
2 - Launch your first Kali Linux container with
:~$ lxc launch images:kali/current/amd64 my-kali
3 - Install additional packages inside the container via
:~$ xc exec my-kali -- apt update
:~$ xc exec my-kali -- apt install -y kali-linux-default kali-desktop-xfce
4 - Create non-root user - “kali” in this example:
:~$ lxc exec my-kali -- adduser kali
:~$ lxc exec my-kali -- usermod -aG sudo kali
:~$ lxc exec my-kali -- sed -i '1 i\TERM=xterm-256color' /home/kali/.bashrc
:~$ lxc exec my-kali -- sh -c "echo 'Set disable_coredump false' > /etc/sudo.conf"
5 - Login to the new container as user “kali” via
:~$ lxc console my-kali
Voila!
Container management:
Start:
lxc start my-kali
Stop:
lxc stop my-kali
Remove:
lxc destroy my-kali
GUI Kali LXD container on Ubuntu host
Installing a Kali container to run GUI applications is similar to the previous example with a few additional steps:
Install LXD
Create GUI profile and launch a Kali GUI container
Install additional packages inside the container
Create non-root user
Start Kali Xfce panel
Customise Kali Xfce panel
1 - Install lxd via snap and perform initial setup (if not already done):
:~$ sudo snap install lxd
:~$ lxd init
2 - Launch your first Kali Linux container with
:~$ wget https://blog.simos.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/lxdguiprofile.txt
:~$ lxc profile create gui
:~$ cat lxdguiprofile.txt | lxc profile edit gui
:~$ lxc profile list
:~$ lxc launch --profile default --profile gui images:kali/current/amd64 gui-kali
3 - Install additional packages inside the container via
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- apt update
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- apt install -y kali-linux-default
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- apt install -y kali-desktop-xfce
4 - Create non-root user - “kali” in this example:
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- adduser kali
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- usermod -aG sudo kali
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- sed -i '1 i\TERM=xterm-256color' /home/kali/.bashrc
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> /home/kali/.bashrc
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- sh -c "echo 'Set disable_coredump false' > /etc/sudo.conf"
5 - Start Kali Xfce panel via
:~$ lxc exec gui-kali -- sudo -u kali xfce4-panel
Customise the panel as desired.
Container management:
Start:
lxc start gui-kali
Stop:
lxc stop gui-kali
Remove:
lxc destroy gui-kali
Privileged Kali LXC container on Kali host
Privileged containers are containers created by root and running as root. They are quicker to setup than unprivileged containers but are inherently unsafe. Installing a privileged Kali Linux container on a Kali host only requires to:
Install and setup lxc
Download the kali image from the image server
Start the container
Attach to the container
1 - Install lxc and setup the network:
:~$ sudo apt install -y lxc libvirt0 libpam-cgfs bridge-utils libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system iptables ebtables dnsmasq-base
:~$
:~$ sudo cat <<EOF > /etc/lxc/default.conf
lxc.net.0.type = veth
lxc.net.0.link = virbr0
lxc.net.0.flags = up
lxc.apparmor.profile = generated
lxc.apparmor.allow_nesting = 1
EOF
:~$
:~$ sudo virsh net-start default
:~$ sudo virsh net-autostart default
2 - Download the Kali Linux image from the image server via
:~$ lxc-create -t download -n my-kali
This will list all available images.
When prompted, enter:
Distribution: kali
Release: current
Architecture: amd64 (or other as applicable)
3 - Start the container with
:~$ sudo lxc-start -n my-kali -d
4 - Attach to the container via
:~$ sudo lxc-attach -n my-kali
There you have it. Next you should set a root password and install the “kali-linux-default” metapackage.
Container management:
Start:
sudo lxc-start -n my-kali -d
Stop:
sudo lxc-stop -n my-kali
List:
sudo lxc-ls -f
Info:
sudo lxc-info -n my-kali
Remove:
sudo lxc-destroy -n my-kali
Unprivileged Kali LXC container on Kali host
Unprivileged containers run in a user context and are considered safer and are preferred over using privileged container. The setup it slightly more involved:
Install and setup lxc
Setup LXC for unprivileged containers
Download the kali image from the image server
Start the container
Install some additional packages
Create non-root user
Login
1 - Install lxc (if required):
:~$ sudo apt install -y lxc libvirt0 libpam-cgfs bridge-utils libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system iptables ebtables dnsmasq-base
2 - Setup LXC for unprivileged containers
:~$ echo "$USER veth virbr0 10" | sudo tee -i /etc/lxc/lxc-usernet
:~$ sudo sh -c 'echo "kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1" > /etc/sysctl.d/80-lxc-userns.conf'
:~$ sudo sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1
:~$ sudo chmod u+s /usr/libexec/lxc/lxc-user-nic
:~$
:~$ mkdir -p ~/.config/lxc
:~$ cp /etc/lxc/default.conf ~/.config/lxc/default.conf
:~$ sed -i 's/lxc.apparmor.profile = generated/lxc.apparmor.profile = unconfined/g' ~/.config/lxc/default.conf
Next we have to add two lines into ~/.config/lxc/default.conf
whose subuid & subguid match those listed in /etc/subuid
and /etc/subgid
. First let’s get the id’s via cat /etc/s*i d grep $USER
The result should look like this:
kali:100000:65536
kali:100000:65536
Substitute the ID’s in the following commands with the ones in the previous output:
:~$ echo lxc.idmap = u 0 100000 65536 >> ~/.config/lxc/default.conf
:~$ echo lxc.idmap = g 0 100000 65536 >> ~/.config/lxc/default.conf
3 - Download the Kali Linux image from the image server via
:~$ lxc-create -t download -n my-kali
This will list all available images.
When prompted, enter:
Distribution: kali
Release: current
Architecture: amd64 (or other as applicable)
4 - Start the container with
:~$ lxc-start -n my-kali -d
But before we login, we perform some post-installation setup tasks
5 - Install default packages:
:~$ lxc-attach -n my-kali apt update
:~$ lxc-attach -n my-kali apt install -y kali-linux-default
6 - Create a non-root user:
:~$ lxc-attach -n my-kali --clear-env adduser <username>
:~$ lxc-attach -n my-kali --clear-env adduser <username> sudo
7 - Login as non-root user via
:~$ lxc-console
And perform the following on initial login to get some colors in the console:
:~$ sed -i '1 i\TERM=xterm-256color' ~/.bashrc
:~$ . ~/.bashrc
Container management:
Start:
sudo lxc-start -n my-kali -d
Stop:
sudo lxc-stop -n my-kali
List:
sudo lxc-ls -f
Info:
sudo lxc-info -n my-kali
Remove:
sudo lxc-destroy -n my-kali
References:
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