DC32 Prep

Getting your system ready for a CTF might be one of the most important things to do, especially if the CTF is limited in time. You don't want to spend all your time installing tools. But what tools do you need to start out with? What programs you need just add to kali?

To really get the most out of the setup you need to use it regularly / break it / take snapshots and do CTF's.

So to starts out, download Kali and Virtualbox and setup a VM. The base install still might not have all the tools you need. Do you believe you still in to install tor on kali? I would think it would have been there I use it all the time...

Also most important if you are using a VM in a CTF. Use a USB wifi or ethernet adapter and disable the virtual nic.

Here are some things that I do after installing a new Kali setup.

First setup your own user account and add it to sudoers if you didnt do it in the setup.

It's always good to start off with an update and upgrade.

Here we install everything plus some extras that I like. The megapack is about 18G of programs.

You can run this on a Linode

#Other megapacks are listed here Kali Linux Metapackages | Kali Linux Documentation.

cat <<EOF> rdp_setup.sh

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

sed -i 's/non-free$/non-free non-free-firmware/' /etc/apt/sources.list

apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

apt -y install xrdp xfce4 kali-desktop-xfce xfce4-goodies xorg net-tools gnupg pipewire pipewire-module-xrdp

# extras 

apt -y install 7zip-rar 7zip-standalone binutils kali-root-login \
	kali-wallpapers-2019.4 kali-wallpapers-2020.4 \
    kali-wallpapers-2021.4 kali-wallpapers-2022 \
    kali-wallpapers-2023 kali-wallpapers-legacy \
    ntp unace unalz rar unar unpaper unrar tor torbrowser-launcher \
    rzip samba-common lrzip lzip alsa-utils 

apt install -y file-roller htop nethogs remmina gdebi privoxy multitail \
	steghide par2 pppconfig pppoeconf terminator libgpgme-dev swig

echo startxfce4 > ~/.xsession

sed -i 's/max_bpp=32/max_bpp=128\nuse_compression = yes/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sed -i 's/crypt_level=high/crypt_level=low/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sed -i 's/max_bpp=32/max_bpp=128/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sed -i 's/#tcp_send_buffer_bytes=32768/tcp_send_buffer_bytes=4194304/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sed -i 's/#pref.desktop_composition=false/pref.desktop_composition=false/' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=8388608

xfconf-query --channel=xfwm4 --property=/general/use_compositing --type=bool --set=false --create

systemctl enable xrdp --now

sed -i 's/managed=false/managed=true/' /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

# if you want everything tool 

#apt install kali-linux-everything -y

EOF

chmod +x rdp_setup.sh
./rdp_setup.sh

Some vscode Extensions to install:

code --install-extension aaron-bond.better-comments
code --install-extension bmewburn.vscode-intelephense-client
code --install-extension DavidAnson.vscode-markdownlint
code --install-extension ecmel.vscode-html-css
code --install-extension esbenp.prettier-vscode
code --install-extension golang.go
code --install-extension infosec-intern.snort
code --install-extension infosec-intern.yara
code --install-extension KevinRose.vsc-python-indent
code --install-extension leandro-rodrigues.crt-vscode
code --install-extension mikestead.dotenv
code --install-extension ms-azuretools.vscode-docker
code --install-extension ms-python.python
code --install-extension ms-python.vscode-pylance
code --install-extension ms-toolsai.jupyter
code --install-extension ms-toolsai.jupyter-keymap
code --install-extension ms-toolsai.jupyter-renderers
code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers
code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh
code --install-extension ms-vsliveshare.vsliveshare
code --install-extension quicktype.quicktype
code --install-extension redhat.ansible
code --install-extension redhat.vscode-yaml
code --install-extension shd101wyy.markdown-preview-enhanced
code --install-extension tomoki1207.pdf
code --install-extension vscode-icons-team.vscode-icons
code --install-extension vscodevim.vim
code --install-extension wk-j.vscode-httpie
code --install-extension yzane.markdown-pdf

maybe search for other snippet library.