creation date	last modified date
2024-07-06 13:10:45 -0700	2024-07-13 18:14:30 -0700

Kali Setup

This Ansible Playbook automates the setup of Kali machines used penetration tests. The containing Ansible roles automate the downloading & installation of additional tools for penetration testing, installing & customization further desktop environments and setting up Kali itself. The playbook consists of the following roles:

Role	Description
tools	Installation and configuration of tools.
desktop	Installation of desktop environments (e.g. GNOME).
services	Installation and configuration of services (e.g. SSH server).
basic-customization	Setup timezone, keyboard layout and locales
desktop-customization	Customization of installed desktops (e.g. applying GNOME settings).
special-customization	Setup of the shell profile, aliases, host file, etc.
secrets	Rollout of secrets (e.g. SSH key, VPN configurations).

Installation of Ansible

Linux

Important: This Ansible playbook is also using the comunity collections, which are not included in ansible-core., which is in many officially Linux repositories. Therefore, the Ansible repository must be added for installing Ansible with the community collections (see here).

Step 01 - Define code name:

UBUNTU_CODENAME="jammy"

Step 02 - Download and import repo keys:

wget -O- "https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?fingerprint=on&op=get&search=0x6125E2A8C77F2818FB7BD15B93C4A3FD7BB9C367" | sudo gpg --dearmour -o /usr/share/keyrings/ansible-archive-keyring.gpg

Step 03 - Add Ansible repository:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ansible-archive-keyring.gpg] http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible/ubuntu ${UBUNTU_CODENAME} main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ansible.list

Step 04 - Install Ansible:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ansible

For additional Information, see here!

MacOS

Step 01 - Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Step 02 - Update Homebrew:

brew update

Step 03 - Install Ansible:

brew install ansible

Usage

Setup Inventory

This playbook is intented to deploy a default environment on the kali hosts. In order to use this playbook efficiently, it should be run against an inventory of kali hosts. This can be done by creating an inventory of hosts.

To configure the hosts inventory, open and edit the file kali-default-hosts for including the hosts in the following manner:

[kali-default] # <- Group
192.168.xx.xx vmware_vm=yes # CHANGE THIS
192.169.xx.xx vmware_vm=no  # CHANGE THIS
...

Inspired by https://github.com/hackedbyagirl/offensive-kali-ansible.

Setup variables

The directory group_vars contains the variables of the groups which are defined inventory. The "default" group is kali-default. All relevant variables should be defined in the file group_vars/kali-default.yml. Refer to Custom Variables for getting an overview of all available variables.

Variables will be defined in several location within the playbook:

Priority	Variable Location	Description
1	Command line param (`--extra-vars`)	Variables can be defined also on command line. These variables will overwrite all variables defined in other locations. Refer to Makefile for examples.
2	`host_vars`	Variable definitions which will affect only one specific host.
3	`group_vars`	Variable definitions which will a affects a group of hosts (e.g. kali group).
4	`host_vars`	Variable definitions which will a affects only a specific host (e.g. kali group).
5	`role/<role>/default/main.yml`	The purpose of the dafults directories in each role is to setup default values for variables and to ensure, that playbooks runs correctly if no variable is setup somewhere else.

The defined variables in the directory group_vars "overwrites" the variables, which are defined in roles/<role>/default/main.yml, because variable in the directory group_vars has a higher priority. For more information about variables and their precedence, refer to Variable precedence and Using Variables.

Important: Variables, which are defined in roles/<role>/default/main.yml should not be altered. Otherwise the playbook may will not work correctly.

The file group_vars/template.yml contains an example configuration and can be used as template:

cat group_vars/template.yml

Configuration changes should be done in the file group_vars/kali-default.yml:

nano group_vars/kali-default.yml

Setup SSH connection

If no SSH key is available, generate a new SSH key. After that, Copy the key to the remote sever(s):

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/<private SSH key> kali@192.168.xx.xx

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/<private SSH key> kali@192.169.xx.xx

Setup SSH server on the remote server(s)

It is recommend making the SSH server on the remote sever(s) bootsafe. Connect to the remote server(s) and executing the following commands on each remote server:

sudo systemctl enable ssh.service && sudo systemctl start ssh.service

For checking the satus of the respective SSH server, use the following command:

systemctl status ssh.service

Downloading & Running the Playbook

Step 01 - Clone the repository:

git clone git@github.com:dennis6400/kali-setup.git && cd kali-setup

The command above clone the latest state (master branch) of the repository. Refer to Alternative Downloads for alternative downloads.

Step 02 - Edit the inventory file and add the corresponding hosts:

nano kali-default-hosts

Step 03 - Edit the "global" configuration for the Kali machine(s):

nano group_vars/kali-default.yml

Step 04 - Setup SSH connection:

eval $(ssh-agent -s) && ssh-add ~/.ssh/<private SSH key>

Step 05 - Load profile:

. profiles/default-hosts.profile

Step 06 - Start deployment:

make skip-secrets

The make command skip-secrets is used, because the secrets are not configured yet.

(Optional) Step 07 - Restart the Kali machine(s) after the deployment. This step is only needed, if a desktop environment was installed.

Alternative Downloads

Clone Master Branch

git clone git@github.com:dennis6400/kali-setup.git

Download Master Branch

https://github.com/dennis6400/kali-setup/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

Clone Specific Branch/Tag/Release

git clone --depth 1 --branch v1.0.0 git@github.com:dennis6400/kali-setup.git

Download Specific Branch/Tag/Release

https://github.com/dennis6400/kali-setup/archive/refs/tags/v1.0.0.zip

Vagrant

Installation of Vagrant

MacOS

brew install vagrant

Linux

sudo apt update && sudo apt install vagrant

Installation of Vagrant Plugin for VMware

See here!

Starting a Kali Test VM

Step 01 - Clone the repository:

git clone git@github.com:dennis6400/kali-custom-setup.git && cd kali-custom-setup

Step 02 - Start Kali test VM via vagrant:

vagrant up --provider=virtualbox

vagrant up --provider=vmware_fusion

The test VM will be started by vagrant and automatically configured by the provision.sh script.

Stop the Kali Test VM

vagrant halt

Delete the Kali Test VM

vagrant halt && vagrant destroy -f

Advanced Usage

Refer to the following articles:

Acknowledgements

The developmen of te playbook was inspired by the following autors and projects: