-the resurrection-
Context: When I attempted Attack Vector Linux 5 years ago, it was by adding Tails-esque featurs to Kali. This time around, I intend to try to add Kali packages to Tails, which is doing it the other way around.
I think this approach is better because it is more of a privacy-first, secure-by-default architecture. Note: This distro, like Tails, is designed as a live-linux. For dedicated install, I suggest Qubes-OS.
I downloaded the latest ISO for each and extracted them. Then diffed the file live/filesystem.packages Both Tails and Kali are based on Debian. Furthermore, the live versions are both based on Debian Live.
Tails - Building a Tails image Tails - customize DebianLive Wiki Live Systems Manual The God Doc Live Build a Custom Kali ISO Building Custom Kali Live ISO Images Building Kali on Non-Kali Debian Based Systems
Tails suggests building on Debian 9 (Stretch), or newer. Likewise, Kali can be build on Debian. We have now chosen our build system.
(0) Install Debian 9
su -
apt install sudo
Optional: sudo apt install netselect-apt (for getting your fastest local apt mirror)
(1) Install Tails build requirements:
sudo apt install psmisc git rake libvirt-daemon-system dnsmasq-base ebtables qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils vagrant vagrant-libvirt vmdebootstrap
sudo systemctl restart libvirtd
#!/bin/bash for group in kvm libvirt libvirt-qemu ; do sudo adduser "$(whoami)" "$group" done
(2) Obtain Tails source code:
git clone https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails
cd tails
git checkout devel
git submodule update --init
(3) Notes on building Tails:
rake build && rake vm:halt
rake build --trace && rake vm:halt for verbose
rake clean_all to clean the build environment after a failed build (not totally necessary if the build fails)
if it failes a few times just clean and try again (build takes as long as the 1st time after clean) (which is hours)
Vanilla Tails build debug issue #1:
fails to patch Tor Browser AppArmor profile
torbrowser-AppArmor-profile.patch
Possible solution: get updated file from Whonix
https://github.com/Whonix/apparmor-profile-torbrowser
LOL I tracked down the issue on the Tails bug tracker and it got patched 6 days ago I just needed to do a `git pull`
In the meantime I also leanred what "FTBFS" and "LGTM" stand for.
(?) Make modifications... Everything can be found on the God Doc: https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/customizing-package-installation.en.html#463
OK, I so can add the Kali repository in a Tails build directory: tails/config/chroot_sources
Just create a file named kali.chroot with contents deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib
(Also create a symbolic link to kali.binary as such: ln -s kali.chroot kali.binary)
Also got the GPG key from extracting this deb as follows:
wget http://http.kali.org/pool/main/k/kali-archive-keyring/kali-archive-keyring_2018.1_all.deb
dpkg-deb -R kali-archive-keyring_2018.1_all.deb tmp
cp tmp/usr/share/keyrings/kali-archive-keyring.gpg tails/config/chroot_sources/
Then rename it and make symbolic link:
cd tails/config/chroot_sources
mv kali-archive-keyring.gpg kali.chroot.gpg
ln -s kali.chroot.gpg kali.binary.gpg
You should now be done with working in the chroot_sources directory.
https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/customizing-package-installation.en.html#397
Then I will have to list what packages to install here: tails/config/chroot_local-packageslists
A simple attempt is just to copy the same list from Kali's variant-gnome live-build scripts:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prateepb/kali-live-build/master/kali-config/variant-gnome/package-lists/kali.list.chroot
mv kali.list.chroot kali-gnome.list
So there are two package lists now.
Side note: The goal will be merging the packages lists. A cool grapical diff tool for this is called meld: sudo apt install meld
As an exercise I ran meld (just graphical diff) on the package lists of the extracted ISOs for Kali & Tails, but this wasn't necessary for development.
OK anyway trying to build at this point fails. Here is part of the error output:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
fdisk : Depends: libfdisk1 (>= 2.32) but 2.29.2-1+deb9u1 is to be installed
libpam-systemd : Depends: systemd (= 237-3~bpo9+1) but it is not going to be installed
perl-modules-5.26 : Depends: perl-base (>= 5.26.2-1) but 5.24.1-3+deb9u4 is to be installed
Breaks: perl (< 5.26.2~) but 5.24.1-3+deb9u4 is to be installed
Recommends: perl (>= 5.26.2-1) but 5.24.1-3+deb9u4 is to be installed
reportbug-gtk : Depends: reportbug (= 7.5.0) but 7.1.7+deb9u2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
As you can see there are package version mismatches. It could be that Kali uses packages from Debian unstable and Tails from stable or something like that.
A possible solution is to use apt pinning: https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences and the relevant file in the Tails build is config/chroot_apt/preferences
See also: article including apt-pinning in Kali: https://www.kali.org/tutorials/advanced-package-management-in-kali-linux/
I tried adding these lines to config/chroot_apt/preferences:
Package: *
Pin: release o=Kali,n=kali-rolling
Pin-Priority: 990
Now we have different errors. I take this as a good sign. I think I will keep this change.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
tails-iuk : Depends: tails-perl5lib (>= 2.0) but it is not going to be installed
tails-persistence-setup : Depends: libfunction-parameters-perl (>= 2.001003) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: tails-perl5lib (>= 2.0) but it is not going to be installed
xserver-xorg-video-all : Depends: xserver-xorg-video-ati but it is not going to be installed
Depends: xserver-xorg-video-fbdev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau but it is not going to be installed
Depends: xserver-xorg-video-vesa but it is not going to be installed
Depends: xserver-xorg-video-vmware but it is not going to be installed
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu : Depends: xorg-video-abi-24
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus : Depends: xorg-video-abi-24
xserver-xorg-video-intel : Depends: xorg-video-abi-24
xserver-xorg-video-qxl : Depends: xorg-video-abi-24
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
So, I wrote an additional file tanto-extras.list in tails/config/chroot_local-packageslists:
# v0.2 Build Fixes
tails-perl5lib
libfunction-parameters-perl
xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
xserver-xorg-video-vesa
xserver-xorg-video-vmware
xserver-xorg-core
xorg-video-abi-24
# a e s t h e t i c s
gnome-shell-extension-system-monitor
Closer...
Package xorg-video-abi-24 is a virtual package provided by:
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.1-4 [Not candidate version]
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.1-1 [Not candidate version]
E: Package 'xorg-video-abi-24' has no installation candidate
OK just replace the latter string with the former and try again.
Fail. Complains about lack of package xorg-video-abi-24
Adding it back in gets us back to the error above. Hmm.
I Googled for the errant package and it is only in Debian sid. Maybe I can pin this package:
Package: xorg-video-abi-24 xserver-xorg-core xserver-common libfunction-parameters-perl
Pin: release o=Debian,n=sid
Pin-Priority: 999
Method described above, same file tails/config/chroot_apt/preferences. I later found out that libfunction-parameters-perl is pinned to stretch-backports earlier in the file. Whoops.
Well it turns out that package is a Virtual Package so I read the documentation on those.
Maybe just try pinning the package it is provided by too. I just listed it in the same line.
Next failure: E: Unable to locate package perlapi Solution: remove from package list.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libfunction-parameters-perl : Depends: perlapi-5.24.1
virtualbox-guest-x11 : Depends: xorg-video-abi-23
xserver-xorg-core : Depends: xserver-common (>= 2:1.20.1-4) but 2:1.19.2-1+deb9u2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
apt search perlapi returns libperl-apireference-perl so I added that to the package list.
Also added xorg-video-abi-23 and xserver-common whilst pinning these two latter packages.
ALMOST THERE STAY ON TARGET ALMOST THERE
Package xorg-video-abi-23 is a virtual package provided by:
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.2-1+deb9u2 [Not candidate version]
E: Package 'xorg-video-abi-23' has no installation candidate
Last time, with xorg-video-abi-24, I resolved the issue by pinning the package.
I'm currently pinning both to the same release, and I should probably double check that.
Well damn it looks like this one is in sid too and I ought to be able to pin it. Hmm.
Oh fuck I think I see what is happening. Both of these want a different version of
xserver-xorg-core. I suppose one is being requested by Tails and one by Kali.
I will try to resolve this to the newer version.
Yes indeed it seems this is the case. Tails is requesting package virtualbox-guest-x11
which is in the file config/chroot_local-packageslists/tails-common.list and it is this
package that is dependent on the older version of xorg-video-abi-23 and xserver-xorg-core
Let's see if virtualbox-guest-x11 is pinned or not, maybe we can pin it to sid too.
Huh well it is definitely pinned so this could definitely break things.
There's a current entry in config/chroot_local-apt/preferences:
Package: virtualbox*
Pin: release o=Debian,n=stretch-backports
Pin-Priority: 999
I don't fully understand backports yet, so it seems like changing this to sid will break things.
But let's try it anyway. Well holy Shit it kinda worked. Now we are back to the perlapi problem
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libfunction-parameters-perl : Depends: perlapi-5.24.1
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
So obviously adding libperl-apireference-perl did not fix that, and I can remove it.
apt search libfunction-parameters-perl returns no results on my Debian 9 stable. Hrm..
Google search for libfunction-parameters-perl results in this definitely being in sid.
LET'S PIN IT
Huh however perlapi is only in Stretch. Maybe I should pin it too.
Actually I don't need to pin libfunction-paremeters-perl, just perlapi.
Package: perlapi perl-base perl
Pin: release o=Debian,n=stretch
Pin-Priority:999
Same error. Fuck maybe not backports just stretch. Trying again. Note I deleted these lines later
No dice. Maybe I need it in a package list.
E: Unable to locate package perlapi
Well what now. Maybe do try stretch-backports but with it in the packageslist now.
Same problem again.
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/perlapi-5.24.1
Mother Fucker! Another virtual package.
Again I will pin both the virtual and the providing package, in this case, perl-base
OK maybe these aren't in stretch-backports after all. Switching back to stretch.
The new error:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
perl : Depends: perl-base (= 5.26.2-7) but 5.24.1-3+deb9u4 is to be installed
perl-modules-5.26 : Depends: perl-base (>= 5.26.2-1) but 5.24.1-3+deb9u4 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Ah, a clear version mismatch. What I would like to do is not include libgtk-pixbuf2.0 since the UI is going to be based mostly on Kali anyway, which is the old package that requries old perl, or I can try rolling back all of the perl. Since I've already started walking down this path, I'm going to roll back (by pinning) all of the perl. Let's see where this goes!
Well, I'm dumb, I can't do that, perl-modules-5.26 clearly requires 5.26 so I can't pin back to 5.24 obviously.
So fuck it let's figure out what bullshit is using this outdated GTK package and get it the fuck out.
cat config/chroot_local-packageslists/*.list | grep pixbuf gets you gtk2-engines-pixbuf and checking out that package with apt show demonistrates that it's literally a theme engine. Bye.
Commented it out of tails-common.list and then removed the pin for the perl packages.
Fingers crossed.
Nope. Damn. It still tries to pull in libgdk-pixbuf2.0 so commenting out that line wasn't good enough. Gotta find what is trying to pull that in. Huh looks like the package is in both stretch and sid, so maybe I can pin it to sid and it won't try to pull in perlapi from stretch.
Package: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
Pin: release o=Debian,n=sid
Pin-Priority: 999
It's getting late, I'm an idiot, that's not the package I need to pin at all. Deleted lines
The one that required perlapi in the first place is libfunction-parameters-perl
So let's cut it out and see if that helps anything toward a working build.
libfunction-parameters-perl is required by tails-persistence-setup
So I can either remove tails-persistence-setup or maybe pin libfunction-parameters-perl to a newer version, let me try the latter first. Looks like its in sid, let's do it.
Package: libfunction-parameters-perl
Pin: release o=Debian,n=sid
Pin-Priority: 999
(Or you can just append to the line with Xorg and shit.)
HOLY COW IT IS PAST THE PACKAGES PART AND NOW FAILS WHILE PATCHING
P: Applying patch config/chroot_local-patches/Desktop-Notify:_0001-support_notification_actions.patch...
patching file usr/share/perl5/Desktop/Notify.pm
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]
Apply anyway? [n]
Skipping patch.
3 out of 3 hunks ignored -- saving rejects to file usr/share/perl5/Desktop/Notify.pm.rej
patching file usr/share/perl5/Desktop/Notify/Notification.pm
Hunk #1 FAILED at 59.
Hunk #2 FAILED at 81.
Hunk #3 succeeded at 144 with fuzz 2 (offset 19 lines).
Hunk #4 FAILED at 154.
3 out of 4 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file usr/share/perl5/Desktop/Notify/Notification.pm.rej
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
So the file its patching is part of a package called libdesktop-notify-perl but researching it this is not the issue, pinning libfunction-parameters-perl from stretch-backports to sid is what causes the break, the version number goes from... anyway, just see below:
I got on Tails' IRC channel so I could scream my debugging woes into a void:
10:50:13 ksoona | so I had to pin package libfunction-parameters-perl to sid for my branch to get pack package build dependencies, but this breaks the first "Desktop-Notify" patch │
10:53:11 ksoona | I heard there was some targeting buster and was curious if anyone is working on an updated patch or wants to pair on it. this could be an intrigeri question as they wrote │
| the original patch │
10:53:51 ksoona | also I should probably get on Jabber but bleh │
10:56:21 ksoona | although now that I look more closely at the patch: intrigeri's code works fine, it fails at a part contributed by Stephen Cavilia, C │
10:56:49 ksoona | anyway any devs want to pair with me debugging this? I'll wait. │
11:05:04 ksoona | huh it looks like /usr/share/perl5/Desktop/Notify/Notification.pm is the file in package libdesktop-notify-perl that gets patched, but I'm not pinning that package I don't │
| think and there haven't been any major changes to the package either I don't think │
11:07:00 ksoona | oh fuck I have two pinning entries for `libdesktop-notify-perl` let me try to deconflict them │
11:08:39 ksoona | yeah so the sid one has a higher priority so I assume it's taking precedence, there must be a delta between sid and stretch-backports gonna dig a lil further │
11:10:45 ksoona | oh wait they had the same priority. huh. wonder how apt preferences parses that, it must have gone with the latest entry since adding it fixed a build bug I had earlier │
11:22:30 ksoona | OK yeah there is a delta for `libfunction-parameters-perl` from `stretch-backports` to `sid`, version number changes from 2.001003-1 in the current working tails build to │
| 2.001003-2 in my branch. I had to upgrade perl to satisfy another dependency
I think most of the core devs use Jabber these days anyway. I mean XMPP. You know what I mean.
NEGATIVE NEGATIVE IT DIDN'T GO IN IMPACTED ON THE SURFACE
Let's regroup. Desktop notification seems like a "bells-and-whistles" feature, I wonder if I can comment out this patch and see where the next fail is. I tried commenting out every line past 66 Huh it still errors out, I wonder if I rename the .patch file to .patch.backup or something
Nope gotta rm it.
Rinse. Repeat.
Here's all the patches I had to delete:
ken@esper:~/code/tanto/config/chroot_local-patches$ diff ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/ .
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: apparmor-adjust-cupsd-profile.diff
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: apparmor-adjust-gst_plugin_scanner-profile.diff
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: apparmor-adjust-python-abstraction.diff
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: apparmor-adjust-totem-profile.diff
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: apparmor-aliases.diff
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: cupsd-IPv4_only.patch
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: Desktop-Notify:_0001-support_notification_actions.patch
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: Desktop-Notify:_0002-support_hints.patch
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-patches/: live-boot:_dont_mount_live_overlay_twice.patch
After removing a number of patches that didn't take, now the build fails at the first hook. I'm tempted to take the same dirty approach, simply removing any script that errors out. We'll see what happens. This probably breaks a lot of Tails functionality and features. I'll accept this tradeoff in order to get Kali tools.
Here's everything I removed:
ken@esper:~/code/tanto/config/chroot_local-hooks$ diff ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-hooks/ .
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-hooks/: 01-check-for-dot-orig-files
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-hooks/: 04-change-gids-and-uids
Only in ../../../tails/config/chroot_local-hooks/: 05-adduser_tails-persistence-setup
Damn had to remove a hook that helps with tails-persistence-setup will have to fix that l8r
Setting up onionshare (1.3-1) ...
Killed
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
We are past the hooks and now fail installing onionshare. I'll comment this from packageslists. And blast, we have our first Kali package failure:
Setting up dradis (3.10.0-0kali1) ...
Adding system user `dradis' (UID 128) ...
Adding new group `dradis' (GID 137) ...
Adding new user `dradis' (UID 128) with group `dradis' ...
Creating home directory `/var/lib/dradis' ...
Killed
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
There are also a number of notable UID errors, probably from removing that Tails hook.
This one isn't called out specifically in packageslists because it's part of the kali-linux-full metapackage.
Just for the sake of getting this to build so I can submit it to a CFP, let's cut out hundreds of Kali tools and use only the kali-linux-top10 metapackage just as a test.
Fails on hook #44 now, removing it.
44-remove-unused-AppArmor-profiles
Oh lol one of the hooks is just a symbolic link to an earlier one that I removed I guess tails build needed it to run twice gotta remove the symlink now.
E: config/chroot_local-hooks/99-zzz_check_uids_and_gids failed (exit non-zero). You should check for errors.
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
I should have seen that coming.
Once I removed the reproducible build postprocessing script everything went to shit.
Trying a rake clean_all and then rake build --trace
I think I'm fucked
P: Begin ensuring chroot contents are reproducible...
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/kernel-img.conf
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/apt/sources.list
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/apt/apt.conf
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/hostname
P: Deconfiguring file /bin/hostname
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/resolv.conf
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/hosts
P: Deconfiguring file /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
P: Deconfiguring file /usr/sbin/initctl
P: Deconfiguring file /sbin/start-stop-daemon
P: Deconfiguring file /etc/debian_chroot
P: Begin unmounting /sys...
P: Begin unmounting /selinux...
P: Begin unmounting /proc...
P: Begin unmounting /dev/pts...
P: Begin caching chroot stage...
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
P: Setting up cleanup function
P: Begin copying chroot...
P: This may take a while.
rake aborted!
N.B. cd config then tree is really useful for analyzing how Tails is structured and built.
(~) For comparison the Kali build script: https://github.com/prateepb/kali-live-build/blob/master/build.sh
https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/customizing-contents.en.html#517
Finally I will want to run some scripts to setup the GUI how I like it and configure some installed tools:
I can modify some of my rice scripts and put them in tails/config/chroot_local-hooks
Graphic design and branding: tails/data/splash.png what else?
I wrote a get-wallpaper script in the rice repo for my other user, and thats the background I want to use.
Wallaper files are in config/chroot_local-includes/usr/share/tails