Vulnerability_Assessment_Lab
Setting Up Cybersecurity Analyst Lab at Home
Prerequisites
- Windows 11/10 Pro, Enterprise and Education
- _ * Note, Hyper-V is not available on Windows 11/10 Home _ .
Simplest Method: Enable via Windows Features
- Open the Start menu, search for Turn Windows features on or off, and click the top result.
- Locate Hyper-V in the list.
- Check the main Hyper-V box. Ensure both Hyper-V Management Tools and Hyper-V Platform are selected.
- Click OK. Windows will install the required files.
- Click Restart now when prompted
Installing windows 11 Dev/ Pro and 10 on Hyper-V
Configuring a private virtual switch in Hyper‑V enables a virtual machine to operate within a completely isolated network environment.
1. Create a private virtual switch
2. Configure the network adapter
The same configuration can be applied to other available Windows‑based Hyper‑V virtual machines, such as Win10HV.
3. Set a static IP address
The same steps can be applied to Win10HV virtual machines; however, the IP address should be changed to 10.10.0.xx. In my case, I assigned 10.10.0.12..
4. Configure the firewall and test connectivity
If you want to allow two‑way Remote Desktop access, disable the network firewall rules on other virtual matachin, in my case Win11proHV and test the connectivity using pining Ip addresses.
5.Enable Remote Desktop
To allow access from my Win11ProHV virtual machine to the second virtual machine, enable the Remote Desktop option on Win10HV.
6. Access the VM from another computer using Remote Desktop Connection (RDC)
To find the correct User Name for the remote connection, open the VM you want to connect to (in my case, the VM with IP address 10.10.0.12, Win10HV), launch Command Prompt, and run the command “Whoami”..
Installing Nessus Essentials (30‑Day Trial) on Windows 11 and Scanning for Vulnerabilities
i. For testing purposes, download and install a vulnerable version of XAMPP (e.g., xampp‑7.4.12.exe), then run the installer.
ii. After starting the XAMPP services such as PHP, MySQL, and FileZilla, run a Basic Network Scan from Nessus on the Windows 11 virtual machine.
Because the test version of Nessus does not allow exporting vulnerability reports, the key findings are listed below.
Implementing effective remediation strategies to address identified vulnerabilities.
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Building a Portable Kali Linux Desktop Environment
