What’s a Virtual Machine and How Do I Run One?
Understanding the basics of virtual machines is essential in cyber security — find out what a Virtual Machine is, and how to set one up, below.
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To become a competent cyber security professional, you’ll need to learn about Virtual Machines (VM): what they are, what you use them for, and importantly, how to set one up.
If you’re currently taking part in CyberStart Game, you’ll need to set up your VM before you can complete many of the challenges.
This guide has been prepared for people taking part in CyberStart, but can be followed by any who is interested in Virtual Machines.
By the end of this guide, you’ll understand what a VM is and how to set one up. Ready?
What is a Virtual Machine (VM?)
A VM is a way to create a computer within a computer so that you can run different operating systems on the same machine. So, for example if your computer works on Windows, with a VM, you could also run Linux on the same machine.
VMs are entirely separate from the actual computer that runs them so they can’t access files on your normal computer but can connect to the network.
VMs are used extensively in cyber security, so learning about them is essential if you want to build your cyber security skills!
What do you use a Virtual Machine for?
VMs are used in cyber security extensively for several reasons including access to tools across multiple platforms, and — if properly configured and isolated from the network — can also be used for malware analysis. Using a VM is also a great way to safely test new things without causing problems on the ‘host’.
How to set up your Cyber Discovery Virtual Machine
We recommend you play the game using a virtual machine. You’ll be able to play the early challenges without the virtual machine, but after a certain point it will become very difficult to progress unless you are using it!
There are two ways to get the virtual machine running, you can pick either VMWare Workstation Player (which works on Windows and Linux) or Virtualbox (which works on Windows, Linux and Mac). The installation process for both is easy, it’s just a double click installer.
We recommend that Windows and Linux users get VMWare Workstation Player for free from the VMWare website.
We recommend that Mac users go for Virtualbox, which you can get for free from the Virtualbox website.
Below we have explained how to set up both, so scroll to the one you choose.
Setting up VMWare Workstation Player
Once you have VMWare installed, you should download the virtual machine file which you will find in the field manual of CyberStart Game, or one that you may have been emailed as part of a CyberStart Compete event.
Then, follow these steps:
1. Unzip the files into a place you’ll remember, then double click the file: cs_game.vmx (if you do not have file extensions visible in your file browser, this will be the file with the icon of three white squares stacked over each other).
2. After double clicking, the virtual machine should launch in VMWare Workstation Player. You’ll see there will be a sidebar which the virtual machine has also been added to. In the future you won’t need to find the ‘.vmx’ file to launch the virtual machine — opening VMWare Player and selecting the virtual machine from the sidebar will be enough (as long as you don’t delete the files from the computer).
3. You can then press the green ‘play’ button to boot the Virtual Machine.
IMPORTANT: Login details are username: agent and password: agent.
To turn off the virtual machine, just shut it down as if you were shutting down a normal computer. If your virtual machine has frozen or crashed, you can press CTRL + ALT. This will mean that your mouse will unfreeze (like you are tabbing out of a program) so that you can press the square ‘stop’ button.
Setting up Virtualbox
Once you have Virtualbox installed, you should download the virtual machine file which you will find in the field manual of CyberStart Game, or one that you may have been emailed as part of a CyberStart Compete event.
Then, follow these steps:
1. Unzip the files into a place you’ll remember, and then double click the file: cs_game.vbox. If you have file extensions disabled, then you can recognise the file because it is the only file both called cs_game and with a blue box icon. Note there are other files with a similar icon in the directory, but only one of the names match.
2. After double clicking, the virtual machine should launch in Virtualbox. You’ll see there will be a sidebar which the virtual machine has also been added to. In the future you won’t need to find the ‘.vbox’ file to launch the virtual machine, opening Virtualbox and selecting the virtual machine from the sidebar will be enough (as long as you don’t delete the files from the computer).
3. You can then press the green ‘play’ button to boot the virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: The login details are username: agent and password: agent.
To turn off the virtual machine, just shut it down as if you were shutting down a normal computer. If your virtual machine has frozen or crashed, you can press RIGHT CTRL. This will mean that your mouse will unfreeze (like you are tabbing out of a program) so that you can press the square ‘stop’ button.
System Requirements
Minimum requirements for VMWare
You can find the full installation information for VMWare at this link on the VMWare website here.
System requirements:
- 64-bit x86 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor or equivalent, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Dual Core Processor or equivalent
- 1.3GHz or faster core speed
- 2GB RAM minimum/ 4GB RAM recommended
- 300MB of available disk space for the application and at least 15 GB of disk space for the VM we provide.
Host operating systems:
- Windows 7/ 8 / or 10
- Windows Server 2008 or 2012
- Ubuntu 8.04 and above
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and above
- CentOS 5.0 and above
- Oracle Linux 5.0 and above
- openSUSE 10.2 and above
- SUSE Linux 10 and above
For more information on VMWare compatibility, visit this link on the VMWare website here.
Minimum requirements for VirtualBox
You can find full installation information and guides for VirtualBox on the VirtualBox website here.
System requirements:
- An x86 64-bit processor, most recent Intel or AMD processor will work
2GB RAM minimum/ 4GB RAM recommended - 300MB of available disk space for the application PLUS
- At least 25 GB of disk space for the VM that Game provides
- We recommend having even more space available if you want to be able to comfortably solve challenges in the Forensics Base which requires you to work with large files.
Host operating systems:
Windows host:
- Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 (64-bit)
- Windows 7 / 8 / or 8.1(64-bit)
- Windows 10 RTM build 10240 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 / or 2016 (64-bit)
That’s all the basic information you should need to get started thinking about VMs and how to run them.
If you’re reading this as part of CyberStart, keep reading to learn more about how we use VMs within CyberStart Game.
CyberStart specific VM FAQs
Q:How much of CyberStart Game can be done without the VM?
A: Levels 1–5 in CyberStart Game can be completed without the VM. However, once you progress past level 5 the VM will be required to complete an increasing number of the challenges. There is no support for completing challenges in level 6 and above without a VM. A lot of the challenges, tools and techniques required simply will not work past this level.
Q: I’ve got my VM software installed, what do I do now?
A: With the VM software installed you are ready to tackle all the challenges in CyberStart Game. When Game launches, there will be detailed instructions and videos on how to extract and run the specific VM files needed for the game. Good luck!
CyberStart Club Leader and Advisor information relating to VM
If you are a club leader or advisor, it is important that your classroom meets the requirements needed to run a successful club. Hopefully by following this guide, you now understand what a VM is and how to run one on the computers you’ll be using with your clubs.
We’ve put together some of our frequently asked questions relating to VMs below which may also help.
Q: My students don’t have permissions to install software on a school machine. Do my students need to install the VMs themselves, or can I pre-install the VM for them?
A: Virtual Machines are important tools used daily by cyber security practitioners, so knowing how to install and run one is in itself a valuable lesson for those interested in the career path. If there is an opportunity to build installing the VM tools into your lesson plan, that would be great!
However, you can also have the VM software and the VM we provide pre-installed and set up before your students need it. Students shouldn’t need admin access to run the software and the VM we provide once it is installed.
Q: Why are VMs required for CyberStart Game?
A: VMs allow us to create a pre-configured and tested environment for the students to learn cyber security “tools of the trade” without needing to install those individual tools on their computer, and without having to worry about different processor architectures and operating systems.
Some examples of how the VM has been pre-configured include:
- It has a web terminal installed which allows students to access the terminal from within the browser, allowing students to access many of the command line tools within the browser itself.
- It provides the right architecture and operating system to run executable programs provided by some of the challenges.
- We’ve pre-installed command line tools to be run within the VM, which will be needed to complete some of the challenges. As just one example, the VM comes ready with ‘exiftool’ already installed and ready to use.
If you need any further assistance, please get in touch at hello@joincyberstart.com and we’ll help you further.
Interested in our programmes? Check out where you can build your cyber security knowledge for free!
UK 13–18-year-old student programme: Cyber Discovery https://cyberdisc.io/medium
USA 13–18 year-old girls student programme: Girls Go CyberStart https://ggcs.online/medium
USA 18–year-old and above college student programme: Cyber FastTrack https://cyberft.io/medium
