Lab 00 — Set Up Your Lab

VirtualBox is the free program that runs virtual machines. It’s made by Oracle and it’s free for personal use.

1. Go to virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2. Under VirtualBox platform packages, click Windows hosts (or macOS / Intel hosts if you’re on a Mac). An installer downloads.
3. Open the downloaded file and click Next → Next → Yes → Install. Accept the defaults; it’s safe to say yes to the network warning during install.
4. When it finishes, let it launch. You should see the Oracle VirtualBox Manager window, empty for now.

On a work laptop? If the installer is blocked, your machine is locked down by IT — use a personal computer for the lab. Don’t fight a managed device.

You could install Kali from scratch, but there’s a shortcut: Kali publishes a pre-built VirtualBox image. You download one file and import it — no OS install to sit through.

1. Go to kali.org/get-kali and pick Virtual Machines.
2. Click the VirtualBox download (a large .7z file, ~3–4 GB — this is the slow part).
3. You’ll need 7-Zip to unpack a .7z. Install it, then right-click the downloaded file → 7-Zip → Extract Here. You get a folder with a .vbox file inside.

Why the prebuilt image: a from-scratch install means partitioning, drivers, and guest-additions headaches. The prebuilt VM skips all of it and boots straight to a working desktop. Start here; do a manual install later if you ever want to.

1. In VirtualBox Manager, double-click the .vbox file you extracted (or use Machine → Add and point it at that file). Kali appears in the left-hand list.
2. Select it and click the green Start arrow.
3. A window opens and Kali boots to a login screen.
4. Log in with username kali and password kali.

If it won’t boot with a VT-x / virtualization error: reboot into your PC’s BIOS/UEFI and enable Intel VT-x or AMD-V. It’s off by default on some machines and VMs can’t run without it.

The image was built a while ago. Bring it current so tools behave. Open the Terminal (the black icon in Kali’s top bar) and run:

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

It asks for your password (kali) — the screen shows nothing as you type, that’s normal. Then it downloads and installs updates. Grab a coffee; this can take 10–20 minutes the first time.

This is the step beginners skip and regret. A snapshot freezes the machine’s exact state so you can return to it after any mess.

1. In the Kali VM window’s menu bar, click Machine → Take Snapshot.
2. Name it clean install and click OK.

Why it matters: break something, get a tool tangled, or want to redo a lab from zero — right-click the VM → Snapshots → Restore and you’re back to this exact moment in seconds. Take a fresh snapshot before each new lab.

One command proves the tools are there. In the Kali terminal:

$ nmap --version

If it prints a version line (Nmap version 7.xx), everything works. That’s the tool you’ll use in the very next lab.