tmacuk

For a while now I have been trying to find ways in which I can have my pen-testing computer and personal computer together. At the end of the day as long as my work reports and test results are encrypted, and I am not doing anything stupid in my personal time on the computer why not have them together.

I currently have two working computers. I have my laptop which I use most of the time as it is (at the moment) the best machine I own. I also have a very old computer that was built around when I was about 13. The laptop is currently running Ubuntu 9.10 (although as soon as the upgrade to 10.10 is made public I will defiantly be off of this) and the computer was running BackTrack.

BackTrack is a great pen-testing distribution, it does exactly what it is supposed to do. However as a personal opinion and someone who is really used the gnome interface and just Ubuntu as a whole, I prefer Ubuntu. I have been trying for a while (and not succeeding) in creating my own personal distro that I can install all the tool that I need using Ubuntu Minimal. At first it seemed like a great idea, but the time quickly came upon me and with Uni and work commitments I found myself having to throw the project to the side into a very high pile.

That was until however I saw a post on Twitter mentioning Ubuntu Pen-Testing Edition. I quickly jumped on to the website at which point I found out that they were changing to a new dedicated website and the download wasn’t going to be available till tomorrow. Let me please point out however that the lead developer of this project, Vitomir Margetic, has been so helpful right from the start of my life with the distribution – every email I have sent has been answered with the utmost quickness and respect, so thank you.

After some server issues when it first came up I finally got it downloaded and installed into a virtual machine – which if your planning on doing make sure you allocate at least 1gb of ram or more. As soon as it was installed I knew I was at home. Ubuntu PE was everything I liked about Ubuntu and BackTrack all into one. Ubuntu – because I knew how to get everything working exactly how I wanted it i.e. Adobe Air, Sound, Play on Linux etc and BackTrack – because I used it in my pen-testing for work that evening and I wasn’t a tool short, that night anyway.

There are a large amount of tools within Ubuntu that I must admit are within BackTrack, however there are other tools in there that are not. Then on the other hand there are parts of Ubuntu PE that I would want to change.

First of all I installed it because I liked the gnome interface, the one bar at bottom and the other at the top, that wasn’t there. It was a gnome interface alright, but looked like a copy of KDE, just the one bar at the bottom type thing. That was changed straight away. Secondly there are tools I have installed on my computer that I use for testing that were not installed. An example of this is the screenshot taker – Shutter which if I am honest I couldn’t live without so take a look.

All in all it is much simpler. Which to be fair is exactly what Ubuntu was designed for. Somebody who is new to Linux (in my opinion anyway). The argument you have here is that should somebody who needs something simple be using hacking tools that are included in both of these Distro’s? If they struggle with BT should they not really be thinking is this the Distro for me? I think it all comes down to how you want to use your pen-testing machine. Do you want a machine that you can use for everyday use as well or do want a machine just for your work? In my personal opinion the more things I can bunch together the better, this way I can use my other computer as a vulnerable machine to test my tools on.

I am moving away from Ubuntu soon, primarily because I think I am ready to move on to a harder distro so that I can learn more things about Linux itself, but secondly because of the way Ubuntu is changing – especially the new memory storage in version 10.10. So as for using this as my main system I would have to say no. However over BackTrack I will use this. It is new, easier and quicker to get going with and it does the job that I need it to do. I know you all may think all you need is the terminal window, but when your writing reports and taking screenshots its always better to have a look at something graphical that just text; and because I know my way around Ubuntu so well now and I can edit it the way I look i.e. RandomStorm logo on the bars etc. it works better for me.

This review wasn’t a dig at either community, just my personal opinion.

If you would like to download Ubuntu PE please visit – http://www.netinfinity.org/

There are new feature being developed as I am typing this review, I have some new found friends in Dundee that are getting involved with creating and making this a better distro for pen testers to use. A repository is currently being created so that you can port all the tools into an already existant Ubuntu setup – again some you can do with BackTrack but without having to read countless guides on how to do it.

Thanks -
Thomas MacKenzie