Summary

In this chapter, we reviewed setting up various types of virtual labs. It should be apparent that almost any type of virtual environment can be emulated using commonly available tools and given sufficient resources. This is especially true of any systems that use open source software as it is readily available and does not require the purchase of licenses (typically and depending on what the software is).

We also learned more about the capabilities of pfSense and how it can be leveraged to more closely emulate the types of environments we will find when testing highly secured networks. It is simple to install and configure WAF, IDS, IPS, and even reverse proxies using these technologies.

We also covered the installation and configuration of M0n0wall, which is perfect for those times when resources are at a premium and a small footprint is required. Some penetration testers have built test labs that spanned several host machines and hundreds of guests. This is probably beyond the necessity...