Security Testing Meetup: Beginners Kali Linux w/ RailsGoat

The Beginners Kali Linux w/ Railsgoat Meetup that I attended Wednesday, April 22, 2015 had one requirement: Set up Kali Linux running in a virtual machine.

After tinkering with Kali Linux on-and-off a few days before the training session, I finally was able to have a working installation up and running in a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro. It took me a while. Setting up a Linux distribution is a bit out of my comfort zone, but it was a good experience. Between listening to the instructional video one of the organizers, Apollo Clark, had created, and doing a lot of independent research, I was able to download, install, and set it up using Oracle's VirtualBox. 

Security Testing with Kali Linux: Intro and Installation

I've always been intrigued by security testing. I was part of a security testing team at my last position, tinkering with a security testing guide written by The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) to review our web and mobile apps, so when I came across a security testing group, I had to attend! 

The organizer of the Boston Kali Linux Users Group suggested before the Beginners Kali Linux w/ Railsgoat  event participants should have a running virtual machine with Kali Linux installed on it. To help us, the organizer Apollo Clark created a tutorial for both Mac  and Windows. It's a good thing, too. I have tinkered with Red Hat Linux, but not for many years.