Home Built Cybersecurity Lab - A Journey
8/7/2022 Day One
So I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a “lab” (for learning some of the skills necessary to land a job in the Cybersecurity field) for about a week now and today I pulled the trigger on the two parts I think I need.
My mentor on Discord suggested that I run my setup in a Raspberry Pi but they’re out of stock everywhere I look. …And due to a great steaming pile of unfortunate circumstances, I actually need to stick to a very (VERY) tight budget right now…
I decided my project should be a Linux based IDS (Intrusion Detection System) for my home network since I have 5 adult users in my household and currently over 30 devices and growing. (I also plan on continuing to mine Bitcoin when I can afford the extra electricity cost.) My network was closer to 40+ devices when I was still mining Ethereum in my garage so I have quite a bit of leftover hardware to start out with on the build out. I decided to use one of my small mining rig setups as the basis of this project and build from there.
Software wise, TheRaven suggested I take a look at Security Onion. It looks amazing and the price is just right (free). Not only is it an IDS, but it’s also a SIEM and UEBA (Security Information and Event Management and User and Entity Behavior Analytics platform).
Apparently this will stretch my Linux skills a bit farther also, so I can’t wait to get going!
The extra Network Adapter (NIC) and “Smart Switch” will round out my build and is the only (extra) expenditure for me right now.
The system I’m going to install the software on, consists of the following:
Asrock B450 Pro Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU
Kingston 240GB SSD
Currently it’s set up with just one stick of 8GB or RAM so I need to grab another stick from my spare parts tub to get to the recommended 16GB of memory. Power currently comes from a 1200W Dell Server PSU running a Parallel Miner “Breakout Board” adapting it for use on a retail motherboard. All this is attached to a tiny little “Mining Rig” frame and will live on a shelf next to my router, switch, and miscellaneous networking equipment on a wireframe rack behind me at my desk.
I’m hoping I can get by without any Human Interface Devices (Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor) and just SSH (remote login) from my main computer. We’ll see… I DO have a couple of old Graphics cards (GPUs) in a tub just in case.
So, I think that wraps it up for today. I should be getting my NIC and switch tomorrow some time, then I can strip my new machine down to just what I need for this project (get rid of the excess fans and PCIE power cords, bifurcation cards, and risers) and install the remaining components.
Then it’s on to phase 2 - Installing the software!
-Greg
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