Hacklog Volume 1 Anonymity: it security & Ethical Hacking Handbook

Slackware to the most user-friendly ones like Linux Mint or Ubuntu, to platforms
designed  for  gamers,  such  as  Steam  OS,  for  audio/video  productions,  for
microcomputers,  Servers,  Firewalls,  Routers,  etc.  Among  these  infinite  distros,
we can also find some specifically designed for Anonymity.

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1.1 Which distro?
I've  always  believed  that  there  is  no  one-fit-for-all  distro.  In  my  opinion,
choosing  a  given  GNU/Linux  distro  should  not  be  a  simple  matter  of  pre-
installed software. Firstly, it must be related to what a user needs and their level
of  knowledge  (also  keeping  in  mind  to  what  extent  they  adhere  to  the  project
philosophy).
If you are unfamiliar with a GNU/Linux distro, this may be the best moment
to familiarize with it! In some cases, you could have to use Windows or macOS
nevertheless: we will also marginally cover such Operative Systems.
During  the  course,  we  will  mainly  use  Debian,  a  primary  distro  used  to
develop the most popular distros available online, such as Ubuntu,  Linux  Mint,
Elementary OS, Kali Linux, Parrot Security OS, Backbox, Tails and many more.
If this is your first approach, I suggest you to start directly from Debian – you’ll
learn  much  more  and  it  will  be  easier  for  you  to  shift  from  a  distro  to  another,
once you’ll familiarize with it.
In  this  document,  we  won’t  cover  how  to  install  and  run  Debian:  you  can
read a doc (in Italian version) available for free at
www.hacklog.net
,  explaining
how  to  install  a  functional  version  of  Debian  and  how  to  overcome  the  most
common issues. If you don’t feel comfortable with Debian for any reason, or if
you’re having trouble installing your peripherals, try with Ubuntu or Linux Mint,
since they are more user-friendly and have built-in, proprietary drivers. Besides
the positioning of some elements, the commands we are going to use will work
on these distros as well.
Instead,  if  you  are  confident  with  a  given  distro,  you  won’t  have  any
problems  in  using  another  of  these  sub-distros,  even  if  they  belong  to  other
families.  In  the  final  part  of  this  book,  you’ll  find  a  complete  overview  of  all
Linux distros designed for anonymity (and partially for pentest as well), so you
will be able to repeat the different tests using working environments specifically
designed for anonymity and not.
1.1.1 Virtual Machines

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If  you  followed  previous  Hacklog  courses,  you  know  there  is  a  faster  and
painless  way  to  have  Linux  installed  in  your  computer,  without  any  partitions,
using  a  Virtual  Machine.  Virtual  Machine  is  a  kind  of  machine  acting  as  a
complete  computer,  but  actually  residing  within  a  different  Operative  System:
this  ensures  a  stronger  software  compatibility  and  a  better  System  usability,
however  it  may  compromise  performance  and,  specially,  expose  the  user  to
serious risks in terms of security and privacy. You’ll find the reasons behind the
latter statement in the “Live OS” chapter, at the end of the course.
Finally, since the environment is virtualized, the System will have to follow
the rules enforced by the main Operative System, then you may encounter some
issues with anonymity software. For these reasons, using Virtual Machine is not
advisable if you wish to apply most of the techniques explained here.
1.1.2 Live Distros
During this course, we will see why a safer approach is to use some types of
Linux  distros,  distributed  only  to  be  used  Live,  namely  running  without  being
installed  on  your  PC.  Although  they  are  extremely  useful,  we  will  only  cover
them  at  the  end  of  the  technical  arguments,  because  they  won’t  allow  to  apply
some anonymity techniques, as for Virtual Machines.
1.1.3 The Terminal
One of the most important features covered in this course will be the use of
the terminal, a software installed in all Operative Systems by default. Although
we  will  commit  to  avoid  any  possible  issue,  the  terminal  behavior  may  be
different  according  to  the  type  of  Operative  System  in  use.  This  is  one  of  the
reasons  why  we  suggest  to  use  only  certain  distros  (based  on  Debian