There is a Slack workspace for Computer Science students here at PSU. If you haven't already, create a Slack account, join the workspace at https://pdx-cs.slack.com and add the course channel linked on the course web page. All course communication will be done through this platform; check the pinned section for important updates. Note that the course has a corresponding webpage for more permanent information.

Setup account

mkdir notebooks
touch notebooks/Labs0.pdf
git add notebooks
git commit -m "initial commit"
git push

Setup .gitignore

It is often the case that you'll have files in your local directory that you do not want added to your repository. To specify that these files should not be included in any commits, git uses a file called .gitignore. Create a .gitignore file that contains files that are common to Python that you do not want to add to your repository.

env/
*.pyc
__pycache__/

Add it to the files you wish to commit, commit the file to your local repository, and then push the local repository to its remote.

git add .gitignore
git commit -m "Adding .gitignore"
git push -u origin main

git basics

Read the first 6 steps of the following link. Note that for this class, you will be substituting Gitlab for GitHub. You will need to become proficient with the following git commands for this course or use an IDE such as VSCode that can perform the operations for you.

Incognito mode

To avoid applying the coupon you receive to the incorrect account, ensure that these steps are done in an "Incognito" or "Private Browsing" browser window to set up your account.

Then, visit https://console.cloud.google.com and login using your pdx.edu account to enable GCP. If you haven't used GCP yet and do not mind temporarily putting your credit card on the account, apply for the $300 coupon and use it to create a new billing account. Otherwise, visit the coupon redemption URL on the Canvas home page for the course (https://canvas.pdx.edu).

Create Project

Click on the pdx.edu organization from the console.

Then, click on "New Project"

Create a Google Cloud project with your ProjectName from above. You should be taken to your project's Home page. For your lab notebook, you will need to ensure that all of your screenshots for your Google Cloud labs include your ProjectName.

To examine your Billing account and its usage, go to the Billing page from the console at https://console.cloud.google.com/billing

Set up a VM running the course Kali Linux VM. Log into your Google Cloud Platform account and go to your project's console. Click on the Cloud Shell icon from the web console shown below:

Create two firewall rules to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

gcloud compute firewall-rules create default-allow-http \
  --allow=tcp:80 --target-tags=http-server

gcloud compute firewall-rules create default-allow-https \
  --allow=tcp:443 --target-tags=https-server

Then, create a firewall rule to only allow ssh traffic from Portland State University addresses. Note that, if you wish to access the VM from other locations, you will need to add them to the rule.

gcloud compute firewall-rules create pdx-22 \
  --allow=tcp:22 --source-ranges="131.252.0.0/16" \
  --target-tags=pdx-22 --direction=INGRESS

Then, run the command below to find the most recent version of the Kali VM image on the course's GCP project.

gcloud compute images list \
  --project pdx-cs --no-standard-images

Launch the latest Kali VM image using the gcloud command below, attaching the two rules to allow web traffic to it.

gcloud compute instances create kali-vm \
  --machine-type e2-medium --zone us-west1-b \
  --image-project pdx-cs \
  --image kali-rolling-latest

gcloud compute instances add-tags kali-vm --tags=http-server,https-server,pdx-22

Keep track of both the external and internal IP address of each instance. We will be using the internal IP address for the attacks, but will need to connect via the external IP addresses initially.

Finally, perform the command below to ssh into the VM instance after it comes up to ensure you can access it.

Option #1: Cloud Shell

gcloud compute ssh kali-vm

Option #2: Web UI

Click on the SSH button of your Kali VM instance from Compute Engine.

TryHackMe is a widely-used security training site that focuses on developing practical, hands-on skills for its users. The site is organized in "rooms" that contain lab content for users to complete to obtain badges. We will be using several of the site's free rooms as part of the course.

Visit the site at https://tryhackme.com/ and create an account. If you find the exercises useful, consider a subscription to the site to continue your development after the course.

Throughout the course, we will be using the free rooms of TryHackMe to get you started on various security topics. Some of the TryHackMe rooms will launch machines on TryHackMe for you to work with. In order to access these machines easily, TryHackMe provides VPN support. Both Portland State and TryHackMe have support for the freely available OpenVPN client. The OpenVPN client is installed on all MCECS lab machines.

Visit your first TryHackMe room at https://tryhackme.com/room/openvpn and complete it using the machine you intend to work from for the course.

Join the following room on TryHackMe: https://tryhackme.com/r/room/securityprinciples . The room covers the fundamental security principles. Complete the first 3 tasks for this room.

Save your notebook as a PDF as notebooks/Labs1.pdf, then add, commit, and push your lab notebook to your repository.

git add notebooks/Labs1.pdf
git commit -m "first lab"
git push