Overview
In this post we are going over the procedure to deploy Commando VM. Commando VM is a Windows pen-testing virtual machine which is designed for helping you achieve your red team / pen testing objectives. Commando VM is Windows environment with many useful tools and settings to help make your pen testing job much easier. It is especially useful when it comes to exploit development research, exploits, threat intelligence, or any kind of windows exploitation. it has variety of tools and if anything is missing it can pretty much be installed and most of those has with all support especially if they are built on python.
System Requirements
All right first things first let's go
and look at the prerequisites so this is
the official github page of commando
hosted by Mandiant. Next what you're gonna need is to
download the standard windows 10 iso
from microsoft. I do recommend that you use an official copy of Windows 10 as we will need to disable windows defender and other security mechanisms for the installation to succeed. It is recommended to
use the 22H2 release of the Windows 10 ISO. Then you're going to need at least 4 gigs of ram and 60 gigs of a hard drive space. This minimal setup is good to test the setup and get used to how it all works, however 100 gigs hard drive space & 8 gigs ram is much better option if you are doing a Full intsall of all the features available. I suggest creating a VM just for the purpose of "trial run" take note of aspects of installation then test it all out. Later you can make clean VM with improvements and edits to the trial run.
Installing Standard Windows 10 VM
Inside my vmware
workstation I create a
new windows virtual machine
all you'll need is go to file your
virtual machine
then go to typical next load your iso
which downloaded from microsoft. Documentation from microsoft visual page
story
what it there
now that's going then name it the proper
name so windows 10
commando. Now both we're pretty much the commando
is gonna be stored so i'm gonna
do vms
commando. Just click ok command all right
click next
now we need to pretty much say how much
the disk we want at my case it's 60 gigs
click next customize hardware now as as
I mentioned go with at least 4 gigs
of ram i'm going to put 8 because i have
a lot
and then to process it's okay processor
is ok. Then network adapter not this
should be ok
now close finish
and this should be enough
now let's just wait a little bit because
it's gonna work still a standard windows
installation. I'm going to click to vm and
install vm tools
when you click that you should be
mounting an iso on D:\ drive and then
click the run setup 64. Vmware tools is pretty much
all the vm support that you need for
example the screen resize the double
mouse button and all the extras that you
need for your vms to run smooth
so it's always a good idea to have them
go with complete
next install
and you should be pretty fast.
AV Removal and VM Setup
If you paid attention we can see
pre-installed procedures
so there's the thing we must do before
installing commando you must disable
windows defender for smooth install keep
in mind that commando is offensive vm so
it is going to install a lot of things
most of them which are triggered by the
defender so it must be disabled. The best way to accomplish this
with policy in windows versions of
higher than 1909
template protection was hired and
protection was disabled so device group
of settings have ignored. Go to in windows security type
windows security search box
and it's going to bring up the defender. Now here we're going to need to various
thread protection go to manage setting
and pretty much disable all these things
here is the damper protection
all right
then to permanently disable
real-time protection
let's open up gp edit
which is the group policy editor
and maybe we're going to need an
administrator right so cmd
right click administrator
gpedit. There we are
now
what we need to do here computer
configuration
computer configuration administrative
templates
windows component
microsoft defender
where is it microsoft defined antivirus
and real-time protection. All right now
enable turn off real-time protection
turn off your time protection
enable it
apply
and it should be disabled. Next we're gonna need to reboot
and we need to build before making the
next change. Then we're gonna need to
disable permanently disable microsoft
defender and then we're gonna need to
install the commando. This is done because every single time
you restart the box or windows machine
the defender is automatically turning
itself to on
no matter what. If you don't permanently disable defender
he's gonna find a way to pretty much
turn itself back on
that's why we're gonna need a lot of
starts because
each procedure is turning this table is
disabling the defender off and by the
last one which is gonna be performed. Right now we should have
not non-defender box then we're gonna
smoothly start commando and
be happy to be a red team ninja.
Installing Commando VM
We're gonna need run cmd as administrator
and now do gp edit
all right and here we're gonna need to
do again computer configuration
administrative templates, windows components, microsoft defender antivirus pretty much
the same path
all right and then
enable turn off microsoft
defender antivirus. Next we're gonna go with the standard install. all right so
where was it here when we download that
there is the file called install.ps1 and
pretty much it take cares of all the
installation process
so we're going to follow the steps
we're going to run that script. Take a snapshot of the machine!!! This is really important because if
something breaks up you must have the
ability to revert back to the box. We download that script open powershell as administrator
yes administrator
cd
users
test desktop
commando
we have that install.ps1. Unblock file
ps1
set execution policy unrestricted so we
can pretty much execute scripts for the install. We can either run it like that or we can
supply a password
i've never supplied a password because i
would need i would not need that
but if you want you can try it out. The last step is to pretty much even
install that ps1 script. You need to to change this setting so
checking to make sure we don't defender
tamper protection is disabled. It is
disabled so do you need to change the
settings
i didn't know
all right
do you need to take snapshot. I already took that
type your password
a bit carefully this style is not 100
unattended please monitor this stuff
with possible failures. After the final reboot you
should be seeing something like that
whenever you see the command vmware
logo your machine is good to go. If
there's anything left over you just have
to click enter and reboot the box once
again. It is a really easy
straightforward install all you need is
just wanna
install script using powershell with
administrative fights and that's it
keep in mind that it takes a lot of time
and
it restarts a lot of thing a lot of
times so you have to be patient but you
end up
having a Commando VM!