Thank you for opting to take the Offensive Security Evasion Techniques and Breaching Defenses (PEN-300) course. The following document contains instructions for connecting to our online VPN labs and other useful information, which will help you get the most out of the course and labs. Please read it carefully.
PEN-300 Online Lab Introduction
The PEN-300 lab environment is an important part of the online course. The lab allows the student to practice various evasive penetration testing techniques in a legally safe environment. Each student has access to several dedicated lab targets. Unless otherwise indicated, access to the Windows machines is done via Remote Desktop and the Linux machines can be accessed via SSH.
Connecting to the Labs
Your connection to the lab is to be done with Kali Linux using OpenVPN. We are unable to provide any VPN connectivity support if you choose to use another setup. It is also highly recommended that you download and use the Kali VMware image for the most streamlined experience. For more information, please visit the following link: https://help.offensive-security.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049796792
In your welcome email, you should have received a lab connectivity pack (lab-connection.tar.bz2) file. Copy this file to your Kali machine (in /root/), extract it, and initiate the VPN connection:
kali@kali:~$ tar xjf lab-connection.tar.bz2
kali@kali:~$ sudo openvpn OS-XXXXX-PEN-300.ovpn
Mon Oct 26 11:08:39 2020 OpenVPN 2.4.5 i686-pc-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH/PKTINFO] [AEAD] built on Mar 4 2018
Mon Oct 26 11:08:39 2020 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.0h 27 Mar 2018, LZO 2.10
Enter Auth Username: OS-XXXXX
Enter Auth Password: ***********
Mon Oct 26 11:08:50 2020 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]167.114.35.118:1194
Mon Oct 26 11:08:50 2020 UDPv4 link local (bound): [AF_INET][undef]:1194
Mon Oct 26 11:08:50 2020 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]167.114.35.118:1194
Mon Oct 26 11:08:50 2020 WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
Mon Oct 26 11:08:59 2020 [offensive-security.com] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]167.114.35.118:1194
Mon Oct 26 11:09:01 2020 TUN/TAP device tun0 opened
Mon Oct 26 11:09:01 2020 do_ifconfig, tt->did_ifconfig_ipv6_setup=0
Mon Oct 26 11:09:01 2020 /sbin/ip link set dev tun0 up mtu 1500
Mon Oct 26 11:09:01 2020 /sbin/ip addr add dev tun0 192.168.49.2/24 broadcast 192.168.49.255
Mon Oct 26 11:09:01 2020 Initialization Sequence Completed
When prompted, enter your username and password into the console. Do not close this window, otherwise your VPN connection will terminate!
Hazards
Please read this part extremely carefully.
By joining the Offensive Security VPN, you will be exposing your computers' VPN IP to other students taking the course with you. Due to the nature of the course (and its participants!), your computer may be subjected to attacks originating from the VPN network. This is true even if you are located behind a NAT device. Kali users, please change the default password!
What is a good ping response time?
If your average ping is below 300 ms and without any packet loss, you should not encounter any issues within our labs. Sometimes the ping response time can increase for a few seconds; this can happen if a machine is being reverted by another student.
We highly recommend that you use a stable, high speed Internet connection such as Broadband or higher to access the labs. Mobile Internet such as 3G or 4G should be avoided.
Technical Problems
First, please ensure that you have Internet connectivity within your Kali Linux virtual machine. If you do have Internet connectivity and are still unable to connect to the labs, ensure you are not behind any firewalls that are preventing you from establishing an outbound connection to the labs on UDP port 1194.
If you're still having connectivity problems or other non-training related issues, you can contact us and we will try to help you to the best of our abilities.
You can submit a ticket.
We wish you a productive and enjoyable time in our labs!
The Offensive Security Team