On my journey to becoming a cyber warrior, I’ve read many articles and posts suggesting that the best way to gain hands-on experience is to create my own home lab. Therefore, this is Day 1 of building my home SOC lab. There are plenty of ways to get started and what I did was ask ChatGPT to create a detailed, step-by-step hands-on SOC lab that I can build at home to practice.
Setting Up the Environment
To kick things off, I focused on setting up the environment by creating virtual machines (VMs). Using VMs allows me to practice in a controlled environment where it’s safe to try new tools and even break things without affecting my main computer.
There are many hypervisor, a software that creates and manages virtual machines, options available. The one I’m using is VMWare Workstation Pro, which can be downloaded and installed like any other software.
Installing the VMs
Once you’ve installed one VM, the next ones will follow a very similar process. The first VM I tackled was Windows 11.
Download the ISO: I downloaded the official and latest version of the ISO file directly from Microsoft's website. It’s important to verify the source of your ISO file to avoid accidentally downloading a corrupted or malicious version.
Create a New VM: In VMWare, I selected Create a New Virtual Machine and followed the setup prompts. I left the allocated RAM and storage at the default settings since it can be adjusted later if needed.
Install Windows 11: I booted the VM with the ISO file and followed the installation instructions.
Check for Updates: Once Windows was installed, I ran all available updates. It’s good practice to check the OS for updates immediately after installation to ensure it’s fully patched and protected from known vulnerabilities.
Take a Snapshot: After completing the updates, I took a snapshot and titled it, "Fresh Install." This can be done by navigating to VM > Snapshot > Take Snapshot Having a snapshot is extremely helpful for reverting to a clean state later if something breaks or if I want to test a configuration again.
Additionally, I also used the following YouTube video tutorial to help guide me:
Conclusion
Overall, setting up the environment and installing the VMs went smoothly. It was a bit time consuming, but I’m glad everything worked as intended. This wraps up a great first day of building my home SOC lab.