The bot I'm working on at the moment relies on a whole bunch of Win XP virtual machines for stealth. I run Ubuntu Linux as my primary dev environment and am running the Open Source edition of VirtualBox as my VM solution.

The VMs out of the box are set up with NAT addressing. This is fine for accessing the interweb but I need the VMs to talk to each other. Not as straightforward as it seems but I managed to get it working as follows:

In this example I have one Ubuntu Hardy Heron (HOST) hosting 2 VirtualBox Win XP VMs (GUESTS).

Open a terminal on the HOST computer.

1. Enable IP forwarding

Code:

sudo sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

2. Create tap0 and tap1 interfaces and bring them up (one for each GUEST)

Code:

sudo VBoxTunctl -b -u $USER sudo VBoxTunctl -b -u $USER sudo ip link set tap0 up sudo ip link set tap1 up

NOTE: change $USER above to the username in the vboxusers group who will be running the VMs 3. Assign tap0 and tap1 IP addresses.

Code:

sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.100/24 dev tap0 sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.101/24 dev tap1

The IP addresses in the example should be changed to spare IP addresses on your network. 4. Install parprouted (if not already installed)

Code:

sudo apt-get install parprouted

5. Bind your wireless interface to tap0 and tap1. NOTE: Change wlan0 in the example as required to match your wireless interface.

Code:

sudo parprouted wlan0 tap0 sudo parprouted wlan0 tap1

6. Add a route for the tap0 and tap1 interfaces

Code:

sudo route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tap0 sudo route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tap1

NOTE: Change 192.168.0.0 to correspond to your network addressing scheme. Ok - that finishes setting up the host. If you want to start the new interfaces at boot then create a script called, say, vm_network in the folder /etc/network/if-up.d/ with the above commands.

Code:

#! /bin/sh sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 VBoxTunctl -b -u $USER VBoxTunctl -b -u $USER ip link set tap0 up ip link set tap1 up ip addr add 192.168.0.100/24 dev tap0 ip addr add 192.168.0.101/24 dev tap1 parprouted wlan0 tap0 parprouted wlan0 tap1 sudo route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tap0 sudo route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 tap1

Remember to change $USER and the ip address to match your environment!

Now repeat the following steps on each VM you want to use.

NOTE: These steps are for VMs running Windoze XP. Should be even simpler on Linux guests!

1. In the VirtualBox control panel select the VM you want to work with and select settings (only available when VM is NOT running).

2. Select Network on the left and the Adapter 0 tab on the right.


3. If not already selected change the 'Adapter Type' to be PCnet-FAST III.


4. Change the 'Attached to' from NAT to Host Interface.


5. Click the 'Generate' button next to MAC address.


6. In the 'Interface Name' field enter tap0


7. Click OK and start the VM.


8. Open 'Control Panel' and then 'Network Connections'


9. You should see a 'Local Area Connection' entry with limited or no
connectivity. Right click it and select 'Properties'


10. Open the 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)' dialog by double clicking.


11. Select 'Use the following IP address' and enter a free IP address on your network, the netmask 255.255.255.0, your gateway address and the address(es) of your DNS servers. Click ok.


12. Run the 'Network Setup Wizard' by clicking the link in the left hand pane. You can accept the defaults for everything unless you want to change the computer name, workgroup or share folders from it.


13. Restart the VM. That should be it! The VM should now act as a normal computer on your LAN.