Pre-Built Virtual Machines

Here is a virtual machine that contains all the software tools you need for this class. If you are an instructor, email us to get the decryption key for the grading software (the file instructor.zip.aes).

Platform Link Download size (GB)Disk size (GB)
x86-64 ligerlabs-vbox.zip1545

Installing the Virtual Machine

Start by installing Virtualbox on your system. Then follow these steps:

Step I-0: Install VirtualBox

  • Go here and install VirtualBox on your machine.

Step I-1: Download LIGERLab-VM

  • Download the pre-built LIGERLab-VM image from the link above.
  • Extract the VM, using unzip
  • After successful extraction, you will see the file LIGER_VM_AutoAssign_Updated-disk1.vdi.

Step I-2: Create a Virtual Machine

  • Open VirtualBox from Finder or Start Menu or from its desktop icon..
  • Click New.
  • Set Name to LIGER
  •  Set Type to Linux  
  •  Set Version to Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat

Step I-3: Configure memory and CPU

  • The minimal memory size is 2GB. 
  • If the host machine has 8GB or more of RAM, you may select 4096 MB as the "Base Memory" for the VM.
  • If your host machine has 4 or more cores, you may select 2 CPUs as the number of "Processors" for the VM.

Step I-4: Configure the hard disk

  • When VirtualBox asks you whether you want to create a new virtual disk  or use an existing one; select Use an existing virtual hard disk file. 
  • Provide the LIGERLabs VM image named LIGER_VM_AutoAssign_Updated-disk1.vdi as the hard disk image.

Step I-5: VM start and login

  • Start the VM by clicking Start in the Oracle VM VirtualBox manager or right-click on name of the VM ("LIGER") and choose start.
  • When the virtual machine has started up, log in using the password liger.

Step I-6: Launch an application

  • Press Ctrl-Alt-t (on Windows) or Ctrl-Option-t (on MacOS) inside of the VM to open a terminal window.
  • Type "ghidraRun" at the terminal prompt, and press enter.
  • The graphical Ghidra application should start up.

Configuring the Virtual Machine

Performing the following steps will give you a virtual machine that is easier for you to work within.

Step C-1: Resize your virtual machine's display

  • Press the activities icon at the bottom left of the menu bar.
  • From the apps shown, select "Settings". (The word "Settings" might be truncated.)
  • From the Settings window that opens, select "Display".
  • The display settings might not fit fully on the screen.
  • Click the window's menu bar and drag it to fit the resolution option on the screen, or drag it to the top to cause Ubuntu to resize the window.
  • From the "Resolution" drop down menu, select a larger resolution that fits within the resolution of your host machine's display.
  • My host machine's display has resolution 1920x1080, and I set the VM's resolution to 1360x768.
  • Press the "Apply" button in the upper right corner of the window.
  • When prompted, press the "Keep Changes" button.
  • There is a VirtualBox menu at the top of the VMs window, and it includes a "View" item.
  • From the "View" menu, select "Auto-resize Guest Display".

Step C-2a: Create shared folders (MacOS/x86-64 host)

  • On the host machine (your MacOS computer), open a terminal and execute the commands "mkdir ~/Desktop/vboxshared;  chmod 777 ~/Desktop/vboxshared". This folder on your desktop will be connected to a folder in the VM, allowing you to easily share files.
  • In the VirtualBox menu bar, select Devices → Shared Folders →  Shared Folders Settings
  • Click on the "+" folder icon to create a new Machine folder.
  • Set the folder path to ~/Desktop/vboxshared (the desktop folder you created previously).
  • Set Read-only to off.
  • Set Auto-mount to on.
  • Set Make permanent to on,
  • Click OK.
  • On the guest (the virtual machine), open up a terminal and execute the following commands: " mkdir ~/Desktop/vboxshared;  chmod 777 ~/Desktop/vboxshared; sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf  liger;  sudo mount -tvboxsf vboxshared ~/Desktop/vboxshared"
  • You should now be able to copy files between the host and the guest but putting them in the vboxshared folders.

Step C-2b: Create shared folders (Windows host)

  • On the host machine (your Windows computer), open a file explorer window and navigate to the Desktop folder. Then, click the "New Folder" icon. Name your new folder "vboxshared". This folder on your desktop will be connected to a folder in the VM, allowing you to easily share files.
  • Follow the same instructions as for MacOS.

Step C-3: Enable Copy-Paste

  • In the VirtualBox menu bar, select Devices → Shared Clipboard → Bidirectional
  • In the VirtualBox menu bar, select Devices → Drag and Drop → Bidirectional
  • In the VM use shift-control-C to copy and shift-control-V to paste.

Installed Software

In the pre-built LIGERLab-VM, we have installed sets of tools for reverse engineering, binary analysis, instrumentation, fuzzing, and obfuscation/anti-reverse engineering. 

SoftwareLinkCommand
Ghidrahttps://ghidra-sre.orgghidraRun
radare 2https://rada.re/n/radare2
IDA Freehttps://hex-rays.com/ida-pro/ida64
gdbhttps://www.sourceware.org/gdb/gdb
objdumphttps://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/objdump
angrhttp://angr.io$ python3.8
>>> import angr
KLEEhttps://klee.github.ioklee
PINhttps://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/pin-a-dynamic-binary-instrumentation-tool.htmlpin
Diablohttps://diablo.elis.ugent.be/node/1To appear
AFLhttps://github.com/google/AFLafl-fuzz
Tigresshttps://tigress.wtftigress
LLVM-Obfuscationhttps://github.com/obfuscator-llvm/obfuscatorTo appear
edb-debuggerhttps://github.com/eteran/edb-debuggeredb
clanghttps://clang.llvm.orgclang
lldbhttps://lldb.llvm.orglldb
yarahttps://github.com/virustotal/yarayara
ssdeephttps://ssdeep-project.github.io/ssdeep/index.htmlssdeep
nanohttps://www.nano-editor.orgnano
ghexhttps://github.com/GNOME/ghexghex
gedithttps://gedit-technology.github.io/apps/gedit/gedit
Sublime Texthttps://www.sublimetext.com/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text
GraphVizhttps://graphviz.orgdot, neato

Other Software

Here are links to software not installed (for licensing reasons, for example) in the virtual machines above but which you may want to install yourself.

Software Link
Ida Prodownload
Binary Ninjadownload
Binary Ninja (cloud)link

Installing Ghidra on Mac M-series

Step D-1: Install Homebrew

Step D-2: Install Java

  • brew install --cask temurin
  • softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

Step D-3: Install Ghidra

  • brew install --cask ghidra
  • In a terminal, say ghidraRun

Step D-4: Security issues

  • You may get a message that the decompiler can't be run. This is because this file in the Ghidra installation directory ./Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/os/osx64/decompile is downloaded from the internet, and MacOS doesn't allow such files to be run.
  • Try to run this file anyway: ./Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/os/osx64/decompile
  • You will get an error message, then open "Security & Privacy" in the MacOS setup, and say "Allow anyway"

Installing Ghidra on Windows

Start by installing Virtualbox on your system. Then follow these steps:

Step E-1: Download Ghidra

  • Go to the link https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/releases
  • Under "assets" in the latest version of Ghidra (at the time of writing this, it is 11.2.1), click on the "ghidra_<version>_PUBLIC_<release-date>.zip"
  • Once it has finished downloading, extract all into the directory of your choice , such as \Program Files\ghidra.

Step E-2: Add ghidraRun.bat to PATH

  • Go to control panel and search "environment variables"
  • Click "Edit the system environment variables"
  • In the "System Properties" popup, click "Environment Variables..."
  • Click "Path", then click "Edit..."
  • Click "New", then type out or paste the path to the aforementioned directory
  • Click "OK" until everything has closed out

Step E-3: Run Ghidra in PowerShell

  • Hold windows key and press "r"
  • Type "PowerShell" where it says "Open:" and press "OK" or enter
  • Enter "ghidraRun" in the PowerShell prompt