September 27, 2009

BackTrack 4 Beta! The Hackers Toolbox!

Finally BackTrack 4 has been officially released! And i must say that a lot
has changed since BackTrack 3. In fact, the new version is based on a
whole new distrobution, Debian / Ubuntu!

As usual they have made an ISO and a VMware image, in this case the ISO
file is 850mb which is too large for one cd, so get a DVD! The VMware image
is around 1GB and it runs fine within VMware player and the Workstation.

Since there is no installer, One can use the PDF guide below in the extra
references. A few other notable changes and informations are: The pass
is still root / toor, KDE 3 is used, apt-get packages has to be installed like
apt-get install kate-kde3, kernel sources are inside /usr/src/linux.

  • To enable DHCP issue: /etc/init.d/networking start



  • If you install BT4, issue: update-rc.d networking defaults



  • If you're going to make a Live USB, try: UNetbootin



  • If you're using VMware, fix the resolution by issueing: fixvmware



  • If Xorg isn't working, issue: Xorg --configure, if it doesn't work issue: fixvesa



  • The wireless network manager can be started with: /etc/init.d/NetworkManager



  • Installation of BackTrack 4 is similar to BT3. (Don't forget to modify /etc/fstab after the install)


So what is new?

  • The new Maltego version is included! (with Airgraph transforms!)

  • Fast-Track 4 is included! (the new and improved version pwns.)

  • PXE Boot is working and it rocks!

  • SAINT Exploit is still in BackTrack, it's probably updated!

  • Unicornscan now supports Postgresql and a Web frontend!

  • And a lot of updates in the tools, including new ones!




    The Conclusion:
    BackTrack 4 Beta is a decent LiveCD, however after the change from Slax
    to Ubuntu it looks like there are a few things that still needs to get sorted
    out before it gets to the final stage.
    The new X manager called FVWM is very low graphics thus also quite cool,
    it's exactly what i would expect of a low graphics X manager. Though after
    trying out both the crystal and kde version i must say that it looks like some-
    thing is missing, or maybe it's just me.

    It was clear for me to see a lot had been removed, at least from the start
    menu to minimize the size of the package, though i am curious of what is
    taking up 1GB space when most of the previous tools are still there :-)

    Anyways, in the end i hope that BackTrack will keep improving and i will of
    course look forward to the final release, as i did with BackTrack 3 Beta which
    i wasn't that glad about either before it reached it's final state.

    The change from Slackware- to Debian-based is a huge step and i guess
    that it will most likely just become even better as there will be security
    updates thus backtrack has its own repository now for the tools!

    I recommend using the Beta for testing, though for a professionel approach
    i would probably stick with BackTrack 3 until they have reached the final
    state with version no 4.

    ~ MaXe

    MD5 and Sha512 Sums:
    http://www.offensive-security.com/woot/bt4-beta.txt
    http://www.offensive-security.com/wo...a-vm-6.5.1.txt

    External Links:
    http://www.remote-exploit.org/cgi-bi...n=bt4-beta-iso
    http://www.remote-exploit.org/cgi-bi...on=bt4-beta-vm

    Extra References:
    http://www.offensive-security.com/do...bt4install.pdf
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rar6qXehJD...00/origin2.jpg
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