Destruction, dismay, hardware, software, four huge factors in what makes being a hacker expensive as all can be. Sometimes there are software's available that allow any hacker to side step a few of the expensive factors, including the time consuming ones. Reloading an OS on a system that just had its HDD wiped by a test code that went awry, or was intentional. Here is why we are going to talk about one of the most epic of tools available to ANY hacker out in the world, any IT professional, and possibly even home users in very special circumstances.
VirtualBox is one of the greatest tools in the arsenal of a hacker, it gives a suitable testing arena without having to buy anything extra. Before everything is explained about what VirtualBox is, lets discuss Virtualization technology. In a standard PC configuration, laptop, tablet, or what have you, an operating system is installed directly to hardware. Universally this was true for most of our lives, a computer gets set up, built, pre configured, once the HDD was installed an operating system of the end users choice was installed directly to that hard drive. Every driver needed to make that system run was installed along side with it. A driver for the CPU, a driver for the GPU, and everything extra that was needed to make the system function. This was a reality that no-one questioned, it was fact, OS goes to hardware. If a piece of hardware died, say a motherboard or CPU, the same one had to be purchased to enable this system to be restored. If the computer were over five years old this was almost an impossible task, if not impossible way to expensive to be sensible.
With virtualization technology the OS is no longer tied to the physical server, instead it is installed onto what is known as a hypervisor, which is a thin layer of software between the hardware and the OS. Or between the OS and another OS. Lifting it up this single layer allows the OS to become a file in and of itself, no longer tied to physical hardware with hardware specific drivers. There are multiple HUGE benefits to this model, first by no longer being tied to hardware and being a file, that file can be moved to other hypervisors, turned on, enabled, and the OS transfers to a new computer. Seamlessly and without any loss of any integrity.
Now with virtualization as previously said there are two options, a hypervisor that is a layer between hardware and OS, which is known as a type one hypervisor, or there is the option of between the OS and OS, which is a type two hypervisor. VirtualBox is a type two hypervisor, as this is the goal of today, the type one hypervisor won't be discussed any further. Instead we'll focus on the type two. Type two hypervisors are software based, separating the OS and the OS by a thin layer of software, which is really how any software works. A type two hypervisor, although not as prevalent as a type one, is the most accessible, it works or nearly all modern computers.By lifting up where the OS is installed by a single layer, we're now blessed with the ability to run an operating system within our operating system. The drivers required to make this operating system run aren't hardware based, but software based. Everything inside the VirtualBox has a VirtualBox driver to make it run. Operating system inside of an operating system sounds cool enough, but there is more beauty and joy to it, the ability to copy and have a base or default, and the ability to move from system to system. Assume you've made modifications to the OS you were working on that you didn't like, you can just enable a previous version and you're golden.
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As a hacker one of the greatest things we can do is try to hack, crack, destroy a virtual operating system. We can exploit any OS with no collateral damage, we can hack apart a copy of windows xp, delete the system32 folder, laugh for a few minutes, and reapply another VDI without spending the next hour or two reinstalling the OS from scratch with all the applicable software required to make it run. Virtualization with VirtualBox is an optimal tool for any and all hackers out there, giving the versatility of installing a Windows OS, a Linux OS, and a BSD OS all side by side, running inside your computer, giving the ability to test any hack you have that'll help you learn a new skill.
Best part of all is VirtualBox is compatible with almost all operating systems, Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 7 32-Bit, Linux, Windows 8 64-bit, Windows 8 32-bit, Windows Vista (if you're still using that), Mac, BSD, almost all can run a virtual machine. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, don't expect to run VirtualBox on something like Windows 95.
One final note, VirtualBox operates on a virtual network that is NOT part of your physical network, which affords the ability of publishing viruses onto virtual systems without the possibility of the host system becoming infected. Although they are tangible and capable of being manipulated, they can't cross infect anything else. Limits the hardware cost, limits the software cost, limits the electricity cost, and limits the time needed to configure. Need I say more? Or is this just one of the coolest dam softwares out there? Below will be all the download links. And as always be safe my goblins.
VirtualBox 4.3.26 for Windows Hosts X86/AMD64
VirtualBox 4.3.26 for OS X Hosts X86/AMD64
VirtualBox 4.3.26 For Linux Hosts
VirtualBox 4.3.26 for Solaris Hosts AMD64
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