Install BlackArch from scratch on fresh Arch with Gnome GUI

(Using release: 2019.05.02 on Virtualbox 6.0)

Download Arch (or use a mirror)

BlackArch is a great pentest tool, comparable to Kali Linux, but with a steeper learning curve. The biggest issue for most new users is the lack of out-of-the-box gnome support.

I put together a combo of guides to get this working to make a comparable look and feel to Kali, but with Arch.

Specs

8GB RAM
128MB VGA
100GB thin provisioned HD
Network: bridged

Load the ISO and boot the machine. Once it comes up, verify network connectivity.

Disk creation

Type fdisk -l and you should see the 100GB drive.

The first partition we will create is the boot partition.

fdisk /dev/sda

p for the primary partition.

n for new 

1 for the first partition (sda1)

2048 (or enter for the default)

+500M for the space

Now we will create a swap partition.

n for create a new partition

p for primary

2 for the 2nd partition (sda2)

enter for the default sector

+8G for the swap file size

t to select the type

2 for the second, swap, partition

82 to make it a swap partition

Creating the 3rd partition

n to create the final partition using the rest of the space

p for primary

3 for the 3rd partition

enter to select the default drive sector start position

enter to select the last sector

w to write the changes

Finalize the filesystem

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1

mkswap /dev/sda2

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Mount the filesystem

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

swapon /dev/sda2

Install the Base and Base-Devel repositories

pacstrap /mnt/ base base-devel

Generate the fstab and mount it to the temporary filesystem

genfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Remount root to the mount

arch-chroot /mnt

Set System Language

echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8"  > /etc/locale.conf

sed -i 's/#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen

Or use text editor of choice and remove the comment from your language of choice.

vi /etc/locale.gen

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

then run

locale-gen

Set the timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central /etc/localtime

hwclock --systohc --utc

Create unique hostname

echo "systemname.host.local" > /etc/hostname

Change Root Password

passwd

Set up GRUB Bootloader

pacman -S grub

grub-install /dev/sda

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Update repositories

pacman -Syu

Enable dhcpcd service

systemctl enable dhcpcd

Create superuser account

useradd -m -G wheel yourname

passwd yourname

Enable sudo for the “wheel” group

sed -i 's/# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL/%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL/g' /etc/sudoers

Or edit the file manually

vi /etc/sudoers

uncomment out the following line

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Eject the ISO and reboot

Once the system comes back up, now would be a good time to shut down the system and create a snapshot.

Adding Gnome and lxdm

Using your superuser account,

update the system

sudo pacman -Syu

Install the pre-requisites

sudo pacman -S xorg

Install Gnome and extras

sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra

Once that's complete, you need to install a display manager.

pacman -S lxdm

Enable the service to start on boot

systemctl enable lxdm.service

Once you restart, lxdm will allow you to choose to log in with Gnome.

Once you've verified everything works, turn the system off, remove the snapshot and create a new one.

Adding BlackArch software

curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh

chmod +x strap.sh

sudo ./strap.sh

Download the master package list and synchronize

sudo pacman -Syyu

To install all of the tools (very large download), run

pacman -S blackarch

To see the blackarch categories, run

pacman -Sg | grep blackarch

You should now have Black Arch Linux apps installed on a fresh install of Arch using Gnome.

Sources:

https://blackarch.org/blackarch-guide-en.pdf

https://itsfoss.com/things-to-do-after-installing-arch-linux/

https://medium.com/@gevorggalstyan/how-to-install-arch-linux-on-virtualbox-93bc83ded692

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide#Chroot

https://blackarch.org/guide.html

Fix malformed SQLite DB in Tautuli (PlexPy) server in Windows

For those running Tautuli to monitor their Plex servers, sometimes DB issues happen. After upgrading from PlexPy to Tautuli I never had a solid footing on strange issues until I found a DB error and fixed it.

I kept seeing the following error in the logs:

Can't connect to the database: database disk image is malformed

To fix this, it's pretty simple. First you will need DB Browser for SQLite. The portable app works just fine if you don't want to install anything.

(if you need a more graphical guide, look at http://wordpress.semnaitik.com/repair-sqlite-database/ where I got most this info from)

Copy the tautuli.db file out of your plexpy/tautuli directory to work on.

In DB Browser for SQLite, click Open Database.

Execute SQL (tab)

Run the following: PRAGMA integrity_check

Then click the Play button.

You will see errors if there are DB issues (if the integrity check passes, it's not DB related).

Export the DB to SQL format and leave all the default options checked.

Once the database export is complete, import the database. This will essentially "clean" it. It will take some time to import

Import the database and select a new file name/location to store it. Replace this database with your main Tautuli database and relaunch the app.

Installing OpenIPC on WyzeCam v2 and adding to BlueIris

Wyze Cam is a fully functional $20 security camera. Out of the box, it works great.

The only problem is that there, currently, isn't a website you can go to to manage the camera or view footage. It's only available via a smartphone app.

While the app works great pushing files to the cloud and local storage, the camera doesn't utilize open standards like RTSP, so it's not compatible with Blue Iris.

That's where OpenIPC steps in. This is very new firmware so expect these steps to change quite a bit. I'll try to keep it updated. There is a subreddit dedicated to OpenIPC as well.

This firmware will not erase or modify the built-in firmware, so no worries about bricking your device. If you remove the sd card and reboot the device, it will go back to the standard config.

While this can be annoying to some, the firmware is only in Alpha with non-open source code. There could be serious security risks, so this should only be used for testing and not production!

To install

Download Win32DiskImager

Try to use a 4GB or smaller MicroSD card for the install, if possible.

Download the latest IMG release file from here. (For instance openipc_v2-0.2.5.img or whichever release is newer). This will only work with the WyzeCamV2 not the V1

Open Win32DiskImager and select the IMG file and the target MicroSD drive.

To set the Wifi password, edit the file <drive letter>:\config\wpa_supplicant.conf and change

ssid="SSID"
to whatever your network name is. Also, change the password field.
psk="PW"

Save the file and remove the card. Unplug the Wyze Camera and insert the MicroSD card.

To write the firmware, press and hold the bottom setup button while plugging the camera back in.

In about 6 seconds, when the light turns blue, release the button. Wait a few minutes to see it on your network.

You can scan your network with a smartphone app like Fing or a Windows app like Angry IP Scanner to locate the camera. It will register ports:

21 ftp
22 ssh
23 telnet
80 http

If you browse to the ip from a browser, the login prompt will ask for a password. The default being:
dafang
ismart12

Blue Iris Setup

Adding the Wyze cam to Blue Iris is pretty straightforward. When you go to the config page it will provide you with the RTSP url. Just import this and that's it.

Just, bear in mind... this should not be used for anything other than testing. You cannot change the password (easily) and even then, the firmware changes are not permanent. 

An ideal solution would be to wait for the firmware to have a release candidate that allows you to add extra storage space that is instead being used for the OS.

Best IP POE camera compatible with Blue Iris

I recently purchased, and ultimately returned, a LaView 4 1080P NVR/POE IP Cam combo from Amazon for $600 (It's listed cheaper now).


They claimed to be ONVIF compliant, but for the life of me I was not able to set up Blue Iris to connect to the cameras. I noticed that the IPs in the NVR chose a subnet at random and I could not connect to the individual cameras directly without passing through the NVR.

When I gave the individual cameras a manual IP it was unreachable. If I bypassed the NVR and went straight to the network with POE, it wouldn't get a DHCP IP.

My old setup was a Night Owl (forget the model number). Since it was the old analog BNC type camera setup, I had no choice but to go through the DVR. Although, I could connect through the streams RTSP directly by addressing the CAMNO (1-4). This was a breeze to add to Blue Iris.

The LaView was a hassle. I thought, with the price, it would beat cheaper NVR alternatives but I found the UI to be clunky, slow and unintuitive.

I have indoor Amcrest wifi cameras and saw they now sell POE outdoor cameras. I've never had an issue with my Amcrest so I decided to get rid of the NVR model and feed from the source.

While I have a POE switch, it does not provide the adequate wattage to power all my cameras so I purchased a standalone 8 port POE injector for $40.

I purchased 2 of each of the Amcrest outdoor POE styles Amcrest IP2M-844E and Amcrest IP2M-842E.

Which match or exceed the specs of the LaView option. They cost $75 each (both models).

The total for the Amcrest setup was $340... almost half the price of the LaView and very easy to set up in Blue Iris.

I also have another 4 ports on my POE injector to add more cameras if I choose.

Long story short, skip the NVR, go directly to your own recording device. If you don't want to pay the proprietary software license for Blue Iris and/or Windows; there are alternatives.

You could set up a Linux box and use Motion by Foswiki to create your own NVR with a lot of flexibility.

Blue Iris costs money, but it does a lot. It's also a GUI app, which I like when dealing with videos due to the instant gratification of knowing if it's working.

Motion works great, but you can get bogged down in options and the Linux+CLI nature is off-putting to most.

One of the downsides to most DVRs, NVRs and standalone IP Cameras has to be the requirement for IE with an addon. I usually just spin up a test VM with Windows and install/config it there... then deleting the VM. I noticed with the LaView this did not work. I could modify the settings, but could not view the live stream. It did not like the virtual VGA adaptor.

The Amcrest worked, but still required IE to set up. At least I was able to verify I had a stream before I added it to Blue Iris. I hope one day IP Cameras just work in Chrome over HTML5 without any plugins or software required.