C O N F I G U R I N G   Y O U R  

T A R G E T M A C H I N E S

The best way to learn to use the Metasploit Framework 
is by practicing—repeating a task until you fully under-
stand how it is accomplished. This appendix explains 
how to set up a test environment to use with the exam-
ples in this book.

Installing and Setting Up the System

The examples in this book use a combination of Back|Track, Ubuntu 9.04, 
Metasploitable, and Windows XP. Back|Track serves as our vehicle for exploi-
tation, and the Ubuntu and Windows systems are our target systems.

First create an unpatched Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation to test the 

examples presented throughout this book. The Back|Track and Ubuntu 9.04 
virtual machines can be run on a host machine running Windows, Mac OS X, 
or Linux on any VMware product, including Workstation, Server, Player, 
Fusion, or ESX.