HowTo Setup A Wireless Notebook With Multiple Network Interface Adapters Using: "nstnetcfg"
Contents
Overview
This page demonstrates how to setup networking with an NST wireless notebook that is configured with multiple network interface adapters for performing simultaneous network computing surveillance tasks. The NST script: "nstnetcfg" command line software utility was designed to make this task easy to accomplish using a combination of both the "NetworkManager" and "network" services.
The diagram below will be used as a reference for setting up a wireless notebook configured with multiple network interface adapters using NST. The notebook is shown with USB 3.0 Gigabit NIC attachments to the network infrastructure for security tasks and the wireless interface used for management connectivity. This configuration is typical for a Network Security Professional to perform mobile network surveillance tasks and penetration analysis tests.
Network Interface Setup Configuration Information
In this section we will identify each network interface and how it should be setup using the "Wireless Notebook" configuration illustrated in the reference diagram above. The NetworkManager service by default will use "DHCP" to derive its network parameters (i.e., IPv4 Adress, Subnet Mask, Host Name, Gateway Address, Name Servers, Time Servers, etc...) The table below depicts values that will be used by the nstnetcfg script.
Interface / Parameter | Configuration Values | Network Service Management |
---|---|---|
wlan0 | Network parameters derived from: DHCP | NetworkManager |
p2p1 | IPv4 Address: stealth | network |
p4p1 | IPv4 Address: stealth | network |
Network Interface Configuration: nstnetcfg
The NST script: "nstnetcfg" will now be used for setting up networking on this server. This script will disable the "NetworkManager" service and enable the "network" service when setting up a static IPv4 Address (--mode ipv4). The "NetworkManager" service will also be disabled at boot time and the "network" service will be enabled at boot time. Use the sequence of nstnetcfg invocations below to serve as an example for setting up networking on your particular server with NST.
The "nstnetcfg" script should only be run on a Serial Console or a Desktop Terminal due to the fact that the "IPv4 Address" for this NST system will most likely change.
Initialize All Network Interfaces
The nstnetcfg mode: --init will put the networking setup posture in a known initialized state. Both the "NetworkManager" service and the "network" service will be disabled with their associated configuration files and/or entries removed. The "LoopBack" interface device is never altered or removed with this mode. The Name Service Switch configuration file: "/etc/nsswitch.conf" will have its hosts entry set to: "files dns". It is wise to first use this mode prior to setting up networking so that any lingering "NetworkManager" configuration files will Not interfere with the "network" service operation.
Static IPv4 Configured Interfaces
The example NST server shown above uses a "Multi-Home" configuration with network interface devices: "em0" and "em1" set with static IPv4 Addresses: 172.30.1.16 and 10.221.5.14 respectively.
Interface: em1
The "em1" interface device is network attached to the "TxyCorp" Intranet. This network provides name services and external access to the Internet. The "Host Name", "Domain Name", "Name Servers" and "Gateway" values are set accordingly. A host name entry for "nstsurv1" will be added to the Hosts file: "/etc/hosts", the system host name will be set to: "nstsurv1". A "16" network routing prefix (CIDR - Format) will be used. The configuration for this interface is shown below.