Vulnerable By Design

[Stavros]

Found this on Reddit in /r/netsec. Someone wanted to know how to get started in network security (hacking) and someone suggested experimenting with these operating systems/pieces of software. Excerpt:

Vulnerable by Design
Pentest lab. "Hacker" training. Deliberately insecure applications challenge thingys.
Call it what you will, but what happens when you want to try out your new set of skills? Do you want to be compare results from a tool when it's used in different environments? What if you want to explore a system (that is legal to do so!) that you have no knowledge about (because you didn't set it up!)...
If any of that sounds helpful, below is a small collection of different environments, so if you want to go from "boot to root", "capture the flag" or just to dig around as much as you want to try out the odd thing here and there. These will allow you to do so and without getting in trouble for doing it!

The idea isn't to cheat, the aim is to learn a thing or two

I'm sure there are a lot more out there, if you want to recommend any others - please so do! =)

'Complete' Operating System. The idea of going from boot to root via any which way you can. Most of them have multiple entry points (some are easier than others) so you can keep using it They are all Linux OS (either in ISO or VM form) with vulnerable/configured software installed. (If you haven't got any VM software, VMware Player is free and will do the trick)

(Offline) Web based. Most of them you'll need to download, copy and load the files yourself on your own web server (if you haven't already got one, xampp is great). A few of them are VM images that can be loaded in to Virtual machines as they come with all the software & settings needed.

(Online) Web based. Same as above, however if you don't want the hassle of setting it all up or to be able to do it where ever you have a Internet connection...

Link
Vulnerable By Design @ g0tmi1k blog