{"id":304,"date":"2026-03-27T05:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/murphyportfolio\/?page_id=304"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:24:54","slug":"cyse-270","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/murphyportfolio\/it-cyse-200t\/cyse-270\/","title":{"rendered":"CYSE 270 – Linux Systems for Cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During my time in CYSE 270, I grew more familiar with using Linux. Beneath are my experiences working on the assigned labs during the Spring Semester of 2026. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 1 – Install Linux VM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This lab was simply centered around installing Virtual Box and Linux.<\/strong> I learned the most basic commands within Linux such as how to check the date, working directory, and listing the contents of said directory.

As the lab was simply to install it, I did not face any difficulty in completing the assignment. It would be used for the remainder of the labs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 2 – Working with Command Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This lab properly introduced many different ways to interact with the directory inside of Linux. Listing files that began with certain letters, how to return to home directory, display only the last five lines of a directory, and how to create new directories.

I did not have difficulty with this lab. As it is still towards the beginning of the semester, the difficulty of said assignments was not too much to handle.<\/strong> It was easy to quickly become accustomed to it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 3 – Working with vi editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The vi editor was the first lab that introduced commands more unique instead of simple displays or searching. I learned how to use and navigate throughout the command mode of the editor and how to save and quit out of it.

This was the first lab I had difficulty with. Some of the commands wouldn’t work right the first time I used them, and it was much deeper than the previous two labs. However, I still came out of it knowing how to utilize the vi editor well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 4 – Group and User Accounts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lab 4 introduced creating new accounts and groups. Setting passwords for users and changing their default shell was included. Renaming them if needed was also gone over.

This lab was not difficult and did not pose any real challenges. Information learned was still essential to have due to accounts and groups being very important within the Linux environment. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 5 – Password Cracking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The lab centered around password cracking was one of the most enjoyable ones. Tasked to create six users with passwords that all increasingly scaled in complexity, the end result was to use the john the ripper tool to try and crack all of the established passwords.

While I found it very fun to do, I did encounter problems trying to make john the ripper successfully run. I had to research how to properly use an extension such as that, and it made the completion of lab 5 take the longest out of any prior lab I had worked on.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 6 – File Permissions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

File permissions built off of lab 4 in that it necessitated the creation of both users and groups. Directories had to be made as well, and permissions to be adjusted for nearly everything within the Linux environment. Afterwards, root had to be accessed to allow the users correct permissions to access files in shared directories.

I found the lab engaging without difficulty. All of the information presented in the instructions and coding was good to learn and remained relevant in some ways throughout all of the future labs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 7 – Storage Management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first lab that really involved going into Linux settings and modifying them to see how the change would look in the terminal. Required to create a new virtual disk with custom storage, file system checks were done before and after that process to identify how changing the disks would change the environment.

I appreciated that the lab felt like it really explored all of the VirtualBox instead of solely Linux. I mainly wish a few of the other labs took advantage of doing so as much.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 8 – Shell Script<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shell scripting involved the vi editor from before and was one of the more challenging labs similarly to the password cracking one. Key skills learned was inputting correct script into either the vi or nano editor that would detect if the given input was a directory or regular file.

The major difficulty was making sure the code was working properly, as scripting in the terminal using editors was quite different than scripting in a Python environment. It took more time than I anticipated I would spend on the lab, but it was worth it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 9 – Task Automation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lab 9 was similarly heavily involved with shell scripting. Tasked to backup a home directory to a tar file, a tape archive had to be created and moved around alongside disk usage optimization. In addition, a crontab file was ran to detect and make any scheduled tasks run for any specified duration.

Shell scripting was typically a hard point whenever it appeared in a lab, but I was getting better at it with each assignment. It was nowhere near as confusing as it initially was, and I walked away from lab 9 with more needed experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 10 – Networking Basics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lab 10 wasn’t as complex as the previous labs and was mainly centered around understanding the concept of subnetting and convert IP addresses within different categories such as netmasks, network addresses, and broadcast addresses. They would be converted into appropriate binary code.

I found most of my learning to be in the educational slides. The lab did serve as good practice as it was the intended purpose. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lab 11 – Basic Networking Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final lab was one of the very few ones to interact outside the normal terminal alongside the storage management lab. A variety of commands were utilized such as netstat, ping, and cat. It was meant to provide an initial comparison once the network setting was to be changed within the virtual machine. Going from NAT to bridged adapter did change the IP and MAC addresses alongside gateways and destinations.

The lab was good practice in examining how the contents of network configurations would change upon viewing it from differing network settings.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my time in CYSE 270, I grew more familiar with using Linux. Beneath are my experiences working on the assigned labs during the Spring Semester of 2026. Lab 1 – Install Linux VM This lab was simply centered around installing Virtual Box and Linux. I learned the most basic commands within Linux such as… <\/p>\n

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