Linux enterprise network, need help

Hardware Hub Networking
1

hey guys

I can't really figure how to fix my networking issue. I have a laptop with dual boot cofigured (windows 7/ kali linux 64bit) and this is the problem. My school has an enterprise network that needs a certificate to be used so I asked a copy to the network's admin. He sent me a p7b certificate that worked just fine, I only had to import it and that was it,but when I try to connect kali linux to the network it doesn't even recognize the p7b format,it only asks me for PEM certificates, so I tried to convert that on https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-converter.html , but it didn't work, so I tried to use the terminal and open ssl, didn't work neither. I could finally convert that on windows but when I try to connect to the network it keeps asking my username and password over and over.

please help me this thing is stressing me out

2

I'm guessing your network is pretty much designed around a Windows Server like mine. I've never been able to get the Linux boxes to play nice with that, but you might see if the network admin can either help with this (I'm sure he knows how) or if he can point you to a cert file thats the right type.

To be honest though I'd be VERY careful running Kali Linux on your school network, your school may not care but mine would absolutely light me up if they found out I was using a penetration testing distro on their network. But then again my schools network is a slave to Windows, HP, and Cisco...they're not really open to change lol...I had to pull some serious strings to get them to let me install Linux on an old laptop of theirs, and they still kind of don't like it.

You might try Kali Linux in a VM in VirtualBox. That's not a great fix but at least its Kali with network access via the Windows connection.

3

Kali linux + school network = disaster waiting to happen in one form or another. So I'm not going to go into this in a general way, because I care about order and serenity.

If you want integration of a linux workstation into a Windows Server based network, the easiest way is to go for OpenSuSE, they've got the entire nine yards of packages required for that installed and configured by default. Normally, linux distros do not do that, because nobody in his right mind uses linux on workstations without first using linux on the server, but hey, OpenSuSE has you covered just in case...

Anyway, a Windows-based network is NOT an enterprise grade network, and schools that use Windows or other stupidity-inducing commercial software console malware, should be crucified, but then that's another story, and up to other people to do and solve...

To be honest, if you're going to use linux on a Windows-based school network, you're probably asking for trouble in this day and age. Something like that would have been considered cool in the 90's, but after the big Bush zombification, it's just dangerous in my opinion to do something like that in the US. If you're not in the US (or another 5 eyes or gitmo state), you have an entire legal framework at your disposal to force your school to stop using Windows (in fact, in several countries it would be illegal for a school to use Windows), and I would suggest you would use legal recourse first before experimenting on the network with linux clients.

In Continental Europe, in several countries there have been multiple instances of schools that were convicted for running intrinsic insecure closed source networks, and exam results have been annulled just by the fact that linux experts have proven that it's very easy for everyone and their dog to commit exam fraud by exploiting the insecure malware-based network, and students have been forced to redo all of their exams because of that (after which they of course changed to other schools, and the Windows using school got filled up by the government for children of asylum seekers pending examination of their case pretty much, which caused almost the entire teacher staff to resign and the school to be turned into a complete ruin in no time, etc...).

It's great that you want to use linux, but first things first...

4

I don't wanna get in trouble, O just like to use kali Linux as a OS, I won't do any penetration test operation or things like that, anyway the only reason to do connect to this network is to use OpenSuSE, am I right? Does anyone know an easier way to connect a debian based OS to this kind of network??

5

You can just install the required packages, it's not that difficult.

Kali is not suitable as a "normal" OS, for a number of reasons, the most important one being that it logs you in as root by default, and is configured to be used as root. For pentesting, this makes sense because the tools you use often require root. Kali is basically just Debian with a bunch of tools preinstalled, any Debian install can do exactly the same.

Depending on how the Windows network is configured, you'll need different packages, but everything is available. However, Debian has no automated GUI tool for configuring the system as Windows network client, OpenSuSE does, that's why I suggested OpenSuSE.

By the way, any distro can be made to look like any other distro, it's just a matter of packages and pixels.

6

Couldn't he just partition stuff around and dual boot Kali and OpenSUSE? Seems like that would be the simplest option and eliminates the whole "Kali could get you into trouble" thing.

BTW I agree that schools that rely solely on Windows should be crucified. I understand how some of the stuff is nice but I wouldn't do my file storage on the same server I run Exchange, SharePoint, and a DC on. I don't know why they don't use something like FreeNAS. My school is also slaves to Lenovo, they're locked into this stupid contract that provides "support and warranty" and the result is that a core i3 box with 4GB of RAM, a 120GB SATA drive, Windows 7, and integrated graphics costs $750.