NetworkManager

In Parrot, the network interfaces configuration is handed by means of a system

daemon called NetworkManager. To check if we have activated NetworkManager:

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #systemctl status NetworkManager
● NetworkManager.service - Network Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; vendor
preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-10-09 15:39:51 CEST; 6 days ago
Docs: man:NetworkManager(8)
Main PID: 1010 (NetworkManager)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service
└─1010 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

For NetworkManager:

- A "device" is a network interface.

- A "connection" is a collection of parameters that can be configured for a
"device".
- Only one connection can be activated for each "device" at a time.
- Each connection has a name or ID that identifies it.
- The connections and configurations are saved in /etc/NetworkManager/system-
connections, in a file with the name of the connection.

We can use the nmcli utility to create and edit connections from the command line.

The command "nmcli dev status" will show us the network interfaces status:

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli dev status
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
eth0 ethernet connected Wired connection 1
lo loopback unmanaged --

The command "nmcli con show" will show us a list of all the connections. To list
only active connections we will add the --active option:

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con show
NAME UUID TYPE
DEVICE
Wired connection 1 c0277ac0-d15c-3835-b31d-24d0518e7359 802-3-ethernet
eth0

The command "ip addr show" shows the current configuration of our network
interfaces. To show just one of the interfaces, we must add the name of our
interface as the last argument of the command:

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP(1),LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP
group default qlen 1000
(2) link/ether 52:54:00:fc:b0:e2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
(3) inet 10.0.200.91/24 brd 10.0.200.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
 (4) inet6 fe80::b601:aab4:1422:f537/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

- (1) UP. An active interface that is raised

- (2) link / ether. This line shows the hardware address (MAC) of the device
- (3) inet. Here we see the IPV4 address
- (4) inet6. Here we see the IPV6 address

Adding a network connection

The command "nmcli con add" is used to add new network connections. In the coming
example it is assumed that the name of the connection to be added is not being
used.

The following command will add a new connection (con_dhcp) for our eth0 interface,
which will obtain the network information using DHCP and will auto-connect at the
start of the system. Next we will check its configuration from the nmcli itself as
if looking at its configuration file:

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con add con-name con_dhcp type ethernet ifname eth0
Connection 'con_dhcp' (717ca962-bcd7-4371-b1bd-9a8eb6531244) successfully added.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con show con_dhcp
connection.id: con_dhcp
connection.uuid: 717ca962-bcd7-4371-b1bd-9a8eb6531244
connection.stable-id: --
connection.interface-name: eth0
connection.type: 802-3-ethernet
connection.autoconnect: yes
connection.autoconnect-priority: 0
connection.autoconnect-retries: -1 (default)
connection.timestamp: 0
connection.read-only: no
connection.permissions: --
connection.zone: --
connection.master: --
connection.slave-type: --
connection.autoconnect-slaves: -1 (default)
connection.secondaries: --
connection.gateway-ping-timeout: 0
connection.metered: unknown
connection.lldp: -1 (default)
802-3-ethernet.port: --
802-3-ethernet.speed: 0
802-3-ethernet.duplex: --
802-3-ethernet.auto-negotiate: no
802-3-ethernet.mac-address: --
802-3-ethernet.cloned-mac-address: --
802-3-ethernet.generate-mac-address-mask:--
802-3-ethernet.mac-address-blacklist: --
802-3-ethernet.mtu: auto
802-3-ethernet.s390-subchannels: --
802-3-ethernet.s390-nettype: --
802-3-ethernet.s390-options: --
802-3-ethernet.wake-on-lan: 1 (default)
802-3-ethernet.wake-on-lan-password: --
ipv4.method: auto
ipv4.dns: --
ipv4.dns-search: --
ipv4.dns-options: (default)
ipv4.dns-priority: 0
ipv4.addresses: --
ipv4.gateway: --
ipv4.routes: --
ipv4.route-metric: -1
ipv4.ignore-auto-routes: no
ipv4.ignore-auto-dns: no
ipv4.dhcp-client-id: --
ipv4.dhcp-timeout: 0
ipv4.dhcp-send-hostname: yes
ipv4.dhcp-hostname: --
ipv4.dhcp-fqdn: --
ipv4.never-default: no
ipv4.may-fail: yes
ipv4.dad-timeout: -1 (default)
ipv6.method: auto
ipv6.dns: --
ipv6.dns-search: --
ipv6.dns-options: (default)
ipv6.dns-priority: 0
ipv6.addresses: --
ipv6.gateway: --
ipv6.routes: --
ipv6.route-metric: -1
ipv6.ignore-auto-routes: no
ipv6.ignore-auto-dns: no
ipv6.never-default: no
ipv6.may-fail: yes
ipv6.ip6-privacy: -1 (unknown)
ipv6.addr-gen-mode: stable-privacy
ipv6.dhcp-send-hostname: yes
ipv6.dhcp-hostname: --
ipv6.token: --
proxy.method: none
proxy.browser-only: no
proxy.pac-url: --
proxy.pac-script: --

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/con_dhcp
[connection]
id=con_dhcp
uuid=717ca962-bcd7-4371-b1bd-9a8eb6531244
type=ethernet
interface-name=eth0
permissions=

[ethernet]
mac-address-blacklist=

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=auto

[ipv6]
 addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
method=auto

Let's see now an example with a configuration for the same interface eth0, but with
an ip address 192.168.0.3/24 and the default gateway 192.168.0.254. We will call
the name of the connection con_static.

+-[root@parrot]-[~]
+--? #nmcli con add con-name con_static type ethernet ifname eth0 ip4
192.168.0.3/24 gw4 192.168.0.254
Connection 'con_static' (12dc18a5-ef1c-4926-8cc7-82cbf0acaa25) successfully
added.

Controlling Network Connections

The command "nmcli con uo <connection_name>" will activate the connection

"connection_name" in the interface to which this configuration is associated.
Remember that the command takes as its argument the name of the connection and not
the name of the interface.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con up con_static

The command "nmcli dev disconnect" will disconnect the network interface. This
command can be abbreviated in the following way "nmcli dev dis".

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli dev dis eth0

Use this command to deactivate a network interface.

Modifying the Network Configuration

To check the current configuration of a connection we run "nmcli con show

<connection_name>".

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con show con_static
connection.id: con_static
connection.uuid: 12dc18a5-ef1c-4926-8cc7-82cbf0acaa25
connection.stable-id: --
connection.interface-name: eth0
connection.type: 802-3-ethernet
connection.autoconnect: yes
connection.autoconnect-priority: 0
connection.autoconnect-retries: -1 (default)
connection.timestamp: 0
connection.read-only: no
connection.permissions: --
connection.zone: --
connection.master: --
connection.slave-type: --
connection.autoconnect-slaves: -1 (default)
connection.secondaries: --
connection.gateway-ping-timeout: 0
connection.metered: unknown
connection.lldp: -1 (default)
802-3-ethernet.port: --
 802-3-ethernet.speed: 0
802-3-ethernet.duplex: --
802-3-ethernet.auto-negotiate: no
802-3-ethernet.mac-address: --
802-3-ethernet.cloned-mac-address: --
802-3-ethernet.generate-mac-address-mask:--
802-3-ethernet.mac-address-blacklist: --
802-3-ethernet.mtu: auto
802-3-ethernet.s390-subchannels: --
802-3-ethernet.s390-nettype: --
802-3-ethernet.s390-options: --
802-3-ethernet.wake-on-lan: 1 (default)
802-3-ethernet.wake-on-lan-password: --
ipv4.method: manual
ipv4.dns: --
ipv4.dns-search: --
ipv4.dns-options: (default)
ipv4.dns-priority: 0
ipv4.addresses: 192.168.0.3/24
ipv4.gateway: 192.168.0.254
ipv4.routes: --
ipv4.route-metric: -1
ipv4.ignore-auto-routes: no
ipv4.ignore-auto-dns: no
ipv4.dhcp-client-id: --
ipv4.dhcp-timeout: 0
ipv4.dhcp-send-hostname: yes
ipv4.dhcp-hostname: --
ipv4.dhcp-fqdn: --
ipv4.never-default: no
ipv4.may-fail: yes
ipv4.dad-timeout: -1 (default)
ipv6.method: auto
ipv6.dns: --
ipv6.dns-search: --
ipv6.dns-options: (default)
ipv6.dns-priority: 0
ipv6.addresses: --
ipv6.gateway: --
ipv6.routes: --
ipv6.route-metric: -1
ipv6.ignore-auto-routes: no
ipv6.ignore-auto-dns: no
ipv6.never-default: no
ipv6.may-fail: yes
ipv6.ip6-privacy: -1 (unknown)
ipv6.addr-gen-mode: stable-privacy
ipv6.dhcp-send-hostname: yes
ipv6.dhcp-hostname: --
ipv6.token: --
proxy.method: none
proxy.browser-only: no
proxy.pac-url: --
proxy.pac-script: --

We can use the command "nmcli con mod <connection_name>" to modify its
configuration. The different configurations that we can use can be seen in the nm-
settings (5) manual page. For example, imagine that we want ti change the "con-
static" connection so that the address 192.168.1.3/24 and the gateway are used in
192.168.1.1, instead of the one we configured previously.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #nmcli con mod con_static ipv4.addresses "192.168.1.3/24" ipv4.gateway
192.168.1.1

It is important that if we change a DHCP type connection to static, we also modify

the ipv4.method parameter from auto to manual.

After the changes we will have to execute "nmcli con reload <connection_name>" so
that these take effect.

Modifying resolv.conf

To change the name resolvers, that is those servers that translate name to IP, we
can modify the /etc/resolv.conf file. We open this file with our favorite editor
and we must check that we have at least one line that starts with nameserver
followed by an IP. This IP will indicate the DNS server that we will use.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #cat /etc/resolv.conf
# ParrotDNS
nameserver 92.222.97.145
nameserver 192.99.85.244

# OpenNIC
nameserver 185.121.177.177

# Round Robin
options rotate

Deleting a Network Connection

The command "nmcli con del <connection_name>" will delete the connection that we
indicate.

Modifying our System Name

The command "hostname" shows or temporarily changes the name of our system.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #hostname
parrot

We can modify the file /etc/hostname to change the name of our system.

We can also use the hostnamectl command, with the option set-hostname.
"hostnamectl" also help us to check the name of our system currently.

┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #hostnamectl set-hostname demo.test.com
┌─[root@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ #hostnamectl status
Static hostname: demo.test.com
Icon name: computer-vm
Chassis: vm
Machine ID: 7c6d78cba9084717ba7d7316bf775376
Boot ID: 8540f57c7203421d86a26995dc2c9293
Virtualization: kvm
 Operating System: Parrot GNU/Linux 3.8 JollyRoger
Kernel: Linux 4.12.0-parrot6-amd64
Architecture: x86-64

Video

Please do not miss the video of our partner Xc0d3, in which he shows us methods to
configure the network. You can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HcGUP90eMU&index=8&list=PLUFdNvWy-
5CHapOW43A2T6i0fcVBHzHy0