VMWare Tails Live CD Boot Question

A while back I read the thread which stated ideally, a public wifi connection and a Live Tails CD booted under a VMWare machine should work pretty well for remaining anonymous.

I was able to change the boot delay in the VMWare machine .vmx file to allow an additional 15 seconds access to the VMWare BIOS to change the boot order of the VM, and tried booting via the Tails Live CD...but the CD does not load and the VM starts from the Tails iso virtual machine I had already created (the VM starts from the regular iso image on the "C" drive).

It got me thinking...why not create a VM machine that boots directly from the Tails Live CD? So that's what I did and instead of the VM booting from the iso image like most VM machines, I selected the option for the VM to boot from the CD rom drive. And voila, the newly crated VM boots into the Live Tails CD.

So my question....

Is this configuration any different than booting from a Live CD under a traditional VM based iso image/machine?

To clarify how both instances load:

Traditional VM ware machine:
Power on VM
Enter BIOS to change boot order to CD Rom/F10 Save Changes
VM boots from Live CD (at least in my case, theoritcally, lol)

VM booted from Live CD
Power On VM
VM boots from the Live CD Rom (yes, all the clankity clank sounds and slowness, but definitely operating off the Live CD)

Equipment is:
Vmware workstation 7.1
Tails Live CD v9/Tails iso image v9
.
.
.

 

I don't see any functional difference, but then again I don't use VMware anymore.

See also ISO Image Files & VMware.

 

Hi Izzle,

To get a good answer to your question from TAILS, you should ask it at the TAILS forum aka https://tails.boum.org/forum/

Also, the TAILS documentation may have a good answer to your question.

And, Tails runs in VirtualBox without any major configuration necessary.

-- Tom

 

Thanks guys.

It's not so much a Tails answer that I'm looking for.

The topic was discussed in the MAC address thread and it was this line which led me to believe while under a LiveCD underVMWare, your resident network card MAC could be used without the need for the external card.

Originally Posted by JimmySausage
Won't using a LiveCD boot in VMWare sent out over the internet/air your actual Mac address?

No you can use an external WiFi card in this case. This is why I said a live disk is better. You can use the internal one then and no evidence is left behind as it was all in RAM.

Thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=309023&highlight=mac

So I thought maybe there is a difference in the way the MAC addy appears under a LiveCD; as opposed to regular VM machine. So what is the difference, if any? If anybody knows?

LOL, just playing around with things, I'm not sure I would ever use such a configuration in the real world.

 

Using a Live CD either with or without a VM environment will send out your computer's mac address unless it is modified via a mac address changer in the Host environment.

For example, if the mac address is changed in the Host prior to booting the VM environment, then the VM environment should inheret the Host's mac address, i.e. a mac address is directly related to an actual piece of hardware known as a NIC aka a Network Interface card. AFAIK, a VM environment does not create a virtual NIC and therefore there is no need to create a virtual mac address. I could be mistaken, but that is what makes sense to me. Please correct me if that is mistaken.

BTW, if the computer is connected to a hardware router which then connects to the Internet, it too has a NIC with a separate mac address. There are ways to modify the router's mac address (not the permanent one), but to spoof what is sent out in packets on the Internet - you have to login to the router as admin and spoof it by resetting it.

-- Tom

 

OK, thanks Tom for taking time to explain it.

 

Yes, thank you. Good explanation.