Hack The Box

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

WSL is a feature that allows Linux binaries to be run natively on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. It was originally intended for developers who needed to run Bash, Ruby, and native Linux command-line tools such as sed, awk, grep, etc., directly on their Windows workstation. The second version of WSL, released in May 2019, introduced a real Linux kernel utilizing a subset of Hyper-V features.

WSL can be installed by running the PowerShell command Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux as an Administrator. Once this feature is enabled, we can either download a Linux distro from the Microsoft Store and install it or manually download the Linux distro of our choice and unpack and install it from the command line.

WSL installs an application called Bash.exe, which can be run by merely typing bash into a Windows console to spawn a Bash shell. We have the full look and feel of a Linux host from this shell, including the standard Linux directory structure.

PS C:\htb> ls /

bin dev home lib lLib64 media opt root sbin srv tmp var
boot etc init 1lib32 Libx32 mnt proc run Snap sys usr

We can access the C$ volume and other volumes on the host operating system via the mnt directory, making the transition from the WSL host and the Windows host OS seamless. Once in this bash shell, we can interact with WSL as we would interact with any Linux-based operating system: running commands, installing updates/packages, etc.

PS C:\htb> uname -a

Linux WS01 4.4.0-18362-Microsoft #476-Microsoft Frit Nov 01 16:53:00
PST 2019 x86_64 x86 _64 x86_64 GNU/Linux