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Create bootable (USB) Drive fast

This document provides a comprehensive guide on creating a bootable USB drive quickly using various methods, including the 'dd' command, 'wget', and 'curl'. It emphasizes the importance of ensuring the downloaded ISO matches a hash value for integrity and offers a list of tools for creating Live USB systems, while advising against using pre-made tools. The content is intended for educational purposes, particularly in ethical hacking and penetration testing.

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Stanislas Owusu
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
2 views

Create bootable (USB) Drive fast

This document provides a comprehensive guide on creating a bootable USB drive quickly using various methods, including the 'dd' command, 'wget', and 'curl'. It emphasizes the importance of ensuring the downloaded ISO matches a hash value for integrity and offers a list of tools for creating Live USB systems, while advising against using pre-made tools. The content is intended for educational purposes, particularly in ethical hacking and penetration testing.

Uploaded by

Stanislas Owusu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Create bootable (USB) Drive fast

Bulls Eye
2020-08-06 1384 words 7 minutes

CONTENTS

●​ List of tools to create Live USB systems:


●​ lsblk - list block devices
●​ Making a Bootable USB Drive with dd
●​ Make the USB empty (Linux)
●​ sudo fdisk -l - to check hard disk partitions and disk space on Linux
●​ How to make sure a downloaded .iso matches a hash value
●​ Generating and Verifying SHA256 Checksum with sha256sum
●​ Making a Bootable USB Drive and Download this Direct to you Device
●​ Making a Bootable USB Drive with Wget
●​ Making a Bootable USB Drive with Curl
●​ Video Create bootable (USB) Drive fast
●​ WANT TO SUPPORT THE WEBSITE
●​ IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER
Download ISO with WGET or Curl and put this directly to your (USB) to make a
bootable Drive - Simple and Fast.
As you might know, personally I like to keep things as simple as possible, and
fast as well. You can use these techniques with all types of files. But for this
article, I like to show you how to make a bootable USB. That means you can
boot your system from the USB or your Device.

List of tools to create Live USB systems:


●​ Rufus
●​ UNetbootin
●​ Windows To Go
●​ DasBoot
●​ balenaEtcher

I don’t recommend using these tools.

I don’t recommend using these tools.​


Why would you anyway, the ways I am going to show you, are much faster and
way easier.
You don’t know exactly what’s behind this pre-made ISO tools. It can be very
malicious. The same goes for pre-made VM (Virtual Machine). Try to stay
away from that if possible. Download the latest ISO very easily yourself, as I
show in this article.
Now I would like to continue with the ISO file, because there are a number of
options you can use
The following options are already much better, but you must first download
them on your computer and then put them on the USB. So that is still very
cumbersome. But great to know. It can always be that you will need it in the
future. For example, if you already have an ISO on your computer. Or for a
Virtual Machine.
As you can see in the image below, the USB I installed is the sdb 14G. This is
the most important thing to know. If you make a mistake, things can go wrong
quickly. So always be careful and sure what you do.

lsblk - list block devices


1 sudo lsblk

Since it has become clear in the top picture that I need sdb, let me show you
an example below.

Making a Bootable USB Drive with dd


A commonly used and good solution to create a bootable USB is to use the dd
command.​
The (small) disadvantage is that you must have already downloaded the ISO
first. And that takes time, especially if you have to download a large ISO file.
dd command:
1 sudo dd if=my.iso
of=/dev/sdX-usbstick

or
1 sudo dd bs=512M if=file.iso
of=/dev/sdX-usbstick

Make the USB empty (Linux)


To make a bootable USB you need an (empty) USB stick. There are many
ways to do this. I’ll show you my own option that I use often which is very easy
and fast. (Another time I’ll show you more ways to clear the USB).
Again watch carefully what you do, it can go completely wrong in a click. :-D
1 sudo wipefs --all
/dev/sdX-usbstick --force
sudo fdisk -l - to check hard disk partitions and disk space
on Linux
Fdisk is the most commonly used command to check the partitions on a disk.
The fdisk command can display the partitions and details like file system type.

How to make sure a downloaded .iso matches a hash value


Every Linux distribution comes with tools for various checksum algorithms.
You can generate and verify checksums with them. The command-line
checksum tools are the following:
●​ MD5 checksum tool is called md5sum
●​ SHA-1 checksum tool is called sha1sum
●​ SHA-256 checksum tool is called sha256sum
There are some more available, e.g. sha224sum, sha384sum, etc. All of them
use similar command formats. Below I show you an example of using
sha256sum.

Generating and Verifying SHA256 Checksum with


sha256sum
To generate the SHA-256 checksum, you must enter the following command:
1 sha256sum
The-iso-you-going-to-use-amd64.is
o

In the example below, I’m going to download a Kali Linux ISO, And then we
check if the SHA256Sum is a match.

ae9a3b6a1e016cd464ca31ef5055506cecfc55a10f61bf1acb8313eddbe12ad7
kali-linux-2020.2-installer-amd64.iso​
A match is found.
If the generated checksum matches the one provided on the Klai Linux
download page, this means that no data was changed while you downloaded
the ISO file. – So, your downloaded file is not corrupted.
The other tools I mentioned above work similarly.

Making a Bootable USB Drive and Download this Direct to


you Device
Okay now we’re going to skip a step. Normally you download an ISO on your
computer first, and then you put it on a USB stick or on your device. But why
make it difficult when it is also very easy and you often save a lot of time. You
can do it with a single line in your terminal.
You can achieve that with various options. I’ll show you the way to download
the ISO file below with the wget and the curl command.

Making a Bootable USB Drive with Wget


Wget is installed on almost all Linux Operating Systems. If it turns out that
this is not yet the case, you can do this very simply with:
For Debian - Ubuntu-based systems, Like Kali Linux and Parrot OS
1 sudo apt install wget

For Arch Linux (based)


1 sudo pacman -S wget

Once Wget is installed, you need a very simple command to download the ISO
directly to the USB.
1 sudo wget
"https://your.iso/2020/what-the-h
ack.iso" -O /dev/sdX-usbstick

Below I show you an example of how to quickly download Kali Linux ISO to
your Device. (note, by the time of reading this, the version of Kali Linux can be
much further and different) With your right mouse button click and select copy
link address, as shown in the example below.

1 sudo wget
"https://cdimage.kali.org/kali-20
20.2/kali-linux-2020.2-live-amd64
.iso" -O /dev/sdX-usbstick
Making a Bootable USB Drive with Curl
Curl is installed on almost all Linux Operating Systems. If it turns out that
this is not yet the case, you can do this very simply with:
For Debian - Ubuntu-based systems, Like Kali Linux and Parrot OS
1 sudo apt install curl

For Arch Linux (based)


1 sudo pacman -S curl

Once Curl is installed, you need a very simple command to download the ISO
directly to the USB.
The same applies here as you saw with the example of the wget. Copy the ISO
link of the relevant Operating System (OS) and use the command and example
below.​
Don’t forget to put the sudo command before the /dev/sdX-usbstick or it
won’t work.
1 sudo curl -L
https://your.iso/2020/what-the-ha
ck.iso | sudo dd of=/dev/usbstick
Below I show you in an example how to make a bootable USB with CURL.
(note, by the time of reading this, the version of Kali Linux can be much further
and different) With your right mouse button click and select copy link address,
as shown in the example below.
1 sudo curl -L
https://cdimage.kali.org/kali-202
0.2/kali-linux-2020.2-live-amd64.
iso | sudo dd of=/dev/usbstick

As you can see I am currently using a different OS myself. (After using Parrot
Security OS for three years. This is an Arch-based Linux.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER


✓ This Video and Article is made for educational purposes and pentest only.
* You will not misuse the information to gain unauthorized access.
✓ This information shall only be used to expand knowledge and not for
causing malicious or damaging attacks…!

Read also the Disclaimer


All the techniques provided in the tutorials on HackingPassion.com, are meant
for educational purposes only.
If you are using any of those techniques for illegal purposes,
HackingPassion.com can’t be held responsible for possible lawful
consequences.
My goal is to educate people and increase awareness by exposing methods
used by real black-hat hackers and show how to secure systems from these
hackers.

By Bulls Eye
Jolanda de koff • email • donate

My name is Jolanda de Koff and on the internet, I'm also known as Bulls Eye.
Ethical Hacker, Penetration tester, Researcher, Programmer, Self Learner, and
forever n00b. Not necessarily in that order. Like to make my own hacking tools
and I sometimes share them with you. "You can create art & beauty with a
computer and Hacking is not a hobby but a way of life ...

I ♥ open-source and Linux

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