·8 min read

Building a Home Lab for Security Research

A comprehensive guide to setting up your own cybersecurity home lab using Proxmox, virtual machines, and open-source security tools.

Building a Home Lab for Security Research

Every security professional needs a safe environment to practice and experiment.

Hardware Requirements

  • 32GB RAM minimum
  • 1TB SSD
  • Dual NIC

Software Stack

  1. Proxmox - Hypervisor
  2. pfSense - Firewall
  3. Wazuh - SIEM
  4. Suricata - IDS

Network Segmentation

Internet → pfSense → VLAN10 (Prod) → VLAN20 (Lab) → VLAN30 (Malware)

Getting Started

First, install Proxmox on bare metal...