RANGE42

range42 is a modular cyber range platform based on Proxmox + Ansible for deploying reproducible offensive, defensive and hybrid training environments. One operator workstation can manage multiple Proxmox infrastructures, each running multiple lab scenarios. Everything is infrastructure-as-code.

Start with GETTING_STARTED.md for a hands-on walkthrough, or browse the GLOSSARY for terminology (codename, scenario, workspace, jump host, etc.).

Table of contents

• Start here
  • Quick start
  • Supported platforms
  • Daily operations
• About the project
  • Who it’s for
  • Architecture overview
  • The stack
  • Project mid / long term goals
  • Extend the scenarios
  • Glossary
  • Authors

Start here

Quick start

The recommended way to deploy range42 is the setup wizard:

sudo apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install python3-venv
mkdir -p $HOME/range42 && cd $HOME/range42
git clone https://github.com/range42/range42.git
cd range42
./range42-init.py

The wizard walks you through preflight checks, Proxmox connection, network configuration and the full deployment.

For the complete walkthrough (prerequisites, every wizard step explained, SSH access, daily operations, troubleshooting), see GETTING_STARTED.md.

If you’d rather drive the playbooks yourself, see Manual setup (advanced).

Supported platforms

range42 is developed and tested on Ubuntu LTS (Desktop / Server) and is also expected to work on Debian 13. Full details and prerequisites: GETTING_STARTED.md - Prerequisites.

Daily operations

Once deployed, you manage your lab with the range42-context shell tool (switch workspaces, deploy / undeploy, SSH into VMs, view credentials, etc.). The full reference is in GETTING_STARTED.md - What you can do after deploy.

About the project

Who it’s for

• Sysadmins - practice securing vulnerable stacks and test hardening procedures
• SOC analysts / blue teams - validate detection rules, tune alerts, test incident response
• Red teamers / researchers - build exploit chains, study CVEs in controlled environments
• Forensics teams - reconstruct incidents, analyse compromised systems

Architecture overview

A range42 deployment looks like this:

   [ deployer-cli ]  ─── SSH / API ──▶  [ Proxmox + lab VMs ]
      │
      ├─ runs the wizard
      ├─ holds inventory + credentials
      └─ drives Ansible playbooks

The deployer-cli is your local machine by default, or a dedicated pivot VM if you manage multiple Proxmox infrastructures from one place.

Today, the lab VMs on Proxmox are generally organised into 3 host groups (this is the convention used by current scenarios and may evolve as new ones are added):

Only the vulnerable hosts group is required - admin and student groups are optional and can be disabled to save resources.

The stack

In its recommended configuration, range42 relies on:

• Proxmox - hypervisor for virtual machines (mandatory)
• Ansible - provisioning and orchestration (mandatory)
• Docker / LXC - containerized services and vulnerable stacks (recommended)
• Wazuh - security monitoring and detection (optional)
• Firewalls / VPN - network segmentation and access control (recommended)
• Vue.js / FastAPI / Kong - web UI and API layer (optional)

Project mid / long term goals

The goal is to cover the full spectrum of cyber training. Here’s where the project stands today and where it’s heading.

Status legend: shipping = production-tested · early = working, content to grow · partial = code in place, currently disabled · planned = on the roadmap

Extend the scenarios

All deployable scenarios live in range42-playbooks/scenarios - the list will grow over time.

The reusable building blocks (CVEs, misconfigured services, product setups, Ansible roles) live in the range42-catalog repository.

Want a specific product, CVE or misconfiguration added? Open an issue on the range42-catalog repo - we centralise catalog requests there.

Found a bug or have a feature request for range42 itself? Open an issue on the range42 repo (anything not related to the catalog goes here).

We’ll prioritise as fast as we can.

Glossary

See GLOSSARY.md for all terminology: codename, scenario, workspace, deployer-cli, jump host, vault, context, range42-context, host groups, inventory.

Authors

range42 is built and maintained by:

See AUTHORS file for the full list of contributors.