Kathará is a container-based network emulator developed by researchers at Roma Tre University in Italy as a modern successor to the Netkit network emulator. Coincidentally, Roma Tre University is also the same organization that developed BGPlay, a tool used to investigate BGP incidents.
Kathará uses Docker containers to emulate network devices. This approach enables users to create complex network topologies comprised of dozens of routers on a modest laptop. Kathará uses simple text-based configuration files that are easy to version-control and share. It’s open source, actively maintained, and runs on Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
In this tutorial, I will use the Kathará network emulator to recreate one of the most famous BGP hijacking incidents in Internet history, the 2008 YouTube hijack. By building a small network topology and simulating a similar attack, we will learn both the fundamentals of Kathará and to gain hands-on experience with BGP security concepts.
Install Kathará
First, we will install the Kathará network emulator and test it by setting up a basic lab environment.
Install Docker
Kathará uses Docker as its container runtime. Install Docker on your Linux system using the official Docker installation guide.
After that, add your user to the docker group Continue reading