CAPEvm is a pre-configured CAPE virtual machine optimized to run natively on a bare KVM hypervisor alongside target VMs.
The recommended deployment model follows a Flat-Hypervisor Topology:
- Host: A bare-metal Linux server (Ubuntu 24.04 recommended).
- Hypervisor: KVM/QEMU installed via the official CAPE utility script kvm-qemu.sh
- Guests: This CAPE vm running in parallel with your Windows analysis VMs, remotely managing the host hypervisor via 'kvmremote' machinery using libvirt.
We recommend using the official CAPE hypervisor installation script kvm-qemu.sh to set up the KVM hypervisor base.
# On your Host Machine
git clone https://github.com/kevoreilly/CAPEv2.git
cd CAPEv2/installer
sudo ./kvm-qemu.sh
- Download all parts (
capevm.tar.gz.aa,ab, etc.) from the Releases tab. - Recombine and extract in one command:
cat capevm.tar.gz.* | tar -xvzf -
Move the extracted capevm.qcow2 to your libvirt storage pool and define it using virt-manager or virsh with capevm.xml from this repo, edited with the path to capevm.qcow2.
sudo virsh define capevm.xml
Note: Ensure the network interface is attached to the same internal bridge as your Windows analysis VMs to allow for cross-guest communication and routing during detonations.
The virtual machine has been set up using the default 'ubuntu' account from the cloud image, for which the password is 'cape'. CAPE itself is configured to run under the 'cape' account which has no password.
Update kvmremote.conf to include the target VMs on your hypervisor in the form:
[kvmremote]
machines = win10-1
interface = ens10
dsn = qemu+ssh://admin@hypervisor/system
[win10-1]
label = win10-1
platform = windows
ip = 192.168.1.11
tags = x64,win10
snapshot = Ready
arch = x64
Ensure the CAPE instance running in the virtual machine has the latest updates:
cd /opt/CAPEv2
sudo su cape
git pull
.venv/bin/python -m pip install cape-parsers --upgrade
.venv/bin/python utils/community.py -waf
exit
sudo systemctl restart cape
sudo systemctl restart cape-web
sudo systemctl restart cape-processor
For Windows-based environments, this VM can be utilized by:
- Converting the .qcow2 to .vhdx via qemu-img.
- Switch the CAPE configuration to use the Hyper-V Machinery module (hyperv).
- Configure your hyperv.conf machinery module configuration
The image can be converted to .vmdk for use in ESXi or Workstation environments if required.
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