Packet Flipper - Introduction

Packet Flipper is a web application made using Django that presents three common types of IP subnetting questions you would find on a test like the Cisco CCNA.

The site gives users three styles of question:

-What is the network address given an IP address and CIDR mask
-What is the longest subnet mask to accommodate an amount of hosts required
-How many hosts and subnets are available given an IP address and CIDR Mask

The project evolved from working to learn basic python skills. Using the ipaddress python module, I was able to create an unlimited source of IP subnetting practice questions by coding the logic in python.

Technologies

This project created a fun set of challenges and the chance to work with many technologies and concepts such as:

Python
Git
Nginx
Postgres (SQL Database)
Django
Gunicorn
AWS (EC2, Route53, IAM. . . )
Linux
Let’s Encrypt / Certbot (SSL/TLS Certificates)
Information Security (Environment variables, server hardening and best practices, etc). \

Launch the Project Locally

Running the project locally requires the following prerequisites to be installed (commands shown using Debain 10 system):

sudo apt install git
sudo apt install python3-pip
sudo apt install virtualenv
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Create a Database for the Project

sudo -u postgres psql
CREATE DATABASE database_name;
CREATE USER db_username WITH PASSWORD 'your_password';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET timezone TO 'UTC';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE myproject TO myprojectuser;
\q

Clone the Repo

sudo git clone https://github.com/agraymd/packetflipper.git

Create virtualenv for the Project

sudo virtualenv packetflipper_env
source packetflipper_env/bin/activate

Install Requirements

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Create .env File for Sensitive Items

cd /packetflipper/packetflipper/subnet_app/subnet_app/
sudo touch ./.env

SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
DATABASE_NAME=postgresdatabase
DATABASE_USER=alice
DATABASE_PASS=your_password
ALLOWED_HOSTS=X.X.X.X,

Note: python -c 'from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())' will print the secret key you need for your .env file.

Run Migrations

python3 manage.py makemigrations python3 manage.py migrate

This should be all you need to start the development server and work on the project locally. Deploying to production is possible through a variety of avenues after that.

Note: Static files will not be served by the development server of Django while DEBUG is set to False in settings. You can use the --insecure flag to bypass this for development/testing

Notes about logic / project function

• The ipaddress Python module is used as the basis for creating the questions. A random IP address is generated and used in various ways to create the question generation and checking logic. This is stored in the /labs/views.py file.

• JavaScript is used to create the ‘game’ functionality on the website front end. The correct answer is stored in the python code, and is printed in a hidden div container. On Click of the check answer button, javascript changes div class values based on checking the user’s input. CSS is used for styling / display functionality. This is stored in the packetflipper/subnet_app/labs/templates/labs/index.html file and /static/ JavaScript and CSS files.

Setting up Production on AWS

Coming soon!

Improvements

This project could benefit from the following:

-Testing (Learning about code testing is on the agenda, perhaps I will use this project to do so)
-Monitoring / Statistics once deployed to a "production" setup
-CI/CD when in production
-Set up to scale / load balance -Automated launch / easy teardown of production system
-Detailed documentation about process of dev to deploy, etc.
-A users system where users can login and keep score of some type, questions correct total, streak, etc.