Setup Bloodhound legacy on Ubuntu 24.04

About this configuration

While setting up a minimal Ubuntu 24.04 VM for penetration testing, I realized there wasn’t a clear guide available for installing the BloodHound Legacy version on this specific system. To make things easier for others, I’ve created this blog post with detailed, step-by-step instructions.

Installing Java JDK

1. Install Java JDK with the following command:

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk

1. If you have multiple versions of Java installed, select Java 11 using:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

1. Verify that Java 11 is active:

java --version

Installing Neo4j

Note: BloodHound Legacy works best with Neo4j version 4.*, specifically 4.4.9.

1. Download and install Neo4j’s cypher-shell using the following command:

wget https://dist.neo4j.org/cypher-shell/cypher-shell_4.4.9_all.deb -O /tmp/cyphershell.deb && sudo dpkg -i /tmp/cyphershell.deb

1. Install Neo4j: (you might need to do sudo apt install daemon first on Kali atleast)

wget https://dist.neo4j.org/deb/neo4j_4.4.9_all.deb -O /tmp/neo4j.deb && sudo dpkg -i /tmp/neo4j.deb

1. Start Neo4j:

sudo neo4j start

1. Navigate to the specified localhost address to set up Neo4j. You will be prompted to change the default password.

Common Issue:

• If you encounter a permission issue when starting Neo4j, make sure to use sudo when running the command.

Installing BloodHound Legacy

After installing Neo4j and its dependencies, proceed to install BloodHound Legacy:

1. Download and unzip the latest BloodHound release:

wget https://github.com/BloodHoundAD/BloodHound/releases/download/v4.3.1/BloodHound-linux-x64.zip && unzip BloodHound-linux-x64.zip

1. Navigate to the BloodHound directory and run the following command:

/opt/Bloodhound/BloodHound --no-sandbox

Common Issue:

• If BloodHound doesn’t execute, try running it with sudo and ensure you include the --no-sandbox flag.

Start BloodHound with a One-Liner

For convenience, you can add an alias to your .bashrc file to start BloodHound and Neo4j together:

echo "alias start-bloodhound='pgrep -x java >/dev/null && /opt/Bloodhound/BloodHound --no-sandbox || (sudo neo4j start && sleep 3 && /opt/Bloodhound/BloodHound --no-sandbox)'" >> ~/.bashrc

Note: Replace /opt/Bloodhound/BloodHound with the actual path to your BloodHound binary.