Webvm Project – Running A Linux VM in Your Browser (No VPS, No Server)

Create Your Own Webvm in Github

• I only updated the deployment files which can make the whole process completed without an error.

1 Fork the repository from https://github.com/leaningtech/webvm

2 Enable Github pages in settings.

• Click on Settings.
• Go to the Pages section.
• Select Github Actions as the source.
• If you are using a custom domain, ensure Enforce HTTPS is enabled.

3 Run the workflow.

• Click on Actions.
• Accept the prompt. This is required only once to enable Actions for your fork.
• Click on the workflow named Deploy.
• Click Run workflow and then once more Run workflow in the menu.

4 After a few seconds a new Deploy workflow will start, click on it to see details.

5 After the workflow completes, which takes a few minutes, it will show the URL below the deploy_to_github_pages job.

Linux Commands:

• $ cat /etc/os-release
• $ lsb_release -a
• $ hostnamectl

Use your own domain for your Github page:

Local Deployment (Your Own Server or VPS)

1 Clone the project

• git clone https://github.com/leaningtech/webvm
• cd webvm

• wget https://github.com/leaningtech/webvm/releases/download/ext2_image/debian_large_20230522_5044875331.ext2
• this one is from original github repository, su account password was not set.
• https://github.com/JohnnyNetsec/webvm/releases/download/ext2_image/debian_mini_220250206_13186456973.ext2
• su password has been set as password.

• Uncomment the default values for CMD, ARGS, ENV and CWD
• Replace IMAGE_URL with the URL (absolute or relative) for the Ext2 image. For example "/debian_mini_20250206_13186456973.ext2" or debian_large_20250206_13185545030.ext2

• apt install npm
• npm install
• npm run build

apt install screen
screen -S ngcd webvm
nginx -p . -c nginx.conf
ctrl + A + D (detach from the screen, going back to original session)

Other Screen commands
Install screen (Depends on the Linux Distribution if it came pre installed or not) : yum install screen or apt install screen
Initiate a Screen : screen or  screen -S <screen name> <command to execute>
Detach from the screen : "CTRL+A,D" not "CTRL+A+D"
List all the screen currently working : screen -ls
Reattach to a screen : screen -r  <session number> or screen -r <screen name>
Kill specific screen: screen -X -S <screen name> quit
Kill all screens : pkill screen
Reattach to screen : screen -x -r <pid>.<session name>
root@instance-webvm:~# screen -x
There are several suitable screens on:
        64262.ng        (02/02/25 23:59:16)     (Detached)
        63983.pts-1.instance-webvm      (02/02/25 23:46:53)     (Detached)
        18301.nginx     (01/28/25 21:11:25)     (Attached)
Type "screen [-d] -r [pid.]tty.host" to resume one of them.
root@instance-webvm:~# screen -x -r 64262.ng

user@:~$ su
Password: password
root@:/home/user# 


Command list:
git clone https://github.com/leaningtech/webvm
cd webvm
wget https://github.com/JohnnyNetsec/webvm/releases/download/ext2_image/debian_mini_20250206_13186456973.ext2
nano config_github_terminal.js 
apt install npm
npm install
npm run build
screen -S nginx
nginx -p . -c nginx.conf
ctrl+A+D

Enable HTTPS with Custom Domain

We will enable a custom domain and make it working over https. 

Cloudflare add an A record.

NPM add a new proxy host with https enabled.

Now it should be working as shown below.

Enable Networking

Modern browsers do not provide APIs to directly use TCP or UDP. WebVM provides networking support by integrating with Tailscale, a VPN network that supports WebSockets as a transport layer.

• Open the “Networking” panel from the side-bar
• Click “Connect to Tailscale” from the panel
• Log in to Tailscale (create an account if you don’t have one)
• Click “Connect” when prompted by Tailscale
• If you are unfamiliar with Tailscale or would like additional information see WebVM and Tailscale.

Once connected , you will see an ip address has been assigned to the vm. 

Now you can do

• curl www.google.ca
• curl ip.sb
• curl –max-time 15 parrot.live
• ssh <ssh server public ip>
• ssh new@sdf.org

But no ping, no tracert

• 1 non-preemptible e2-micro VM instance per month in one of the following US regions:
  • Oregon: us-west1
  • Iowa: us-central1
  • South Carolina: us-east1
• 30 GB-months standard persistent disk
• 1 GB of outbound data transfer from North America to all region destinations (excluding China and Australia) per month

root@instance-webvm:~/webvm# mv dockerfiles/debian_mini Dockerfile
root@instance-webvm:~/webvm# docker build -t mywebvm .
DEPRECATED: The legacy builder is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
            Install the buildx component to build images with BuildKit:
            https://docs.docker.com/go/buildx/

Sending build context to Docker daemon  3.584kB
Step 1/11 : FROM --platform=i386 i386/debian:buster
buster: Pulling from i386/debian

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