Lion Cipher Lab
Set up VS Code for security work: terminal, Python, Docker and remote (WSL/SSH) in one editor
- Foundations
- Beginner
- ~45 min
- Free · no account required
Why it matters
More than a hundred labs on this site say "open the file in VS Code" or "you'll need a text editor such as VS Code" and then carry on as though you were born knowing how. VS Code is where most security work actually happens between the terminal commands: reading a 40,000-line log with the keywords lit up, editing a YAML detection rule with the indentation checked for you, running a Python script against a packet capture, and doing all of that inside a Linux VM or WSL without leaving one window. This lab installs it properly — verified download, telemetry decision made on purpose, extensions…
What you'll learn
- installing VS Code and verifying the download
- the integrated terminal and shell profiles
- selecting a Python interpreter and venv in an editor
- opening a folder inside WSL or over SSH
- user vs workspace settings.json
- judging whether an extension is safe to install
- workspace trust and Restricted Mode
Steps in this lab
- Editor, IDE, terminal: three different tools, and which one VS Code is
- First, check whether it's already there (every OS)
- Windows: the User Installer, and prove the download is genuine
- macOS: drag to Applications, then install the `code` command
- Linux: use Microsoft's signed apt/dnf repository, not a random script
- Decide about telemetry on purpose — and know that VSCodium exists
- Open your labs folder, and meet Workspace Trust
- The integrated terminal, and choosing your default shell
- Before you install a single extension: what an extension can do to you
- Install the Python extension and point it at your venv
- Containers: the extension that used to be called "Docker" (optional now, needed soon)
- Why security labs live in WSL or a VM — and opening a folder inside WSL
- Remote - SSH: edit files on a VM or server as if they were local
- settings.json: user settings vs workspace settings
- The six keys that replace the mouse
- Reading JSON, YAML and logs with the colours on
- Prove it: run a Python file in your venv from the integrated terminal
- What you just did — and how a pro keeps it this clean