Windows DEVBOX

Setting up the Windows compilation server

The DEVBOX is a Windows machine that compiles generated C++ code via SSH.

Requirements

Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
Visual Studio Build Tools 2022
OpenSSH Server
Network access from training host

Installation

1. Install Visual Studio Build Tools

Download from Visual Studio Downloads.

Select these workloads:

Desktop development with C++
Windows SDK (latest version)
MSVC v143 toolset

2. Enable OpenSSH Server

# Run as Administrator
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0
Start-Service sshd
Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

3. Configure SSH Key Authentication

mkdir C:\Users\<username>\.ssh
notepad C:\Users\<username>\.ssh\authorized_keys
# Paste your public key and save

4. Test Connection

From your training host:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/win user@devbox-ip "echo Connected"

malagent Configuration

Edit configs/windows_connection.yaml:

windows:
  host: "10.0.0.152"
  port: 22
  user: "keys"
  key_path: "~/.ssh/win"
  
  compiler:
    type: "msvc"
    vcvars_path: "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\BuildTools\\VC\\Auxiliary\\Build\\vcvars64.bat"
  
  paths:
    source_dir: "C:\\dev\\samples"
    output_dir: "C:\\dev\\output"
  
  timeout:
    connection: 10
    compilation: 30

Verification

python -m malagent.verifiers.joint_verifier --test

Expected output:

Testing DEVBOX connection...
  SSH connection: OK
  MSVC available: OK
  Test compilation: OK
  
DEVBOX ready for training.