Texas A&M Cybercenter
Texas A&M Cyber Range

Proud Sponsors

Palo Alto

Our Mission

The mission of the Texas Cyber Range is to empower Texas A&M's faculty and students with cutting-edge virtualization services within a robustly secured environment. We strive to equip our students with practical cybersecurity experience, designed to bridge the gap between academic study and industry needs. Through our innovative training platform, we aspire to cultivate the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, ready to protect digital frontiers and enhance the state's and nation's resilience against cyber threats.

The Texas Cyber Range is an AWS-like model where students and faculty can use our infrastructure and virtualization technologies such as XPC-NG powered by Xen Orchestra to develop various cybersecurity skills and conduct research. Our enterprise-level sandbox allows for small and large workloads to be processed quickly and efficiently to provide the best experience.

Use Cases

  • Research: The Texas Cyber Range supports various research endeavors including infrastructure to perform high-level malware analysis
  • Classes: The Texas Cyber Range hosts a myriad of classes where faculty and students host labs and homework for students to learn vital cybersecurity and I.T. skills.
  • Personal VMs: The Texas Cyber Range aims to brings virtual machines to those in Texas A&M University. The benefits of this are that students will be able to access an always-on virtual machine from anywhere with internet access.
  • Additional Services: If you require some form of infrastructure not listed above for a project, research, etc. Contact us and we can provide you with the resources required.

Past and Present Projects

Fall 2024

  • Project Link: Create various scripts and configurations to automate the process of new users requesting a VM.
  • Project Vault: Upgrade TxCR storage by implementing new RAID configuration and physical drives.
  • Project Vector: Implement mass editing and deletion options for VMs on TxCR post creation.
  • Project Rome: Documentation on how the TxCR was built needs to be created or finalized so that satellite campuses can be built.
  • Project Blox: Implement an IP address management system for as source of truth for network and device information on the TxCR. This will make the creation of new subnets more efficient and provide a database for TxCR to reference.
  • Annual Pentest: Penetration test of TxCR Systems to discover and remediate any potential vulnerabilities.

Spring 2024

  • Project Gateway: This project entails creating a system that can analyze malware and produce results for users. A VM must first be set up (using CAPEv2) and then connected to the AI server on the TxCR for the malware analysis to take place. The next stage will be to create a network that a malware file can infiltrate so CAPEv2 can observe and analyze it. The following stage will be to create an OT environment with a similar goal. Users should be able to access this service by going to txcr.tamu.edu/msg.
  • Project Scriptor: A centralized network controller to be developed and implemented. A singular interface for TxCR employees to be able to access to create virtualized enviroments in mass.
  • Project Century Tree: Due to the TxCR's rapid growth and need for additional bandwidth, upgrades on a systems must be performed. This upgrade will include a 10GB Fiber upgrade, along with the addition of several IP services.

Fall 2023

  • Network Redesign: The Network and Security teams work together to develop a new internal network that allows for future scalability and flexibility. Student workers identify hosts and VLANs given IP address and subnet information, allowing issues and threats to be dealt with much faster. A development network is also created to allow for thorough testing of new systems added to the TxCR.
  • TxCR Website: The Software team develops a cutting-edge website accessible to students, faculty, and staff for project inquiries and accessing ongoing initiatives. This user-friendly website, available at txcr.tamu.edu, ensures compatibility across diverse mobile and PC platforms, establishing a robust web presence for TxCR.
  • Penetration Test: The Security Team executes a comprehensive penetration test on the Texas Cyber Range, aiming to identify vulnerabilities across all privilege levels within TxCR. This meticulous test comprises three phases, delving into the scrutiny of local permissions, lateral network movement, and detailed examination of administrative access.