Metasploitable 3 has many advantages over Metasploitable 2. You can read the description on the Rapid7 website to get more details. One disadvantage is that you have to build the virtual machines with the provided scripts and the documentation uses Vagrant. Unfortunately, the Vagrant plugin for VMWare is not free. As of this writing, it is $79 per user. If you are using Virtual Box, then you can ignore this post and use the build instructions provided in the README.  Fortunately, Vagrant use is optional. The following walk-through describes how to use Metasploitable 3 without Vagrant integration with VMWare Workstation on Linux or Mint.

Install packer

sudo apt install packer

Clone the Metasploitable 3 git repository

git clone https://github.com/rapid7/metasploitable3.git

Build the Ubuntu 14.04 metasploitable template

• cd metasploitable3
• packer build --only=vmware-iso ./packer/templates/ubuntu_1404.json
• Watch the terminal window. Once the build is complete (it will take a while) move on to the next step.
• cd packer/builds
• mkdir metasploitable3-ubuntu-14.04
• cd metasploitable3-ubuntu-14.04
• tar -xzvf ../ubuntu_1404_vmware_0.1.12.box
• You can now open the Virtual Machine in VMWware

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*** DO NOT PROCEED UNTIL THE PREVIOUS STEP IS COMPLETE ***

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Build the Windows 2008 Metasploitable template

• cd metasploitable3
• packer build --only=vmware-iso ./packer/templates/windows_2008_r2.json
• Watch the terminal window. Once the build is complete (it will take a while) move on to the next step.
• cd packer/builds
• mkdir metasploitable3-windows-2008
• cd metasploitable3-windows-2008
• tar -xzvf ../windows_2008_vmware_0.1.12.box
• You can now open the Virtual Machine in VMWware

To get started on vulnerabilities

Metasploitable Vulnerabilities