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Juice Shop Autostart Service

Automatically start the local nodejs server to run the OWASP Juice Shop in your browser at http://localhost:3000 when booting your Kali VM.

Prerequisites​

  • Node.js installed
  • npm installed
  • git
  • JuiceShop project cloned into your VM

Download links:

Step 1: Get your username​

Check your current username:

whoami

Example output: (default = kali)

kali

Step 2: Create the systemd service file​

Run this command to create a new service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/juice-shop.service

Paste the following content into the file:

[Unit]
Description=Juice Shop Autostart
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=kali
WorkingDirectory=/home/kali/juice-shop
ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm start
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

or if you installed nodejs via nvm check the installed path.

which node
which npm

Example output:

/home/kali/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/node
/home/kali/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/npm

and change the WorkingDirectory=/path/to/node/version

[Unit]
Description=OWASP Juice Shop Autostart
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=gest
WorkingDirectory=/home/kali/juice-shop
ExecStart=/home/kali/.nvm/versions/node/v22.17.0/bin/node build/app
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Important Hint:

  • Change kali to your username
  • Check path to your file (/home/kali/juice-shop)

Step 3: Acticte Service​

Enable and start the service with:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable juice-shop.service
sudo systemctl start juice-shop.service

Step 4: Check Service is running​

Use this command to check the status:

sudo systemctl status juice-shop.service

Expected output:

● juice-shop.service - Juice Shop Autostart
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/juice-shop.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since ...

Step 5: Reboot​

Reboot your VM:

sudo reboot

After the reboot, open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:3000

If everything is set up correctly, Juice Shop should be running automatically.