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Kali Linux Changelog

What's new in Kali Linux 2024.1

Feb 28, 2024
  • Micro Mirror Free Software CDN - FCIX Software Mirror reached out offering to host our images, and we said yes
  • 2024 Theme Refresh - Our yearly theme refresh with all new wallpapers and GRUB theme
  • Other Desktop Environment Changes - A few new tweaks to our default environments
  • NetHunter Updates - NetHunter Rootless for Android 14, Bad Bluetooth HID attacks, and other updates
  • New Tools - As always, various new shiny tools!
  • Introducing the Micro Mirror Free Software CDN:
  • With this latest release of Kali Linux, our network of community mirrors grew much stronger, thanks to the help of the Micro Mirror CDN! Here’s the story.
  • Last month we replied to a long-forgotten email from Kenneth Finnegan from the FCIX Software Mirror. The FCIX is a rather big mirror located in California, and they reached out to offer to host the Kali images on their mirror. To which we answered yes please, and that was it; shortly after, the Kali images were added to the FCIX mirror. So far so good, and it could have been the end of the story, but then Kenneth followed up:
  • We’re now also operating another 32 other mirrors which are optimized for minimal storage and hosting only the highest traffic projects […] Would the Kali project be willing to accept ten additional mirrors from the FCIX organization?
  • Wow, 10 additional mirrors, that sounds very nice indeed! But, wait, 32 mirrors??? How come? Where do all those mirrors come from? That was intriguing. As it turns out, Kenneth operates a network of mirrors, which was officially announced back in May 2023 on his blog: Building the Micro Mirror Free Software CDN. For anyone interested in Internet infrastructure, we encourage you to read it, that’s a well-written blog post right there, waiting for you.
  • So what is the Micro Mirror CDN exactly? One-liner: a network of mirrors dedicated to serving Linux and Free Software. Contrary to traditional mirrors that host around 50TB of project files, Micro Mirrors are machines with “only” a few TB of storage, that focus on hosting only the most high-demand projects. In other words: they provide additional bandwidth where it’s needed the most. Another important difference with traditional mirrors is that those machines are not managed by the sponsor (the organization that funds the mirror). Usually, a sponsor provides the bandwidth, the mirror, and also administrates it. While here, the sponsor only provides the bandwidth, and it’s the FCIX Micro Mirror team that does everything else: buy the hardware, ship it to the data-center, and then manage it remotely via their public Ansible playbook.
  • For anyone familiar with mirroring, it’s quite exciting to see such a project taking shape. Free software and Linux distributions have been distributed thanks to community-supported mirrors for almost three decades now, it’s a long tradition. It’s true that we’ve seen some changes over the last years, and these days some of the biggest FOSS projects are entirely distributed via a CDN, leaving behind the mirroring system. For Kali Linux we use a mixed approach: it is distributed in part thanks to 50+ mirrors across the world, and in part thanks to the Cloudflare CDN that acts as a ubiquitous mirror. We are lucky to benefit from a very generous sponsorship from Cloudflare since 2019. But smaller or newer projects don’t get this chance, thus community mirrors are still essential to free software distribution. That’s why it’s nice to see a project like the Micro Mirror CDN, it’s a novel approach in the field of mirroring, and with Kali Linux we are very grateful to be part of the journey.
  • For any organization out there that has spare bandwidth and wants to support free software, the Micro Mirror project might be something you are interested in. You might want to look at their product brief for a more thorough description of the service, and email mirror at fcix dot net for more information. we’ll just quote one line that summarize it really well:
  • From the hosting sponsor’s perspective, the Micro Mirror is a turnkey appliance, where they only need to provide network connectivity and remote hands to install the hardware, where all sysadmin and monitor work is handled by the FCIX team with the economy of scale on our side.
  • A big thanks to the FCIX team, and Kenneth Finnegan in particular, for their generous offer. Thanks to their help, the Kali images are now served from ten additional mirrors: seven in the US, one in Colombia, one in the UK and one in Australia.
  • And while we are talking about mirrors: we also got plenty of new mirrors from various sponsors during this release cycle, check the dedicated section below for details.
  • 2024 Theme Refresh:
  • As for previous 20**.1 releases, this update brings with it our annual theme refresh, a tradition that keeps our interface as cutting-edge as our tools. This year marks the unveiling of our newest theme, meticulously crafted to enhance user experience from the moment you boot up. With significant updates to the boot menu, login display, and an array of captivating desktop wallpapers, for both our regular Kali and Kali Purple editions. We are dedicated to not only advancing our cybersecurity capabilities but also ensuring that the aesthetic appeal of our platform matches the power within.
  • Boot menu:
  • Login display:
  • Desktop:
  • Kali-Purple desktop:
  • New wallpapers:
  • Special thanks to @arszilla for not only suggesting two wallpaper variants but also contributing to the creation of one of the default wallpapers featured in this release. These additional images were crafted to complement the background colors of the Nord and Dracula color schemes. To access these wallpapers, simply install the kali-community-wallpapers package, which also offer many other stunning backgrounds created by our community contributors.
  • Other desktop changes:
  • Xfce:
  • We are excited to introduce a convenient enhancement to our Xfce desktop. Now, users can effortlessly copy their VPN IP address to the clipboard with just a click, simplifying the workflow and enhancing productivity for our users. To take advantage of this functionality, ensure that xclip is installed on your system (sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install xclip). With this improvement, managing your VPN connections on Kali Linux becomes even more seamless and intuitive.
  • Other Xfce changes:
  • Kali-undercover updated to fix compatibility with latest Xfce
  • Fixed a bug with xfce-panel and Kali’s customized cpugraph plug-in
  • Gnome-Shell:
  • For Gnome desktop one notable change is the replacement of the eye-of-gnome (eog) image viewer with Loupe, continuing the transition to GTK4 based applications. Additionally, the latest update of Nautilus file manager arrived to Kali’s repositories, delivering a significant boost in file search speed and introducing a refreshed sidebar design.
  • Icon Theme:
  • Following with the desktop enhancements, we’ve added a few new app icons, ensuring a fully themed experience for default installations of Kali Linux. Additionally, we’ve refreshed our icon theme with new symbolic icons, enhancing consistency system-wide.
  • Kali NetHunter Updates:
  • We finally got our hands on a brand new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and yes!, NetHunter rootless runs like a dream. Fortunately, Android 14 lets us disable child process restrictions in developer settings so we no longer have to use the adb command line to enable KeX support. We have updated our documentation to reflect these changes.
  • @yesimxev managed to add the popular Bad Bluetooth HID attack the the NetHunter app for both phones and even smartwatches!
  • Your browser does not support the video tag.
  • The icons for our NetHunter and NHTerm apps have received a makeover and @kimocoder & @martinvlba spent countless days updating the codebase to ensure compatibility with the latest Android version.
  • The community engagement is at an all time high, which is reflected by the following new kernels:
  • Realme C15
  • TicWatch Pro 3
  • (Updated) Samsung Galaxy S9+
  • Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC
  • Thanks heaps to everyone that contributed, we wouldn’t be here without you!
  • Stay tuned as there are many more kernels already on the way!
  • New Tools in Kali:
  • The following new tools made it into this Kali release (via the network repositories):
  • blue-hydra - Bluetooth device discovery service
  • opentaxii - TAXII server implementation from EclecticIQ
  • readpe - Command-line tools to manipulate Windows PE files
  • snort - Flexible Network Intrusion Detection System
  • The focus was adding new libraries this release, and there is always numerous packages updates. Plus we also bump the Kali kernel to 6.6!
  • Community Packages:
  • There has also been a tool submitted from the community which has been merged into Kali:
  • above - Invisible protocol sniffer for finding vulnerabilities in the network
  • If you are wanting a tool in Kali quicker than what we can add, please see our blog post from a previous release.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Below are a few other things which have been updated in Kali, which we are calling out which do not have as much detail:
  • Due to the ongoing /usr-merge transition in Debian, using 2023.4 or older versions of our netboot images will no longer work. Make sure to either grab weekly image or Kali 2024.1!
  • Friendly reminder, if you are getting “weird special characters” when trying to use keyboard shortcuts to copy/paste clipboard, the default is to use “ctrl+shift+c” and “ctrl+shift+v”.
  • ctrl+c (without shift) in Unix is used to kill programs!
  • Should you wish, you can alter the default behaviour in your favourite terminal program

New in Kali Linux 2023.3 (Aug 25, 2023)

  • Kali Linux 2023.3 Release:
  • Today we are delighted to introduce our latest release of Kali, 2023.3. This release blog post does not have the most features in it, as a lot of the changes have been behind-the-scenes, which brings a huge benefit to us and an indirect positive effect to you as end-users. It always goes without saying, but there are a number of new packages and tools as well as the standard updates. If you want to see what’s new for yourself download or upgrade if you have an existing Kali Linux installation.
  • The highlights of the changelog since the 2023.2 release from May:
  • Internal Infrastructure - Major stack changes is under way
  • Kali Autopilot - The automation attack framework has had an major overhaul
  • New Tools - 9 new tools added this time round!
  • INTERNAL INFRASTRUCTURE:
  • With the release of Debian 12 which came out this summer, we took this opportunity to re-work, re-design, and re-architecture our infrastructure. It is as massive as it sounds, and should not be a surprise that its not yet complete! This is where a good amount of our focus has been for this release-cycle (and also the next one unfortunately). We are hoping that the majority of it will be done by the end of the year (so we can get back to what we do best!)
  • This gives an excuse and the motivation to simplify our software stack as much as possible. Example, using one single:
  • OS version (Debian 12)
  • CDN/WAF (Cloudflare)
  • Web server service (Nginx)
  • Infrastructure as Code (Ansible)
  • We also have some other goals, and replacing certain software with others (phase #2).
  • At the same time, we have automated some actions such as:
  • The cleaning up of suites (aka branches - kali-experimental and kali-bleeding-edge)
  • We are very much underway with these projects already (as bug bounty hunters may notice the changes)!
  • MIRROR TRACES:
  • We have a new sub-domain, mirror-traces.kali.org! This is to help mirror admins for our community mirrors. This now gives everyone using it more details and insight which is useful when troubleshooting and debugging issues.
  • True to our word, we are doing more in the open, the git repository can be found here: gitlab.com/kalilinux/tools/mirror-status.
  • PACKAGING TOOLS:
  • For a long time, we have shared our home-made scripts publicly, which is our helping aid to manage all our packages in Kali. Recently we have expanded on them by giving the existing files a refresh by adding additional features and various quality-of-life improvements, as well as including new ones.
  • As a recap, if you want to have a peek at some back-end development:
  • AutoPkgTest - Using debci in a CI fashion, we can test packages being built.
  • This integrates into Britney.
  • Britney2 (Git repo) - Migrates packages between all of our suites (aka branches, such as “debian-testing”, “kali-rolling”, and “kali-last-snapshot” to name a few).
  • Build-Logs - Output of our images/platform as well as packages being created on each supported architecture.
  • Janitor - This is our automated packager as it will apply everything from minor formatting changes to preparing an package update.
  • The long term goal of this is to have it handle kali-bleeding-edge, linking into AutoPkgTest.
  • Package Tracker - Tracks each packages version’s history.
  • Packaging CI Overview (Git repo) - Quick (and dirty) overview of our package’s CI status.
  • Upstream-Watch (Git repo) - Monitors when there is an update upstream.
  • KALI AUTOPILOT:
  • With the release of Kali Purple in Kali 2023.1, we also had the debut of Kali Autopilot. Since then, its been worked on and is unrecognizable with its redesigned GUI and multitudinous amount of features added.
  • What is Kali Autopilot? We are glad you asked! Kali Autopilot is an automated attack framework. It is a bit like an “AutoPwner”, which follows pre-defined “attack scenarios”. The motivation originally started its development for the defensive side of Kali.
  • It is a lot easier to demonstrate Kali’s offensive side, especially when you start seeing the shells popping up. But when it comes to the defensive side, how do you know if you have set things up? You start to ask questions:
  • Are the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and the Web Application Firewall (WAF) detecting malicious activities?
  • Is the Security information and event management (SIEM) ingesting the right logs?
  • Are the dashboards and alerts tuned to detect attacks?
  • Are the analysts trained in finding the needle in the haystack?
  • Has it been tested? How can you test?
  • Either you can wait for someone to try and break in, or you could do it yourself. This is where Kali Autopilot comes in.
  • KALI AUTOPILOT:
  • Kali Autopilot consists of a GUI tool to design attacks and to generate attack scripts that perform those attack sequences, either manually or as a service, together with a web API interface for remote control. You can also download example attack scripts from the Kali Purple Hub. We currently have scripts for juice-shop and DWVA. Just download the JSON from the hub and import it into Kali Autopilot.
  • This tool has come along a lot in the last 6 months, and no plans on slowing down. As always, its shaped by the community; ideas, features, and direction can be submitted and shaped by YOU. If you have developed attack scripts for vulnerable machines, we would love to include it on our Kali Purple Hub.
  • NEW TOOLS IN KALI:
  • We will kick it off with what’s new (to the network repositories):
  • Calico - Cloud native networking and network security
  • cri-tools - CLI and validation tools for Kubelet Container Runtime Interface
  • Hubble - Network, Service & Security Observability for Kubernetes using eBPF
  • ImHex - A Hex Editor for reverse engineers, programmers and people who value their retinas when working at 3 AM
  • kustomize - Customization of kubernetes YAML configurations
  • Rekono - Automation platform that combines different hacking tools to complete pentesting processes
  • rz-ghidra - Deep ghidra decompiler and sleigh disassembler integration for rizin
  • unblob - Extract files from any kind of container formats
  • Villain - C2 framework that can handle multiple reverse shells, enhance their functionality and share them among instances
  • We also bumped the Kali kernel to 6.3.7:
  • Along with new tools being added to Kali, there has been numerous packages and libraries updates, both major and minor version such as: Greenbone, Humble, Impacket, jSQL, OWASP ZAP, Rizin, Tetragon, theHarvester, Wireshark and many many more.
  • Unfortunately we had to drop a few packages from Kali:
  • king-phisher - The tool is no longer maintained by the original author
  • As an alternative, check GoPhish as a replacement
  • plecost - Tool does not work with Python 3.11, and no response from original author
  • For an replacement, try WPScan
  • Rekono - Community Package Submission:
  • We get a large amount of requests to add tools into Kali. We do have a policy of what tools are added to Kali and a process of how tools are packaged up and added (from network repositories to the default installed toolset). The draw back is that we do not have enough human power to be able to process them all. Our solution to this has been to help tool authors and/or anyone from the Kali community create packages by writing a series of detailed, step-by-step guides covering the complete process and workflow of how we built those packages:
  • Setting up a system for packaging
  • Introduction to packaging step-by-step example - Instaloader
  • Intermediate packaging step-by-step example - Photon
  • Advanced Packaging Step-By-Step Example - FinalRecon & Python-icmplib
  • Packaging Applications with Kaboxer - “Hello World” with a Docker container
  • When the tool was originally submitted by the tool author, we reviewed it, liked it, and agreed it should be in Kali. We did not have the cycles to process it ourselves quick enough, but the tool author did. They step up, and then re-submitted it again with them packaging up their tool. This saved us a lot of leg work, so reviewing the package became a breeze, and shortly after was added into Kali.
  • If you are wanting a tool added into Kali - and you would like for it to happen sooner than we can do, have a go at trying to package yourself! There are other sources of doing “Debian packaging” out there, as well as our linked guides above. There is a initial learning curve, but its not as complex as you may think (especially if you are comfortable using Linux).
  • Please note, we compile packages from source. Submitting a binary *.deb file will not be accepted.
  • MISCELLANEOUS:
  • Below are a few other things which have been updated in Kali, which we are calling out which do not have as much detail:
  • Added Pipewire support when using Hyper-V in enhanced session mode
  • Added kali-hidpi-mode to support Kali-Purple
  • Improved installation of Kali-Purple by removing the need to run any commands after installing kali-themes-purple
  • Kali-Purple has a purple menu icon!
  • The final reminder about the breaking change with Python 3.12 & PIP
  • KALI NETHUNDER UPDATES:
  • We are proud to introduce a redesigned Kali NetHunter app and a completely new NetHunter Terminal, thanks to the amazing work of our very own @martin and @yesimxev.
  • On the Kali NetHunter kernel side, there are numerous updates:
  • LG V20 for Lineage 19.1
  • Nexus 6P for Android 8.0 (Oreo)
  • Nothing Phone (1) for Android 12 (Snow cone) and 13 (Tiramisu) (new)
  • Pixel 3/XL for Android 13 (Tiramisu)
  • Samsung Galaxy A7 for LineageOS 18.1 (new)
  • Xiaomi Mi A3 for Lineage 20
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4/4X for VoltageOS 2.5
  • Nothing Phone (1)
  • Also worth mentioning:
  • By popular demand we have added a SELinux disabler.
  • Please note until we are able to replace Mana Toolkit, we have had to temporary downgrade iptables.
  • Kali ARM Updates:
  • The Raspberry Pi Zero W image now boots to CLI and not GUI. This change is in line with what we did with the Raspberry Pi 1 image a few releases ago. If you do not create a wpa_supplicant.conf to use, the easiest way to connect to a Wi-Fi network on the command line is to use the nmtui command. Alternatively, you can use sudo nmcli --ask dev wifi connect network-ssid to have it ask you for the password on the command line, without it showing up in your history.
  • USBArmory MKI and MKII have had their bootloaders updated to 2023.07.
  • The ARM build scripts have had some minor tweaks to deal with policykit updates to make sure the pkla files are properly created.

New in Kali Linux 2023.2 (May 31, 2023)

  • The changelog highlights over the last few weeks since March’s release of 2023.1 is:
  • New VM image for Hyper-V - With “Enhanced Session Mode” out of the box
  • Xfce audio stack update: enters PipeWire - Better audio for Kali’s default desktop
  • i3 desktop overhaul - i3-gaps merged with i3
  • Desktop updates - Easy hashing in Xfce
  • GNOME 44 - Gnome Shell version bump
  • Icons & menus updates - New apps and icons in menu
  • New tools - As always, various new packages added
  • New Hyper-V VM Image:
  • With this release, we welcome a new member in the family of pre-built VM images! We now provide an image for Microsoft Hyper-V.
  • For those familiar with the matter, let’s jump straight into the details. This is a GEN2 image for Hyper-V, pre-configured for Enhanced Session Mode. All you need to do is to download the image, unpack it, then run the script install-vm.bat. Afterwards open the Hyper-V Manager and start the VM. Hyper-V should automatically propose to connect via Enhanced Session Mode (aka. xRDP over HvSocket), thereby greatly improving the user experience.
  • Before that, enabling Enhanced Session Mode required some manual steps, both on Windows and in the Kali VM, and it was not super easy. We hope that this new images provides a better out-of-the box experience for Hyper-V users. In fact, there should now be zero configuration required.
  • More details about this new image can be found in our documentation, on the page Import Pre-Made Kali Hyper-V VM.
  • Xfce & PipeWire:
  • With this release, we changed the audio stack for Kali’s default desktop: PipeWire now replaces PulseAudio.
  • Some background information: PipeWire is a “server for handling audio, video streams, and hardware on Linux”. It was initially released in 2017, is actively developed, and is poised to become the de-facto sound server in pretty much every Linux distribution out there, therefore replacing PulseAudio. The GNOME desktop already uses PipeWire by default in most Linux distributions, including Kali Linux since version 2022.4 . Most users never noticed the change.
  • But let’s get back to Kali’s default desktop environment: Xfce. Xfce does not really “support” PipeWire per se, but it does not need to. PipeWire provides a compatibility layer, under the form of the pipewire-pulse daemon. And that’s what make the magic happens: applications that were meant to work with PulseAudio keep working as if nothing happened, blissfully unaware of the change.
  • We do not expect any issue with this transition, actually we expect the opposite, some well-known issues should be fixed, sound should work better overall.
  • What should you do about it? Nothing special. For users who upgrade their Kali installation though, a reminder: the right command to upgrade your system is sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade. Let us put the emphasis on full-upgrade, rather than upgrade: it matters.
  • Should this change cause any problem with your setup, head to the page No sound on Kali 2023.2 for tentative solutions.
  • i3 Desktop Overhaul:
  • The Kali i3 desktop was completely redone!
  • For context: i3 is a tiling window manager. You might not have heard of it, it’s not available from the Kali’s installer, and it can be said to be a desktop for advanced users. Nevertheless, Kali used to propose a i3 desktop (provided by the metapackage kali-desktop-i3) and also a i3-gaps desktop (metapackage kali-desktop-i3-gaps), which was a sort of alternative version of i3.
  • The upstream projects i3-gaps and i3 merged recently, so it was awkward for Kali to have two separate metapackages. Therefore those two packages were merged, and only kali-desktop-i3 remains. This metapackage now provides a complete desktop environment (rather than a bare minimum, as it used to).
  • All of that work was done by long-time i3 user and Kali contributor, Arszilla, and we’re really thankful for that. He shared some screenshots of his setup, so that he can give you an idea of what a i3 desktop can look like:
  • Desktop Updates:
  • Xfce:
  • In this release we pre-installed a nifty extension for the Xfce File Manager: GtkHash. This extension provides the option to quickly compute checksums, simply by doing a right-click on a file and then opening the Checksums tab. No need to open a terminal and type the command manually! Screenshot below:
  • GtkKash:
  • GNOME 44:
  • Like for (almost) every half-year, there is a new version bump for the GNOME desktop environment. Kali 2023.2 brings the new version, GNOME 44, which is a more polished experienced following the work previously introduced in previous version.
  • Here are some of the new features for this update:
  • Enhanced Shell Quick Settings Panel
  • Quickly connect or disconnect to bluetooth devices
  • Updated Settings App
  • GNOME’s file chooser dialog can now display thumbnails
  • Updated Kali theming
  • GNOME 44:
  • GNOME 44 overview:
  • Tiling Assistant Extension:
  • With this release, we are excited to introduce a new extension for Kali’s GNOME Shell desktop: Tiling Assistant. This extension elevates the default tiling experience, placing it on par with the quarter tiling support found in KDE and Xfce. With Tiling Assistant, you can surpass the limitations of the 2 column layout and unlock a range of powerful features. Enjoy intuitive window snapping, multi-monitor support, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and personalized settings, all designed to enhance your productivity and workflow.
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  • App Icons and Kali Menu Updates:
  • Beginning with this release, we are excited to announce that we have initiated work on updates and improvements for the Kali menu. Our primary focus is on enhancing the tools listed in the top 100 on the kali.org/tools page. This entails improving existing icons, introducing new ones, and enhancing the organization of Kali’s menu categories.
  • To provide you with a sneak peek, we have included a screenshot showcasing the new and updated app icons. We value your feedback, so if you believe that any particular tool would benefit from a new icon, please don’t hesitate to open a bug report at bugs.kali.org. Your input will contribute to the continued refinement of Kali’s menu experience.
  • New Tools in Kali:
  • It would not be a Kali release if there were not any new tools added! A quick run down of what has been added (to the network repositories):
  • Cilium-cli - Install, manage & troubleshoot Kubernetes clusters
  • Cosign - Container Signing
  • Eksctl - Official CLI for Amazon EKS
  • Evilginx - Standalone man-in-the-middle attack framework used for phishing login credentials along with session cookies, allowing for the bypass of 2-factor authentication
  • GoPhish - Open-Source Phishing Toolkit
  • Humble - A fast security-oriented HTTP headers analyzer
  • Slim(toolkit) - Don’t change anything in your container image and minify it
  • Syft - Generating a Software Bill of Materials from container images and filesystems
  • Terraform - Safely and predictably create, change, and improve infrastructure
  • Tetragon - eBPF-based Security Observability and Runtime Enforcement
  • TheHive - A Scalable, Open Source and Free Security Incident Response Platform
  • Trivy - Find vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets, SBOM in containers, Kubernetes, code repositories, clouds and more
  • Wsgidav - Generic and extendable WebDAV server based on WSGI
  • There has also been numerous packages updates and new libraries as well.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Below are a few other things which have been updated in Kali, that do not have as much detail:
  • Python PIP changes - Friendly reminder about pip’s behavior changing in Kali 2023.4!
  • When using kali-tweaks, altering OpenSSL security will now have an effect for Python based libraries as well!
  • Our Kali WSL rootfs build-script got a overhaul. The result will now give a similar experience both using it as well as the output as it will include more of the standard packages by default.
  • Kali ARM Updates:
  • When using the ARM build-scripts, it will now prompt you to reboot after installing build dependencies if required.
  • Plus, we are now including additional firmware on all ARM images.
  • The USBArmory MKII image currently only supports the 512MB variant. The version of u-boot has been bumped.
  • The Raspberry Pi P4wnP1 image is now considered community supported. Unfortunately the upstream project does not support newer versions of bluez that Kali has, so until that is fixed, we do not want to ship an image that does not work properly.
  • Kali Documentation Updates:
  • Our Kali documentation has had various updates to existing pages as well as the following new pages:
  • Handling common APT problems
  • Import Pre-Made Kali Hyper-V VM
  • Kali WSL
  • No sound on Kali 2023.2
  • Troubleshooting Kali VMware VM
  • We also want to say a little thank you to following for their work:
  • 107 cwk 8bitBoy VT100
  • Dennis Wehrmann
  • Kamal
  • snowcra5h
  • X0RW3LL

New in Kali Linux 2022.4 (Dec 7, 2022)

  • Kali Linux 2022.4 Release (Azure, Social & Kali NetHunter Pro)
  • Before the year is over, we thought it was best to get the final 2022 release out. Today we are publishing Kali Linux 2022.4. This is ready for immediate download or updating existing installations.
  • A summary of the changelog since August’s 2022.3 release:
  • Microsoft Azure - We are back on the Microsoft Azure store
  • More Platforms - Generic Cloud, QEMU VM image & Vagrant libvirt
  • Social Networks - New homes, keeping in touch & press packs
  • Kali NetHunter Pro - Announcing the first release of a “true” Kali Linux on the mobile phone (PinePhone / Pro)
  • Kali NetHunter - Internal Bluetooth support, kernel porting video, firmware updates & other improvements
  • Desktop Updates - GNOME 43 & KDE 5.26
  • New Tools - As always, various new packages added
  • Microsoft Azure:
  • Its been a long time coming, but we are very happy to announce that Kali has been added to Microsoft Azure (again - and this time to stay)! Following in the foot steps of our Amazon AWS image, we are using the same kali-cloud build-scripts now to automate publishing to Microsoft Azure store.
  • Out of the box, currently, there is no graphical user interface, or any tools pre-installed. Should you want the default toolset (kali-linux-default) or any other combination of metapackages, it should be like any other Kali platform. For installing a desktop environment, we have the following kali-docs page: Setting up RDP with Xfce
  • We hope in 2023 we can revisit this again and are looking at doing ARM64 architecture, as well as different variations of images, allowing you to choose from a mixture of headless bare-bones install, the traditional environment, and a mixture of everything in-between.
  • More Platforms:
  • We are now including a QEMU image with our pre-generated images. We hope this makes it easier for the people who use self-hosted Proxmox Virtual Environments (VE), virt-manager, or libvirt!
  • On that subject, elrey (alex) from the community has added libvirt support to our kali-vagrant build-script.
  • In Kali 2022.3, we have produced a Generic Cloud image. The idea of this image is that it should work in “most” cloud providers This is coming from our kali-cloud build-scripts. So if you are self-hosting OpenStack, this is a great way of getting Kali loaded up!
  • Social Networks:
  • We have expanded the social networks which we post on, as well as refreshing the current ones. As a recap:
  • Facebook: facebook.com/KaliLinux
  • NEW Instagram: instagram.com/KaliLinux
  • NEW Mastodon: @[email protected]
  • Twitter: twitter.com/KaliLinux
  • As a reminder, we don’t use social networks for technical support - you can receive community support via discord or our forums and bug reports should go to the bug tracker! Instead, we automatically post blog posts thus these accounts are mostly unmonitored!
  • Press Pack:
  • We have also taken the time to create a Press Pack (aka Press kit) for Kali. Here you can find all our product media resources to use, including:
  • Logomark (our dragon logos)
  • Logomark and Wordmark (our iconic avatars - dragon logo with text)
  • Wordmark (text as an image)
  • Various different image formats (png, svg, jpg)
  • Official colours
  • Media Enquiries:
  • And on the subject, we do have a page for Press and Media enquiries.
  • Kali NetHunter Pro Release:
  • We are very excited to announce the official support of the Pine64 PinePhone and PinePhone Pro thanks to the amazing work of Shubham Vishwakarma and the vibrant community.
  • The launch of Kali NetHunter Pro is the beginning of a new chapter for Kali Linux and NetHunter, a bare metal installation of Kali Linux with Phosh desktop environment, optimized for mobile devices.
  • First of all we make available SD card images for the PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro to dual boot alongside the main OS. Soon we will release alternative versions with Plasma Mobile as well as installers so you can install Kali NetHunter Pro onto the internal flash memory.
  • For all those that have a PinePhone or a PinePhone Pro, hop over to our download page and join the brave new world of mobile hacking. For those that don’t have a PinePhone yet: What are you waiting for? Get one :-)
  • Please help us with the development by testing the images, submitting bugs and improvements in our GitLab repository, and become a part of the vibrant Kali NetHunter community.
  • Kali NetHunter Update:
  • Internal Bluetooth support has finally arrived, thanks to @yesimxev and the awesome community! We have added support to some devices already, however as each kernel needs new Bluetooth drivers enabled, it takes time to rebuild each of them. You are more than welcome to contribute if your device is Kali NetHunter supported already without the new drivers.
  • @yesimxev has released the ultimate Kali NetHunter Complete Kernel Porting Guide. Have you ever dreamt of porting Kali NetHunter to your device but didn’t know where to start? This video has it all so get cracking.
  • Wardriving has been updated with bugfixes, Bluetooth, RTL-SDR, and MouseJack support. That’s good news for QCACLD-3.0 users (most devices out there) as you will be able to use wardriving with internal wireless and Bluetooth chipsets, if OTG adapters are not an option.
  • KeX also received the status fix along with audio support. Now you can play any audio in KeX session.
  • Wireless firmware has been updated, and Magisk firmware flashing is now patched.
  • Android 11/12 crashing when starting the Kali NetHunter app has also been fixed with this release.
  • Last but not least, let’s welcome the OnePlus 6t, Pixel 4a 5g and Realme 5 Pro devices to the list of the Android 12 supported devices.
  • Desktop Updates:
  • Both the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktops have received a major version bump.
  • GNOME
  • For people who opt to use GNOME as their desktop environment, GNOME 43 is now in Kali! If you do not read their changelog, below is a quick summary mixed with some of our tweaks:
  • Shell updates, including a new quick settings panel and an improved theme. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to the extension proxyswitcher, as it was no longer compatible with this new release
  • Continues the migration of multiple programs to GTK4 with the libadwaita library. The previous text editor (gedit) has been replaced with the brand new gnome-text-editor, which includes an updated Kali color-scheme theme.
  • New GTK3 theme based on the adw-gtk3 project with Kali’s tweaks, which brings a fresh look, and makes the interface coherent between the different GUI libraries. With it, GTK3-based programs don’t seem out of place with the recently introduced libadwaita-based ones.
  • KDE Plasma:
  • Kali now includes the new version 5.26 of KDE, which improves the overall desktop experience, and brings tweaks for multiple widgets. You can learn more about the latest changes in the Plasma 5.26 release announcement publication.
  • Miscellaneous
  • Below is a quick list of minor updates:
  • The Kali dragon logo is now in nerd-fonts (f327 aka nf-linux-kali_linux).
  • We are aware of a bug with the installation using speech synthesiser.
  • As a work around, you can use Kali 2022.2, and upgrade.
  • We will put out a message on social networks when to grab the weekly images with the fix.
  • We are aware of a bug with Metasploit-framework and libssl1.1/OpenSSL v3. As a result, there are issues with payloads using */*/reverse_https.
  • We will address this as quickly as we can.
  • We will put out a message on social networks when to grab the weekly images with the fix.
  • RSS feed for torrents! kali.org/torrents.xml.
  • If your client supports it, you can use regex then to filter out which image you prefer:
  • New Tools in Kali:
  • It would not be a Kali release if there were not any new tools added! A quick run down of what has been added (to the network repositories):
  • bloodhound.py - A Python based ingestor for BloodHound
  • certipy - Tool for Active Directory Certificate Services enumeration and abuse
  • hak5-wifi-coconut - A user-space driver for USB Wi-Fi NICs and the Hak5 Wi-Fi Coconut
  • ldapdomaindump - Active Directory information dumper via LDAP
  • peass-ng - Privilege escalation tools for Windows and Linux/Unix* and MacOS.
  • rizin-cutter - reverse engineering platform powered by rizin
  • This is new tools, there are numerous updates to existing tools.
  • Kali ARM Updates:
  • We are happy to say that Kali has been added to Raspberry Pi Imager (rpi-imager), making it even easier to flash Kali to your SDs (as long as you can buy an RPi!). We have also written up a quick guide on it.
  • The Kali user’s sudoers edit is now its own file in /etc/sudoers.d and users should no longer be prompted on what to do when an update for sudo comes in. This change does not occur on an upgrade, only fresh installs.
  • The USBArmory MKII has had the u-boot bootloader bumped to 2022.10.
  • The build-script for the ODROID-C2 has been fixed and should now properly create images again. Thanks to M Beekhuizen for reporting the issue.
  • Radxa Zero images created from the build-scripts should now have firmware to support the wireless card on newer models (1.51+). Thanks to Stefan Lehner (from Discord) for reporting the issue.
  • Pinebook Pro images have firmware to support the new wireless card on more recent models. Thanks to Jonathan Cox for reporting the issue.
  • The kali-arm build-scripts got a big makeover, thanks to Arszilla for putting in the work to do this.
  • Kali Documentation Updates:
  • Our kali-docs has had various updates to existing pages as well as the following new pages:
  • Using the Raspberry Pi Imager software to write Kali Raspberry Pi Images
  • Azure
  • Kali Linux Image Overview
  • NetHunter Social Engineer Toolkit
  • Customizing a Kali Vagrant Vagrantfile
  • Kali inside Proxmox (Guest VM)
  • Running Kali Linux as a Virtual Machine in Windows
  • Preparing a system for WSL
  • Thank you for their work:
  • 2hexed
  • Fabrizio Fiandanese
  • Jelmer Vernooij
  • Jesse Rotenberg
  • Koh You Liang
  • OW87
  • Rclev4Sec
  • yesimxev

New in Kali Linux 2022.3 (Aug 11, 2022)

  • In light of “Hacker Summer Camp 2022” (BlackHat USA, BSides LV, and DEFCON) occurring right now, we wanted to push out Kali Linux 2022.3 as a nice surprise for everyone to enjoy! With the publishing of this blog post, we have the download links ready for immediate access, or you can update any existing installation.
  • The highlights for Kali’s 2022.3’s release:
  • Discord Server - Kali’s new community real-time chat option has launched!
  • Test Lab Environment - Quickly create a test bed to learn, practice, and benchmark tools and compare their results
  • Opening Kali-Tools Repo - We have opened up the Kali tools repository & are accepting your submissions!
  • Help Wanted - We are looking for a Go developer to help us on an open-source project
  • Kali NetHunter Updates - New releases in our NetHunter store
  • Virtual Machines Updates - New VirtualBox image format, weekly images, and build-scripts to build your own
  • New Tools In Kali - Would not be a release without some new tools!
  • Kali is on Discord:
  • We have started up a new discord server, Kali Linux & Friends. This is our new place for the Kali community to get together and chat in real-time all about Kali Linux (as well as other community projects that OffSec has to offer).
  • This is a community server, all with common interests. We do not have the goal to get as many users as possible, instead, we are growing a place for each other to help one another. We are focusing on quality not quantity. Please bear in mind, if you are looking for help, first search for your problem, ask questions, then wait for the community support from your peers. Remember no one is under obligation to help you, and you are more likely to get assistance if you are polite and show you have put some effort into solving your own issue.
  • Speaking of “real-time chatting”, we are going to be starting a new tradition. We will be doing an hour long session after every Kali release where various Kali developers will come and voice chat on Discord, answer questions about Kali and its direction, take your input, and so on. We will be sure to add details about this in every blog post release going forwards.
  • Test Lab Environment:
  • This is true, even outside of Information Security field, you need to understand your tools to master your craft. You can read their code to understand how they work (or a very detailed REAME at times), help screens and their manuals (if they have one) will give you a starting point on how to use them. But where do you use them especially when they are security tools? What output should the tool give? What is a successful run? How long does the tool take? What is its baseline? How can I get experience with it? All valid questions which need answers.
  • To try and achieve these answers, most seasoned professionals will practice first (hopefully in a known, controlled environment!). This is where a “Test Bed/Laboratory” comes into play. Theory is different to practical (You may remember this the first time you were tasked of something new to accomplish). You can take the static theory-based output from help screens, READMEs, and manual pages and hands-on enter the data into programs and monitor the dynamic output and practical response. Its one thing to read something, its another to do it. The result often gives people a deeper understanding.
  • Practice makes ~perfect~ permanent. So practice, practice, practice! Inquisitive minds can then start to experiment with new configurations, options, commands and flags. Then start to chain items together, or compare similar and alternative solutions, then compare the results, to become more educated and build up a benchmark of knowledge. This grows experience.
  • We are trying to make it a bit easier to build up your test lab. So we have packaged up:
  • DVWA - Damn Vulnerable Web Application
  • Juice Shop - OWASP Juice Shop
  • Kali for Virtual Machines:
  • We have already provided Kali Linux images for VMware and VirtualBox since the start. For this release, there’s been a few changes worth noting.
  • We now distribute the VirtualBox image as a VDI disk and a .vbox metadata file, or to say it short: the native format for VirtualBox images. It should be a bit faster to download, as those images have a better compression ratio compared to the OVA images that we used to provide. It should also be a bit more straightforward to use it, you just need to unpack the image in your VirtualBox folder and run it. In case you need help, refer to our documentation: Import Pre-Made Kali VirtualBox VM.
  • Additionally, we just started to provide weekly builds of our VM images. These images are built from the kali-rolling branch, meaning that they have the most up-to-date packages, but on the other hand they don’t receive as much testing as our quarterly releases.
  • Last but not least, the scripts that we use to build those images are now available on GitLab. If you need to build custom Kali VM images, this is the place to go!
  • Other Kali updates:New Tools in Kali:
  • It would not be a Kali release if there were not any new tools added! A quick run down of what has been added (to the network repositories):
  • BruteShark - Network Analysis Tool
  • DefectDojo - Open-source application vulnerability correlation and security orchestration tool
  • phpsploit - Stealth post-exploitation framework
  • shellfire - Exploiting LFI/RFI and command injection vulnerabilities
  • SprayingToolkit - Password spraying attacks against Lync/S4B, OWA and O365
  • There have been numerous packages updates as well.
  • For people who use Xrdp (like Win-KeX), there is a new look to the login
  • We have fixed up some confusion between fuse and fuse3
  • We did some maintenance to our network repository, and shrank /kali from 1.7Tb to 520Gb!
  • Kali NetHunter Updates:
  • Full Android 12 support is getting closer to being a reality with 6 new kernels in our NetHunter repository and updates to the NetHunter app. It is still not for the fainthearted as a little tinkering is required to install all the components individually but we’re getting closer to releasing the first OnePlus image soon.
  • For the meantime, we have updated the apps in our NetHunter Store to the latest releases, including:
  • aRDP, aSPICE, bVNC, Opaque = v5.1.0
  • Connectbot = 1.9.8-oss
  • Intercepter-NG = 2.8
  • OONI Probe = 3.7.0
  • OpenVPN = 0.7.38
  • Orbot = 16.4.1-RC-2-tor.0.4.4.6
  • SnoopSnitch = 2.0.12-nbc
  • Termux = 118
  • Termux-API = 51
  • Termux-Styling = 29
  • Termux-Tasker = 6
  • Termux-Widget = 13
  • Termux-Float = 15
  • WiGLE WiFi Wardriving = 2.64
  • If you would like to get involved and help out with the development, or just like to chat to like-minded Android tinkerers, why don’t you join us in the NetHunter channels on our new Discord server? We’d love to see you around!
  • Kali ARM Updates:
  • All Raspberry Pi devices have had their kernel upgraded to 5.15.
  • Created arm.kali.org to have a overview and statistics for kali-arm (very similar to nethunter.kali.org).
  • Every Kali ARM device has had their default size for the boot partition set to 256 MB.
  • Pinebook has had the broken sleep modes removed, so it should no longer go to sleep and be unable to wake up.
  • USBArmory MKII moved to the 2022.04 u-boot release.

New in Kali Linux 2022.2 (May 16, 2022)

  • GNOME 42 - Major release update of the popular desktop environment
  • KDE Plasma 5.24 - Version bump with a more polished experience
  • Multiple desktop enhancements - Disabled motherboard beep on Xfce, alternative panel layout for ARM, better support for VirtualBox shared folders, and lots more
  • Tweaks for the terminal - Enhanced Zsh syntax-highlighting, inclusion of Python3-pip and Python3-virtualenv by default
  • April fools - Hollywood mode - Awesome screensaver
  • Kali Unkaputtbar - BTRFS snapshot support for Kali
  • Win-KeX 3.1 - sudo support for GUI apps
  • New tools - Various new tools added
  • WPS attacks in Kali NetHunter - Added WPS attacks tab to the NetHunter app
  • GNOME 42:
  • Like for every (almost) half-year, there is a new version bump for the GNOME desktop environment. Kali 2022.2 brings the new version, GNOME 42, which is a more polished experienced following the work previously introduced in versions 40 and 41.
  • The shell theme now includes a more modern look, removing the arrows from the pop-up menus and using more rounded edges. In addition, we’ve upgraded and tweaked the dash-to-dock extension, making it integrate better with the new look and fixing some bugs.
  • Here is a preview of the upgraded Kali themes for gnome-shell:
  • GNOME 42’s Built-In Screenshot and Screencast Tool:
  • With GNOME 42, there is one new feature that is brighter than all of the others: the screenshot and screen-recording tool. It’s an enormous improvement in terms of user experience. Screenshots are, at the same time, saved to the ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ folder and copied to the clipboard, so the user does not need to find them.
  • Quick shortcuts to skip the On Screen Display (OSD) dialog:
  • Window screenshot: Alt + PtrScr
  • Full-screen screenshot: Shift + PtrScr
  • KDE Plasma 5.24:
  • This new Plasma release focuses on smoothing out wrinkles, evolving the design, and improving the overall feel and usability of the environment:
  • OTHER DESKTOP ENHANCEMENTS:
  • Xfce Tweaks:
  • Disable noisy motherboard beep when clicking the logout dialog! Thank you @DavidAlvesWeb!
  • Configure mousepad (text editor) to add the missing newline at the end of the file (POSIX standard): It was especially problematic if you used the text file in the terminal. Printing two files would show their respective last and first lines joined.
  • Set the default wallpaper for multi-monitor setups
  • Fix mouse pointer size to prevent auto-scaling in large displays
  • New simplified panel layout for arm devices: The layout we generally use for Xfce works perfectly, but it could not fit in undersized displays. This issue was common on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi, which can use a screen the size of the board. Therefore, we have created an alternative panel layout that gets automatically applied for all ARM-based images. Here is an example of a display with a 800x480 resolution:
  • App Icons:
  • It has been some time since the last update of the kali menu. This time the icons for nmap, ffuf, and edb-debugger were improved and updated, and new ones were added for evil-winrm and bloodhound.
  • Another improvement for the app dashboard is that the programs that include a user interface will now respect the custom icon provided by Kali. Previously, the icon in the app drawer showed the proper image, but once you launched it, the icon hardcoded to the program took preference, usually using a lower quality and pixelated image. This change will only affect KDE and GNOME desktops and, unfortunately, does not work on Xfce. Thankfully, this issue was more noticeable in these desktops, as icons in Xfce’s panel are tiny.
  • Automated Copy of Missing Configurations:
  • Generally, configuration files in Kali are stored outside of the $HOME directory, but some programs do not support this. As a workaround, some config-files need to be copied to the user’s home directory when it gets created.
  • This method has two issues:
  • Firstly, if the user removes an important file inside their folder, the system might not behave as expected.
  • Alternatively, the user will only receive the config-files available the moment it gets created. Therefore, if an OS update or program adds a new file (or modifies and existing), the user will not receive it unless they manually copy it.
  • With this change, the system will automatically copy any file from /etc/skel found missing in your home folder without replacing the already existing ones (do not worry, your changes will not get overwritten). So if, for example, you remove the Zsh shell configuration file, ~/.zshrc, the next time you log in, the file will be replaced.
  • VirtualBox Shared Folder Support:
  • If you are using VirtualBox, when a user account is created, it is now automatically added to the vboxsf group by default. This means if you are using VirtualBox, there is now one less step if you want to use shared folders.
  • Tweaks for the Terminal:
  • Small changes to the Zsh syntax-highlighting colours to improving legibility.
  • python3-pip and python3-virtualenv are now included by default Kali installations.
  • Added shell autocompletion for John The Ripper.
  • All …2john tools (zip2john, 7z2john, pdf2john, etc.) can now be called directly by just typing their name, no need to cd /usr/share/john/ first.
  • Resource packages (wordlists, windows-resources, powersploit, etc.) now show a much clearer output with colours differentiating the type of file or directory:
  • Hollywood Activate / Kali Screensaver (April Fools):
  • Last year for April Fools Day we did our “Kali 4 Kids” joke, which a scarily large number of people took VERY seriously. The number of organizations that contacted us wanting access to Kali 4 Kids was crazy.
  • This year, instead of celebrating with a joke, we wanted to give everyone something fun.
  • We have all seen Kali show up in movies and TV shows (like Mr. Robot) over the years. Hacking as shown in popular media, has ranged from really fun to completely absurd, so we saw the opportunity to do a tribute to some of our favourite instances (and get a little nostalgic).
  • Kali Unkaputtbar:
  • Last March we introduced the official support for BTRFS snapshotting in Kali Linux. We call it Kali Unkaputtbar! Sounds great, doesn’t it!
  • Win-KeX 3.1:
  • This update eliminates a restriction preventing GUI application from being run as root. Now you can start any GUI application with sudo, e.g.
  • New Tools in Kali:
  • It would not be a Kali release if there were not any new tools added! A quick run down of what has been added (to the network repositories):
  • BruteShark - Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT)
  • Evil-WinRM - Ultimate WinRM shell
  • Hakrawler - Web crawler designed for easy, quick discovery of endpoints and assets
  • Httpx - Fast and multi-purpose HTTP toolkit
  • LAPSDumper - Dumps LAPS passwords
  • PhpSploit - Stealth post-exploitation framework
  • PEDump - Dump Win32 executable files
  • SentryPeer - SIP peer-to-peer honeypot for VoIP
  • Sparrow-wifi - Graphical Wi-Fi Analyzer for Linux
  • wifipumpkin3 - Powerful framework for rogue access points
  • We want Kali to be able to access and interact with as many different services as possible. We all know that databases often contain juicy information. And MongoDB is no exception. The client has been restored & fixed up. Sorry for the down time!
  • There have been numerous packages updates as well.
  • Kali NetHunter Updates:
  • The legendary @yesimxev has added a new WPS Attacks tab to the Kali NetHunter app, which utilizes OneShot to perform various WPS attacks without monitor mode from your internal wireless chip, even from your Kali NetHunter watch!
  • The TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, LTE, Ultra GPS, Ultra LTEare receiving initial NetHunter support. It features the same functionalities as the TicWatch Pro, except BadUSB. We are Trying Harder to bring you even more for the next release on this watch! In the meantime, all TicWatch Pros are now supported - TicWatch Pro, Pro 2020, Pro 4G/LTE.
  • Head over to our documentation site for a step-by-step guide on how to install Kali NetHunter on your TicWatch Pro 3 device.
  • KALI ARM UPDATES:
  • Raspberry Pi:
  • Bump kernel to 5.10.103
  • Bluetooth is fixed, for real this time
  • Wi-Fi firmware now uses 7.45.206 by default instead of 7.45.154, with nexmon patches applied
  • Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is now supported by nexmon
  • Improvements to the wpa_supplicant.conf handling
  • Kernel has NVME support built in, instead of module, so Raspberry Pi Compute Modules that use NVMe for their root device will work out of the box
  • The Raspberry Pi userland is now packaged up for ARM64 instead of built manually at image creation
  • Pinebook Pro:
  • Use the Kali kernel and u-boot instead of compiling our own
  • USB Armory MKII:
  • Bump to kernel 5.15
  • Radxa Zero:
  • Build scripts available for either eMMC or SD Card. Documentation still needs to be written, but loosely follow the instructions on the Radxa Zero wiki
  • Build Script improvements:
  • command-not-found and kali-tweaks are included in minimal builds
  • The base directory is now cleaned up at build completion instead of an empty directory left around
  • We would also like to give a community shout-out to Syndrowm, who improved wpa_supplicant.conf handling on Raspberry Pi devices - thank you!

New in Kali Linux 2022.1 (Feb 15, 2022)

  • Kali Linux 2022.1 Release (Visual Updates, Kali Everything ISOs, Legacy SSH)
  • Today we are pushing out the first Kali Linux release of the new year with Kali Linux 2022.1, and just in time for Valentine’s Day! This release brings various visual updates and tweaks to existing features, and is ready to be downloaded or upgraded if you have an existing Kali Linux installation.
  • The summary of the changelog since the 2021.4 release from December 2021 is:
  • Visual Refresh - Updated wallpapers and GRUB theme
  • Shell Prompt Changes - Visual improvements to improve readability when copying code
  • Refreshed Browser Landing Page - Firefox and Chromium homepage has had a makeover to help you access everything Kali you need
  • Kali Everything Image - An all-packages-in-one solution now available to download
  • Kali-Tweaks Meets SSH - Connect to old SSH servers using legacy SSH protocols and ciphers
  • VMware i3 Improvements - Host-guest features properly work now on i3
  • Accessibility Features - Speech synthesis is back in the Kali installer
  • New Tools - Various new tools added, many from ProjectDiscovery!
  • Besides that, we have been working on a new feature, which just isn’t quite ready yet (as the documentation is still in progress!). It’s a large one, so it’s going to have its own blog post once ready to help demonstrate its importance to us. This one is for you bare-metal installers!
  • VISUAL REFRESH: THEME UPDATES:
  • As promised back in Kali 2021.2, beginning with this release (2022.1) going forwards, our yearly 20xx.1 versions will be the only releases to have the main visual updates. Using a yearly lifecycle, it makes it easier to recognize the different versions of Kali Linux over time. This update includes new wallpapers for desktop, login, and boot displays, in addition to a refreshed installer theme which you may have seen if you have recently updated.
  • Moreover, the functions, theme and layout of the boot menu present in our ISO images have been improved. With these changes, it makes them consistent throughout. Previously, the menus in the UEFI and the BIOS boot menus had different options, designs, and were also written differently, making them confusing. Throw into the mix that there were multiple differences between “installer”, “live”, “netinstall” and “mini” options as well. All of these problems have been addressed and they now have a universal feel to them all.
  • SHELL PROMPT CHANGES:
  • You talked, we listened. We have made a few tweaks which we hope will make your life easier since our last prompt update in 2020.4. Examples of this problem may be when writing a professional pentesting report or collaborating on debugging code and sharing the terminal, the right-side prompt (which had the exit code and the number of background processes) may of gotten in the way. So it has been removed from our default shell, ZSH. Along with this, the skull in the root prompt has been replaced with a simple.
  • REFRESHED BROWSER LANDING PAGE:
  • This release comes with a fresh new look for the default landing page shipped inside Kali. Utilizing the refreshed documentation sites (Kali-Docs and Kali-Tools), the search function will help you find almost anything you could need using Kali Linux!
  • KALY EVERYTHING IMAGE: EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE:
  • This release will welcome a new flavor, the “kali-linux-everything” image. This allows for a complete offline standalone image (ISO), for those who require all of Kali’s tools to be pre-installed. Unlike previously, users will not be required to download the “kali-linux-everything” packages during Kali’s setup via a network mirror, as they will be located on the same media, but the image is much larger to initially download due to this. Because of the size increase, (~2.8GB to ~9.4GB), these images will be only initially offered using a technology that its designed to handle the traffic, BitTorrent. Additionally, as there are more packages, it will take longer to also install Kali.
  • If you understand what you are doing, and this sounds like something you would like, grab the torrents and give it a try!
  • To learn more about the grouping of Kali’s packages, please see our documentation about metapackages.
  • This will not include Kaboxer applications at this point in time, due to a known limitation.
  • Kali-Tweaks: Legacy SSH Made Easy
  • There is a new setting in the kali-tweaks Hardening section! It is now possible to configure Kali’s SSH client for Wide Compatibility, which means that old algorithms and ciphers are enabled. Thanks to that, connecting to old servers that use those is now straightforward, no need to pass additional options explicitly on the command-line.
  • The purpose of this setting is to make it easier to discover vulnerable SSH servers, just like explained previously this opens up more potential attack surfaces (which is how this came about, due to a recent pentest, a Uninterruptible Power Supply gave us our foothold to complete network pwnage).
  • Please note, unlike OpenSSL and Samba, this weakened behaviour is NOT enabled by default, as SSH is a sensitive enough component that we prefer to keep it Secure by default. Therefore if you are interested in this setting, you will have to run kali-tweaks, enter the Hardening section and enable it in there.
  • Here is what the Hardening screen looks like currently:
  • VMWARE I3 IMPROVEMENTS:
  • For users that use Kali in a guest VM with the i3 desktop environment (kali-desktop-i3), VMware’s host-guest features (e.g. drag ‘n’ drop, copy/paste) were not enabled by default, it had to be done manually. This is now fixed and you should not have anything to do, it should work out of the box. This was enabled with package i3-wm 4.20.1-1.
  • TALK TO ME:
  • We have always tried to support as many users of Kali as possible. This is true from our early releases through to today.
  • To help blind and visually impaired users, we are pleased to say speech synthesis is back in the Kali setup. When we released Kali 2021.4, the sound in the installer broke. This was due to a packaging bug in the sound driver, and unfortunately this issue went unnoticed for a while. This is now fixed. Big thanks to isfr8585 who reported the issue!
  • NEW TOOLS IN KALI:
  • Between numerous packages updates, there has been various new tools added! A quick breakdown of what has been added (to the network repositories):
  • dnsx - Fast and multi-purpose DNS toolkit allow to run multiple DNS queries
  • email2phonenumber - An OSINT tool to obtain a target’s phone number just by having his email address
  • naabu - A fast port scanner with a focus on reliability and simplicity
  • nuclei - Targeted scanning based on templates
  • PoshC2 - A proxy aware C2 framework with post-exploitation and lateral movement
  • proxify - Swiss Army knife Proxy tool for HTTP/HTTPS traffic capture, manipulation, and replay on the go
  • Shout-out to ProjectDiscovery for their work & tools!
  • KALI ARM UPDATES:
  • A list of packages that were previously not available for the arm64 architecture, and that have been added in this release:
  • feroxbuster
  • ghidra
  • Bluetooth should now be fixed on the RaspberryPi images, aside from the Zero 2 W, which we are still hunting down a fix for and will release an updated image when it is ready. There was a change with the bootloader that changed the serial device name being used.
  • Image file names have changed to be a bit more verbose with their naming, instead of using short-hand or nicknames of devices.
  • The build scripts now have a documentation page that explains them a bit more in depth.
  • The RaspberryPi Zero 2 W device has documentation now as well.
  • COMMUNITY SHOUT-OUTS:
  • These are people from the public who have helped Kali and the team for the last release. And we want to praise them for their work (we like to give credit where due!):
  • Greg Myers who helped to clean up our kali-docs
  • Void Your Warranty who contributed a very helpful encrypted standalone USB kali-docs page
  • D for his contributions on the Gatworks Ventana and Gateworks Newport Kali ARM build-scripts
  • 1y for contributing the i.MX6ULL EVK Kali ARM build-script, which we accidentally dropped during the refactoring. It has now been restored.

New in Kali Linux 2021.4 (Dec 10, 2021)

  • 9th December, 2021 - The fourth 2021 Kali Rolling release. Kernel 5.14.0, Xfce 4.16.3.
  • [Tool Upgrade Request] Please upgrade the package "Pipx" to version 0.13.1.1 (sbrun)
  • [Tool Upgrade Request] VirtualBox packages version 6.1.28 (sbrun)
  • [General Bug] kali for banana pro stuck on booting (steev)
  • [Feature Requests] Impacket 0.9.24 (sbrun)
  • [Kali Package Bug] GVM is not installed (sbrun)
  • [Kali Package Bug] UDP scanning (-sU) is broken in Nmap version 7.91 and 7.90 (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Spraykatz - retrieve credentials on Windows machines and large Active Directory environments (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] wotmate - Web of trust grapher (sbrun)
  • [Tool Upgrade Request] Upgrade feroxbuster to version 2.4.0 (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Dufflebag - Search exposed EBS volumes for secrets (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Reverse proxy grapher - generate a nice graphviz graph illustrating your reverse proxy flow (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Maryam - Open-source Intelligence(OSINT) framework (sbrun)
  • [Tool Upgrade Request] ZAP 2.11 release (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Proxmark3 (sbrun)
  • [Kali Package Bug] shellter: cannot start / must do workaround (arnaudr)
  • [Kali Package Improvement] I can't install gtkhash. (arnaudr)
  • [General Bug] update error (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] Name-That-Hash - a modern day hash-identifier (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] trufflehog - Searches through git repositories for high entropy strings and secrets, digging deep into commit history (sbrun)
  • [Queued Tool Addition] S3Scanner - Scan for open S3 buckets and dump (sbrun)
  • Summary:
  • Improved Apple M1 support
  • Wide compatibility for Samba
  • Switching package manager mirrors
  • Kaboxer theming
  • Updates to Xfce, GNOME and KDE
  • Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W + USBArmory MkII ARM images
  • More tools

New in Kali Linux 2021.3 (Dec 8, 2021)

  • Today we have released the newest version of Kali Linux, 2021.3 (quarter #3), which is now ready for download or updating.
  • A summary of the changes since the 2021.2 release from June are:
  • OpenSSL - Wide compatibility by default - Keep reading for what that means
  • New Kali-Tools site - Following the footsteps of Kali-Docs, Kali-Tools has had a complete refresh
  • Better VM support in the Live image session - Copy & paste and drag & drop from your machine into a Kali VM by default
  • New tools - From adversary emulation, to subdomain takeover to Wi-Fi attacks
  • Kali NetHunter smartwatch - first of its kind, for TicHunter Pro
  • KDE 5.21 - Plasma desktop received a version bump
  • OpenSSL: wide compatibility by default:
  • Going forwards from Kali Linux 2021.3, OpenSSL has now been configured for wider compatibility to allow Kali to talk to as many services as possible. This means that legacy protocols (such as TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1) and older ciphers are enabled by default. This is done to help increase Kali’s ability to talk to older, obsolete systems and servers that are still using these older protocols. This may potentially increase your options on available attack surfaces (if your target has these End of Life (EoL) services running, having then forgotten about them, what else could this uncover?). While this is not a configuration that would be good for a general purpose operating systems, this setting makes sense for Kali as it enables the user to engage and talk with more potential targets.
  • This setting is easy to modify via the command-line tool kali-tweaks though. Enter the Hardening section, and from there you can configure OpenSSL for Strong Security mode instead, which uses today’s current modern standard allowing for secure communication.
  • For more details, refer to the documentation: kali.org/docs/general-use/openssl-configuration/
  • Kali-Tools:
  • In 2019.4 we moved our documentation over to our updated /docs/ page. It’s now finally the turn of our Kali-Tools site!
  • We have refreshed every aspect of the previous site, giving a new, faster, layout, content, and system! The backend is now in a semi-automated state and more in the open, which like before, allows for anyone to help out and contribute.
  • Once these sites have settled down from all the changes and matured a bit, we will start to package these both up, allowing for offline reading.
  • Virtualization: improvements all over the place:
  • The Kali Live image received some love during this release cycle! We worked hard to make the experience smoother for those who run the Live image in virtualized environments. Basic features like copy’n’paste and drag’n’drop between the host and the guest should now work out of the box. And this is really for everyone: VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V and QEMU+Spice. Did we forget anyone? Drop us a word on the Kali bug tracker!
  • On the same line: it’s now very easy to configure Kali for Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode. Open kali-tweaks in a terminal, select Virtualization, and if Kali is running under Hyper-V, you’ll see a setting to turn on Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode. It’s now as simple as hitting Enter!
  • If you use this feature, make sure to visit kali.org/docs/virtualization/install-hyper-v-guest-enhanced-session-mode/, as there are a few additional things to be aware of.
  • Many thanks to @Shane Bennett, who spent a tremendous amount of time testing this feature, provided extremely detailed feedback all along, and even helped us with the documentation. Kudos Shane!
  • New Tools in Kali:
  • It wouldn’t be a Kali release if there weren’t any new tools added! A quick run down of what’s been added (to the network repositories):
  • Berate_ap - Orchestrating MANA rogue Wi-Fi Access Points
  • CALDERA - Scalable automated adversary emulation platform
  • EAPHammer - Targeted evil twin attacks against WPA2-Enterprise Wi-Fi networks
  • HostHunter - Recon tool for discovering hostnames using OSINT techniques
  • RouterKeygenPC - Generate default WPA/WEP Wi-Fi keys
  • Subjack - Subdomain takeover
  • WPA_Sycophant - Evil client portion of EAP relay attack
  • We proudly introduce the world’s first Kali NetHunter smartwatch, the TicHunter Pro thanks to the outstanding work of our very own NetHunter developer @yesimxev. It is still experimental, hence the features are limited to USB attacks, and some basic functions. The hardware also has limitations, as such a small battery won’t supply enough voltage for any OTG adapters, so huge antennas won’t stick out of your wrist! The future is very promising, bringing support for Nexmon and internal bluetooth usage.
  • Please note that those images contain a “nano Kali rootfs” due to technical reasons. The detailed installation guide can be found in our Kali documentation. Feel free to join the adventure!
  • Kali NetHunter Installation via Magisk:
  • Thanks to the amazing work of @Mominul Islam, we can now bring Kali NetHunter to Android 11 devices without a fully working TWRP!
  • Each Kali NetHunter image can be flashed as a Magisk module. This work is still in its infancy and more work is needed to bring it up to par with the traditional installer through TWRP.
  • One of the missing parts is the kernel installation. We haven’t been able to install the kernel through Magisk yet. That has to be done via kernel installers like the “Franco Kernel Manager”. If you are keen to get NetHunter onto your Android 11 device, just give it a crack. If you are interested in helping out with getting the kernel part finished, please get in touch with us through our GitLab issue tracker. Any help is greatly appreciated!
  • Kali NetHunter installation step-by-step guide for our preferred device, the OnePlus 7
  • Our preferred device for Kali NetHunter is the OnePlus 7 running Android 10 (stock ROM).
  • For a step-by-step installation guide and links to all the files required to restore your phone to the latest stock Android 10 ROM, install TWRP, Magisk and Kali NetHunter, head over to our Kali documentation page.
  • Kali ARM Updates:
  • We have been busy doing various tweaks and tinkering on our Kali ARM images, which covers:
  • Our Kali ARM build-scripts have been re-worked.
  • Thanks to @cyrus104, we now have a build-script to support the Gateworks Newport board, and he also added documentation for it.
  • @Re4son contributed a build-script for the Raspberry Pi Zero W based “Pi-Tail” (Find more information here).
  • Additionally, the RaspberryPi Zero W based “P4wnP1” build-script has undergone some major changes.
  • All images should finally resize the file-system on the first boot.
  • We now re-generate the default snakeoil cert, which fixes a couple of tools that were failing to run previously.
  • Images default to iptables-legacy and ip6tables-legacy for iptables support.
  • We now set a default locale of en_US.UTF-8 on all images, you can, of course, change this to your preferred locale.
  • The Kali user on ARM images is now in all of the same groups as base images by default, and uses zsh for the default shell. You can change your default shell by using the kali-tweaks tool which also comes pre-installed.
  • Raspberry Pi images can now use a wpa_supplicant.conf file on the /boot partition.
  • Raspberry Pi images now come with kalipi-config, and kalipi-tft-config pre-installed.
  • Pinebook Pro’s kernel has been updated to 5.14, and you now get messages on the LCD screen as it’s booting, instead of a blinking cursor until X starts.
  • Desktop & Theme Updates:
  • There are also some changes in the desktop space:
  • Improved GTK3 theme for Xfce’s notifications and logout-dialog
  • Redesigned GTK2 theme for a better fit of older programs
  • Improved Kali-Dark and Kali-Light syntax-highlighting themes for GNOME and Xfce
  • In addition to these changes, one of Kali’s preferred desktops, KDE plasma, has received a version bump, now including version 5.21. This update brings an updated look, with a new application launcher and theme improvements. Here’s a preview of how it looks with Kali’s customization:
  • Kali-Docs Updates:
  • Our documentation site, as well as the pages mentioned already in this blog post, the following other pages have received major changes:
  • Download Kali Linux Images Securely
  • Kali Linux & WSL & Mesa
  • Kali Linux IRC Channel
  • Contributing runtime tests
  • GitLab Commit 2021:
  • We participated in GitLab’s virtual conference this year and @g0tmi1k gave a talk on the Dynamic between Kali Linux and OffSec. Give it a watch!
  • Ampere & ARM:
  • Following our announcement of our partnerships with Ampere, we have now fully moved our ARM package building machines over to their hardware, and loving the speed increase! Thank you again to Ampere for the assistance! If you need some ARM servers give them a look! If they are nice enough to help us out this way, we are sure they will treat you good as well.
  • Upcoming Changes:
  • Looking forward, we are going to be announcing the following changes:
  • Kali-Menu refresh - We know you may not use it, but for the people who do, we are planning on making some major alterations in its structure. This will hopefully be live for testing in 2021.4, and then made default in a later release based on user response. You will be able to change the menu layout by using kali-tweaks. If you want to provide input on this change, get engaged with us and make your voice heard!
  • Load Balancer (http.kali.org & cdimage.kali.org) - This handles apt packages as well as OS images. We will be switching from MirrorBrain to MirrorBits. We will be soon in touch with all the community mirror maintainers to give them notice of our infrastructure changes. If you would like to become a mirror, please see our guide.

New in Kali Linux 2019.4 (Nov 26, 2019)

  • A new default desktop environment, Xfce
  • New GTK3 theme (for Gnome and Xfce)
  • Introduction of “Kali Undercover” mode
  • Kali Documentation has a new home and is now Git powered
  • Public Packaging – getting your tools into Kali
  • Kali NetHunter KeX – Full Kali desktop on Android
  • BTRFS during setup
  • Added PowerShell
  • The kernel is upgraded to version 5.3.9
  • … Plus the normal bugs fixes and updates.

New in Kali Linux 2019.2 (May 21, 2019)

  • This release brings our kernel up to version 4.19.28, fixes numerous bugs, includes many updated packages, and most excitingly, features a new release of Kali Linux NetHunter!

New in Kali Linux 2019.1a (Mar 26, 2019)

  • Minor BugFix release (VMware Installer).

New in Kali Linux 2019.1 (Feb 19, 2019)

  • Tool Upgrades:
  • The big marquee update of this release is the update of Metasploit to version 5.0, which is their first major release since version 4.0 came out in 2011.
  • Metasploit 5.0 is a massive update that includes database and automation APIs, new evasion capabilities, and usability improvements throughout. Check out their in-progress release notes to learn about all the new goodness
  • Kali Linux 2019.1 also includes updated packages for theHarvester, DBeaver, and more. For the complete list of updates, fixes, and additions, please refer to the Kali Bug Tracker Changelog.
  • ARM Updates:
  • The 2019.1 Kali release for ARM includes the return of Banana Pi and Banana Pro, both of which are on the 4.19 kernel. Veyron has been moved to a 4.19 kernel and the Raspberry Pi images have been simplified so it is easier to figure out which one to use. There are no longer separate Raspberry Pi images for users with TFT LCDs because we now include re4son’s kalipi-tft-config script on all of them, so if you want to set up a board with a TFT, run ‘kalipi-tft-config’ and follow the prompts.

New in Kali Linux 2018.4 (Oct 30, 2018)

  • New Tools and Tool Upgrades:
  • We have only added one new tool to the distribution in this release cycle but it’s a great one. Wireguard is a powerful and easy to configure VPN solution that eliminates many of the headaches one typically encounters setting up VPNs. Check out our Wireguard post for more details on this great addition.
  • Kali Linux 2018.4 also includes updated packages for Burp Suite, Patator, Gobuster, Binwalk, Faraday, Fern-Wifi-Cracker, RSMangler, theHarvester, wpscan, and more.
  • 64-bit Raspberry Pi 3:
  • We have created a very experimental Raspberry Pi 3 image that supports 64-bit mode. Please note that this is a beta image, so if you discover anything that isn’t working, please alert us on our bug tracker.

New in Kali Linux 2018.3 (Aug 27, 2018)

  • Kali 2018.3 brings the kernel up to version 4.17.0 and while 4.17.0 did not introduce many changes, 4.16.0 had a huge number of additions and improvements including more Spectre and Meltdown fixes, improved power management, and better GPU support.
  • Since our last release, we have added a number of new tools to the repositories, including:
  • idb – An iOS research / penetration testing tool
  • gdb-peda – Python Exploit Development Assistance for GDB
  • datasploit – OSINT Framework to perform various recon techniques
  • kerberoast – Kerberos assessment tools
  • In addition to these new packages, we have also upgraded a number of tools in our repos including aircrack-ng, burpsuite, openvas, wifite, and wpscan.

New in Kali Linux 2018.1 (Feb 12, 2018)

  • Kernel updated to 4.14
  • Package updates

New in Kali Linux 2016.1 (Jan 22, 2016)

  • Today marks an important milestone for us with the first public release of our Kali Linux rolling distribution. Kali switched to a rolling release model back when we hit version 2.0 (codename “sana”), however the rolling release was only available via an upgrade from 2.0 to kali-rolling for a select brave group. After 5 months of testing our rolling distribution (and its supporting infrastructure), we’re confident in its reliability – giving our users the best of all worlds – the stability of Debian, together with the latest versions of the many outstanding penetration testing tools created and shared by the information security community.
  • Kali Rolling Release vs Standard Releases:
  • To get a better understanding of the changes that this brings to Kali, a clearer picture of how rolling releases work is needed. Rather than Kali basing itself off standard Debian releases (such as Debian 7, 8, 9) and going through the cyclic phases of “new, mainstream, outdated”, the Kali rolling release feeds continuously from Debian testing, ensuring a constant flow of the latest package versions.
  • Continuously Updated Penetration Testing Tools:
  • Our automated notification system of updated penetration testing tool releases has been working well over the past 5 months and has ensured that the kali-rolling repository always holds the latest stable releases of monitored tools. This usually leaves a gap of around 24-48 hours from notification of a new tool update, to its packaging, testing, and pushing into our repositories. We would also like to introduce our new Kali Linux Package Tracker which allows you to follow the evolution of Kali Linux both with email updates and a comprehensive web interface. The tracker can also help in identifying which versions of various tools and packages are in our repository at any given moment. As an example, the screenshot below shows the timeline of the nmap package in Kali and tracks its repository versions.
  • VMware Tools vs Open-VM-Tools:
  • This release also marks a dramatic change around how VMware guest tools are installed. As of Sept 2015, VMware recommends using the distribution-specific open-vm-tools instead of the VMware Tools package for guest machines. We have made sure that our package installs and works correctly with the latest Kali rolling kernel and are happy to see that all the needed functionality such as file copying, clipboard copy/paste and automatic screen resizing are working perfectly.

New in Kali Linux 2.0 (Aug 12, 2015)

  • So, what’s new in Kali 2.0? There’s a new 4.0 kernel, now based on Debian Jessie, improved hardware and wireless driver coverage, support for a variety of Desktop Environments (gnome, kde, xfce, mate, e17, lxde, i3wm), updated desktop environment and tools – and the list goes on. But these bulletpoint items are essentially a side effect of the real changes that have taken place in our development backend

New in Kali Linux 1.1.0 (Feb 9, 2015)

  • The new release runs a 3.18 kernel, patched for wireless injection attacks.
  • Our ISO build systems are now running off live-build 4.x.
  • Improved wireless driver support, due to both kernel and firmware upgrades.
  • NVIDIA Optimus hardware support.
  • Updated virtualbox-tool, openvm-tools and vmware-tools packages and instructions.
  • A whole bunch of fixes and updates from our bug-tracker changelog.
  • And most importantly, we changed grub screens and wallpapers!

New in Kali Linux 1.0.9 (Aug 26, 2014)

  • Rasberry Pi B+ ARM Image Support:
  • We are pleased to announce that we have updated our Raspberry Pi Kali image to support the new B+ model so that now it works out of the box. This single image now supports all Raspberry Pi models.
  • Odroid U3, Cubox-i ARM Images Added:
  • We have also included two more images to our Kali ARM image collection for the Odroid U3 and Cubox-i ARM computers. Each of these have interesting use cases as both their small form factor and specs are formidable. All of these news scripts can be found in our Offensive Security Github page.
  • New Kali Tools Website:
  • After many months of typing, editing, and testing, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new Kali Linux Tools website. This new site is our official home for information on all of the tools included in Kali Linux. For each tool, you will find a description of the tool, links to the tool homepage, author and license information, and usage output so you can see what output you can expect from each utility in Kali.
  • In addition to the primary listing of all Kali tools, we have also made an effort to use tags throughout the site so you can more easily find a particular tool based on what it can do. You will find a tag cloud at the bottom of each page as you navigate the site. Also available is a full breakdown of the contents of each Kali Linux metapackage, allowing you to see which tool is included in a particular metapackage, which makes the building of custom ISOs much easier.

New in Kali Linux 1.0.7 (May 27, 2014)

  • Linux kernel 3.14
  • Tool updates
  • Package improvements

New in Kali Linux 1.0.6 (Jan 10, 2014)

  • This release comes with a new 3.12 kernel, a LUKS nuke feature, new Kali ARM build scripts, and Kali AMAZON AMI and Google Compute image generation scripts, not to mention numerous tool additions and updates.

New in Kali Linux 1.0.5 (Sep 6, 2013)

  • Today we are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Kali Linux 1.0.5 with a rollup of various tool additions, fixes, and upgrades, including our fix for the encrypted encrypted LVM installation issue that we documented last week. As usual, users with Kali already installed just need to run a simple update to get the latest goodness...
  • root@kali:~# apt-get update
  • root@kali:~# apt-get dist-upgrade
  • We’ve also received updated ARM images from Offensive Security, which bring several fixes to issues found in the 1.0.4 releases. Kali Linux has specific ARM images for 9 separate hardware devices/families, including the Raspberry Pi, Galaxy Note 10.1, BeagleBone Black, Odroid U2, Odroid XU (!) and more. While Kali Linux works on all the hardware above natively, don’t forget you can get Kali Linux installed on almost any Android phone or tablet.
  • Software Defined Radio (SDR) researchers will be especially pleased to know that we have made some significant tool additions in this growing field. With some great input and suggestions from @NowSec, we placed a great deal of focus in the past few weeks on adding numerous SDR tools and drivers to our arsenal:
  • kalibrate-rtl
  • gr-air-modes
  • RTLSDR Scanner
  • gr-scan
  • rtl-sdr
  • Gqrx
  • GR Extras
  • gr-baz
  • gr-osmosdr
  • gr-iqbal
  • gr-fcdproplus
  • UHD support
  • HackRF support
  • RTL2832U support
  • Funcube Dongle Pro+ support
  • We also forked GNU Radio from the Debian repositories and upgraded it to version 3.6.5.1, a task that sounds much simpler than it really is since its dependencies have dependencies.
  • We’re very pleased with the end result and these additions have given us the excuse to play around in the field of SDR, which is filled with great potential for research. This isn’t the end of our support for SDR, but only the beginning as we intend to combine our rock-solid stability with cutting edge device support to become the best platform for SDR research in the industry.
  • This release of Kali Linux isn’t only about SDR, though. For our users who love hacking NFC, we have also beefed up our suite of tools for manipulating MIFARE cards with updates to libnfc, mfoc, and mfcuk along with the addition of mfterm.

New in Kali Linux 1.0.4 (Jul 26, 2013)

  • In keeping with our tradition of publishing new releases during the annual Black Hat and DEF CON conferences, we are pleased to announce the availability of Kali Linux 1.0.4. The last few months since the initial release of Kali have seen a large number of changes, upgrades, and improvements in the distribution, all of which are included in version 1.0.4.
  • Penetration Testing Tool Additions:
  • Thanks to numerous requests from the Kali Linux community on the Kali Bug Tracker, we have added many new tools to Kali’s arsenal, including:
  • Winexe
  • Pass the Hash Toolkit
  • enum4linux
  • RegRipper
  • rfcat
  • Unicornscan
  • jSQL
  • JD-GUI
  • Ubertooth
  • Ghost Phisher
  • Uniscan
  • Arachni
  • Bully
  • Penetration Testing Tool Updates:
  • In addition to the new tools that we have added to the distribution, version 1.04 of Kali Linux also contains many upgraded packages. Some of the more notable updates are:
  • OpenVAS
  • Volatility
  • Durandal’s Backdoor
  • Maltego
  • OWASP ZAP
  • Armitage
  • DNSrecon
  • Vega
  • WPScan
  • More Kali Linux ARM Images:
  • Our quest to get Kali Linux running on popular ARM hardware is going strong and our trusted contributor, Offensive Security, has provided new ARM images for the BeagleBone Black, CuBox, and Efika MX to our growing collection.
  • Seamless upgrade Of Kali Linux:
  • As usual, you do not need to re-download Kali Linux 1.0.4 if you already have it installed. A regular “apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade” will do the job of getting you to the latest and greatest!

New in Kali Linux 1.0.3 (Apr 27, 2013)

  • A couple of weeks ago, we were approached (independently) by two blind security enthusiasts who both drew our attention to the fact that Kali Linux had no built-in accessibility features.This made Kali difficult, if not impossible, to both install and use from a blind or visually impaired user’s perspective.
  • Our first attempts at building an accessible version of Kali failed and after a bit of digging, we found that there were several upstream GNOME Display Manager (GDM3) bugs in Debian, which prevented these accessibility features from functioning with the GDM greeter. Working together with an upstream GNOME developer, we knocked out these bugs and had the fixes implemeted in Kali, and hopefully in future builds of GDM3 in Debian. To make the Kali installation accessible as well, we have added a new “accessibility” boot option that triggers the speech engine during the installation process.
  • We are very proud to have sponsored this work, which has brought much-improved accessibility features to both Kali Linux and Debian and we sincerely hope to continue receiving feedback from the community so we can further improve Kali Linux. We have also taken this opportunity add a new “Live Desktop” installer and have released a new version of Kali Linux that has these accessibility features built-in.
  • To activate the speech assisted installer, press “S” at boot time, and hit enter.