INTRODUCTION
• Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution And
a member of UNIX OS Family.
• Maintained and Funded by Offensive Security
Limited.
• Primarily designed for Penetration Testing and
Digital Forensics.
• Developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of
Offensive Security.
• Rewrite of Backtrack.
History
• Knoppix , ancestor of Kali Linux was the first ever
bootable Live Linux Operating system , which is still in
existence.
• Knoppix project was then forked into Whoppix and then
re-forked into WHAX.
• WHAX was then re-branded and streamlined into the
BackTrack , the predecessor of Kali Linux.
• BackTrack had a long reign of almost seven years as the
pentesters and hackers choice.
• BackTrack is a customised native environment dedicated
to hacking. As of 2011 it was used by more than four
million amateur and professional security researchers.
History contd…
• The latest version, BackTrack 5, is built on Ubuntu
Lucid and contains some 350 penetration testing
tools.
• However, as of March 2013 the venerated distro
was decommissioned and replaced by Kali Linux.
• The main issue with BackTrack v1-v5 was that it
was a headache for dependencies. Too many
pentesting tools embedded within BackTrack all
struggled to co-exist within the dependencies.
History contd…
• The solution was to rebuild the distro bottom-up
by making Kali Debian based.
• Kali Linux has 300 tools which automatically work
within the Kali ecosphere. Kali also has been
created with the clean “File system Hierarchy
Standard” and offers vast plug and play wireless
support.
• The main attraction was the ARM support
provided by Kali Linux. Incidentally, you can also
create your own .iso file with Kali through the
Debian lifebuild feature.
More About KALI LINUX….
• Open Source
• Has Monolithic type Kernel
• Available in 32-bit and 64-bit images for use
on hosts based on the x-86 instruction set.
• Also available as an image for ARM
architecture for use on Raspberry Pi and
Samsung’s ARM Chromebook.
• Its newest version Kali Linux 1.0.9 was
released on 25 August 2014.
Features of KALI LINUX
• Has more than 300 penetration testing tools.
• Multilingual Support
• Completely Customizable.
• Free and Always will be.
• Vast Wireless device support and Compatible
with USB.
• GPG signed packages and repos.
• ARM support(ARMEL & ARMHF)-Kali Linux has
ARM repositories integrated with mainline
distribution.
What is Penetration Testing?
“The process of evaluating systems ,
applications , and protocols with the intent of
identifying vulnerabilities usually from the
perspective of an unprivileged or anonymous
user to determine potential real world
impacts…”
Or in other words
…we try to break into stuff before the bad guys
do…
Flexibility of KALI LINUX
• Kali Linux can run natively when installed on
a computer’s hard disk or,
• Can be booted from a live CD or a live USB or,
• It can run within a virtual machine.
• Available for ARM devices like Samsung
Chromebook, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1,
Raspberry Pi , CuBox , and a lot more.
• KALI LINUX can also be installed within a
chroot environment on an android device.
Kali Linux Penetration-Testing
Programs
• nmap - a port scanner.
• Wireshark - a packet analyzer.
• John The Ripper - a password cracker.
• Aircrack-ng – a software suite for penetration
testing wireless LANs.
• iKat- a hacking tool
Kali Linux is preinstalled with numerous penetration
Testing programs:-
Difference between Kali Linux and
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
• Ubuntu is a general
desktop and server
distribution.
• Designed to satisfy general
Desktop and Server
requirements and also
targeted in some Smart
TV’s.
• Developed by Canonical
Ltd. and released back in
2004.
Kali Linux
• Kali Linux is a specialized
distribution.
• Primarily designed for
purposes like Penetration
Testing and Digital
Forensics.
• Developed by Offensive
Security Ltd. and released
on 13th March 2013.
Information Security Certifications
Offensive Security Ltd. Provides Courses and
Certifications related to Kali Linux. These
Certifications are namingly:-
• OSCP- Offensive Security Certified Professional
• OSWP- Offensive Security Wireless
Professional
• OSCE- Offensive Security Certified Expert
• OSEE- Offensive Security Exploitation Expert
• OSWE- Offensive Security Web Expert
Developer’s point of view…
Mati Aharoni is the founder and core developer of Kali
Linux project , as well the CEO of Offensive Security.
Acc. To him--
“It is critical to take the view of the attacker to see if
your defenses are working."
This was the main idea behind the development of KALI
LINUX.