KDE Plasma desktop environment on Kali Linux

How to install KDE dekstop on Kali Linux

Most Linux distributions have a “main” desktop environment they use – the one that comes installed by default in the distro’s most popular download. For Kali Linux, it’s Xfce.

If you prefer KDE Plasma over Xfce or are just looking for a change of scenery, it’s quite simple to switch desktop environments on Kali. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to install the KDE desktop environment on Kali Linux.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install KDE Plasma dekstop on Kali Linux

Read more

traceroute on Kali Linux

How to use traceroute on Kali Linux

When performing digital reconnaissance or penetrating testing, it’s important to fingerprint a network by understanding what servers or devices sit between your system and a target. For example, security professionals can’t go straight to attacking a web server without first taking the time to see if there’s a firewall in front of it.

This is where the traceroute utility comes in. It can send a packet from your system to the target machine, and list out its entire route for the journey there. This will reveal how many devices your network data is passing through, as well as the IP address of each device.

Kali Linux has another similar reconnaissance utility called mtr, which mostly functions the same as traceroute. In this guide, we’ll see how to use traceroute and mtr, along with their various command options, on Kali.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to use traceroute
  • How to use mtr

Read more

Selecting Kali or Windows at system boot

How to dual boot Kali Linux and Windows 10

If you want to run Kali Linux on your system but you already have Windows 10 installed, you have a couple of options. One thing you could do is install Kali Linux in a virtual machine, as we’ve shown in our tutorials for installing Kali in VMware and installing Kali in VirtualBox.

The other option is to create a dual boot environment for Kali and Windows. Both options have their pros and cons. The main reason you might want to dual boot with Kali, as opposed to running it in a virtual machine, is to give Kali direct access to your system’s hardware. This way, you don’t have the overhead of a hypervisor, and direct access to components is a lot easier, such as for a Wi-Fi adapter. This is a big selling point if you plan to test the security of Wi-Fi hotspots, for example.

A dual boot environment works by prompting you at startup to select which operating system you’d like to load into. So, you’ll have to reboot your computer each time you want to load into a different operating system. That’s the only disadvantage of this method, but for a system like Kali it should prove worth it.

Ready to get Kali Linux installed alongside Windows 10? Read on below as we take you through all the steps.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install Kali Linux alongside Windows 10
  • How to load into Kali Linux or Windows 10 at system boot

Selecting Kali or Windows at system boot

Selecting Kali or Windows at system boot

Read more

Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

How to crack zip password on Kali Linux

The objective of this guide is to show how to crack a password for a zip file on Kali Linux.

By default, Kali includes the tools to crack passwords for these compressed archives, namely the fcrackzip utility, John the Ripper and a word list. Follow along with us in the step by step instructions below as we show two different methods for cracking the password of a zip file.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • What tools are used to crack password protected zip files?
  • How to crack zip password with John the Ripper
  • How to crack zip password with fcrackzip
Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

Cracking a password protected zip file on Kali Linux

Read more

Default user and password for Kali Linux

Kali Linux Default Password

The objective of this guide is to show the default username and password for Kali Linux. The guide will be applicable for persistent installations, as well as the live CD image and Kali virtual machine downloads in VirtualBox or VMware.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • Default username and password for Kali
  • How to execute Linux commands with administrative root privileges
  • How to change to root shell
  • How to change user and root passwords
Default user and password for Kali Linux

Default user and password for Kali Linux

Read more

Running Kali Linux inside a VMware virtual machine

How to install Kali Linux in VMware

Kali Linux is a powerful Linux distro for penetration testing and ethical hacking. It’s not meant as an everyday operating system, so most Kali users will utilize the distro by running it temporarily from a USB drive, or opt for a persistent installation in a virtual machine.

Installing Kali in VMware gives you easy access to the hundreds of security and hacking tools that are included with Kali. Any time you need to do some packet sniffing, password cracking, etc. you can simply fire up the virtual machine and get to work. It’s also a great way to test out hacking applications without having to install software on your host system.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install Kali Linux in a VMware virtual machine. You’ll be able to follow along with this guide regardless of your host operating system, so both Linux and Windows users will find these step by step instructions to be applicable.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to configure VMware to host Kali Linux
  • How to create a Kali Linux virtual machine
Running Kali Linux inside a VMware virtual machine

Running Kali Linux inside a VMware virtual machine

Read more

Searching for packages to install on Kali Linux

How to search for extra hacking tools on Kali

Kali Linux already comes with a lot of ethical hacking and penetration tools out of the box. There are even more tools available from package repositories, but sifting through hundreds of tools and finding the ones you want to install can be challenging.

We aim to make the task easier in this guide, by showing you how to search for more software and install the tools on your system. If Kali doesn’t include some of your favorite tools by default, or you just want to browse the selection of software to see what else might be available, the steps below will help you find useful tools to install.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to search for packages with apt-cache
  • How to search for packages with aptitude
  • GUI software installers
  • How to search for Kali packages online
Searching for packages to install on Kali Linux

Searching for packages to install on Kali Linux

Read more

Using WPScan on Kali Linux

Use WPScan to scan WordPress for vulnerabilities on Kali

Vulnerabilities in WordPress can be uncovered by the WPScan utility, which comes installed by default in Kali Linux. It’s also a great tool for gathering general reconnaissance information about a website that’s running WordPress.

Owners of WordPress sites would be wise to try running WPScan against their site, as it may reveal security issues that need patched. It can also reveal more general web server issues, such as directory listings that haven’t been turned off inside Apache or NGINX.

WPScan itself is not a tool that can be used maliciously while performing simple scans against a site, unless you consider the extra traffic itself to be malicious. But the information it reveals about a site can be leveraged by attackers to launch an attack. WPScan can also try username and password combinations to try and gain access to a WordPress site. For this reason, it’s advised that you only run WPScan against a site that you own or have permission to scan.

In this guide, we’ll see how to use WPScan and its various command line options on Kali Linux. Try out some of the examples below to test your own WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to use WPScan
  • How to scan for vulnerabilities with API token

Read more

Benchmarking compression results of a directory with 7zip, the winner of our test

Best compression tool on Linux

There’s no shortage of compression tools available for Linux systems. Having so many choices is ultimately a good thing, but it can also be confusing and make it more difficult to select a compression method to use on your own files. To complicate things further, there is no objectively best tool for every user or system, and we’ll explain why.

When it comes to compression, there are two benchmarks that we need to be concerned with. One is how much space is saved, and the other is how fast the compression process takes place. Another thing to take into consideration is how widespread a certain compression tool is. For example, it’d be much more appropriate to package files into a .zip archive instead of .tar.gz if you know that the archive will need to be opened on a Windows system. Conversely, a .tar.gz archive makes more sense on Linux, since tar files save file permissions.

In this guide, we’ll be looking at a variety of compression tools that are available on the most popular Linux distributions. We’ll compare their compression ratio, speed, and other features. By the end of this guide, you’ll be armed with enough information to choose the best compression tool for any given scenario.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • Benchmark results of various compression utilities
  • How to conduct your own tests to measure compression ratio and speed
  • Picking a compression utility based on compatibility

Read more