So Linux Live CDs based around hacking or penetration testing used to be a super big deal, they died down a bit in the last few years. The king of the hill back in 2011 used to be BackTrack and the last time we mentioned it was when BackTrack 5 came out.
This article is our second most viewed of ALL TIME – 10 Best Security Live CD Distros (Pen-Test, Forensics & Recovery) – perhaps it’s time we do an updated list.
And we covered BackTrack since it first started in 2006, when it was a merger between 2 other distros – Whax and Auditor (anyone remember that far back?).
Kali Linux is the new generation of the industry-leading BackTrack penetration testing Linux distribution also good for security auditing. Kali Linux is a complete re-build of BackTrack from the ground up, adhering completely to Debian development standards.
Features in Kali Linux
- More than 300 penetration testing tools: After reviewing every tool that was included in BackTrack, we eliminated a great number of tools that either did not work or had other tools available that provided similar functionality.
- Free and always will be: Kali Linux, like its predecessor, is completely free and always will be. You will never, ever have to pay for Kali Linux.
- Open source Git tree: We are huge proponents of open source software and our development tree is available for all to see and all sources are available for those who wish to tweak and rebuild packages.
- FHS compliant: Kali has been developed to adhere to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, allowing all Linux users to easily locate binaries, support files, libraries, etc.
- Vast wireless device support: We have built Kali Linux to support as many wireless devices as we possibly can, allowing it to run properly on a wide variety of hardware and making it compatible with numerous USB and other wireless devices.
- Custom kernel patched for injection: As penetration testers, the development team often needs to do wireless assessments so our kernel has the latest injection patches included.
- Secure development environment: The Kali Linux team is made up of a small group of trusted individuals who can only commit packages and interact with the repositories while using multiple secure protocols.
- GPG signed packages and repos: All Kali packages are signed by each individual developer when they are built and committed and the repositories subsequently sign the packages as well.
- Multi-language: Although pentesting tools tend to be written in English, we have ensured that Kali has true multilingual support, allowing more users to operate in their native language and locate the tools they need for the job.
- Completely customizable: We completely understand that not everyone will agree with our design decisions so we have made it as easy as possible for our more adventurous users to customize Kali Linux to their liking, all the way down to the kernel.
- ARMEL and ARMHF support: Since ARM-based systems are becoming more and more prevalent and inexpensive, we knew that Kali’s ARM support would need to be as robust as we could manage, resulting in working installations for both ARMEL and ARMHF systems. Kali Linux has ARM repositories integrated with the mainline distribution so tools for ARM will be updated in conjunction with the rest of the distribution.
You can download Kali Linux here:
– Kali Linux 64-Bit ISO (Torrent)
– Kali Linux 32-Bit ISO (Torrent)
Or read more here.