Weekly Virtual Machines, with Build Scripts
We have always made all our build-scripts public. These are the same set of tools which we use to generate Kali Linux (for each release, or our weekly images). You may have noticed that previously there wasn’t anything about Virtual Machines (VMs). This is because until recently it was a manually done process, which followed our guides (VMware & VirtualBox). We have now upped our DevOps game, and automated the build process! Enter build-scripts/Kali-VM.
Another positive outcome of this is that it allows us to generate weekly VMs now! These images are more up-to-date, meaning less packages need updates out of the box, but the only set of tests run are the automated ones. Our release images have an additional set of Quality Assurance (QA) smoke-tests run against them, with the knowledge of last-snapshot , meaning the packages are in a known state. You have a choice: Stable vs updates!
Let’s start with a quick introduction to the weekly VMs, then we’ll have a glimpse at the Kali-VM build script.
Weekly Kali VMs
You can find these Kali images in the Virtual Machines section of Get Kali. Scroll down a bit, they are just there. At the moment we have weekly images for VMware and VirtualBox.
The VMware weekly image will be no surprise for those who already use the quaterly Kali VMware images: it’s pretty much identical, except that it’s built from the kali-rolling branch. In order to use it you just need to import it in VMware.
However, the VirtualBox weekly image is published in a different format than the one we use for Kali releases. For various reasons, we decided to distribute it in the “native” VirtualBox format, that is: a VDI disk and a .vbox metadata file. Fear not though, because importing this VM in VirtualBox is super easy. If you’re already a user of the VirtualBox image, we’d love to hear your feedback on this new image! Feel free to drop us a word on the Kali-VM GitLab repository.
The Kali-VM build script
For the most demanding users, here’s the good news: we published the build script to generate those images! If you are wondering “Cool, but what can I do with Your Kali-VM repository,” a feature highlight (for the time being):
- Create VMs for VMware, VirtualBox, QEMU or a single VM which works with all three (aka “generic”)
- Create VMs for x64 and x86 (sorry, no ARM64 at this point in time!)
- Create the VMs directly on the host or in a container (Docker or Podman)
- Select as many (or as little!) tools/metapackages you wish to be included
- Configure your locale, timezone, username and password
The build script is stable enough that we are using it in production, but its still early days. As a result, there is a roadmap of features we would like to add:
- ARM64 support
- Hyper-V support
- Hook support (allowing you to customize Kali’s settings, such as changing preferences or altering the wallpaper)
- Many more ideas!
If the above sounds great to you, we would love a hand adding it! We are gladly encouraging merge requests! If you find a bug, great! Let us know as well =)
Now if you are wondering “Okay, this is pretty cool. How do I get started?” please take a look at the README. This will give you a basic idea of what requirements are needed, and how to get started. Then its just a case of looking at the help screen, and customizing the arguments to your needs!
Want some examples to get you going?
Kali linux downloads virtual images
You can install VirtualBox on Kali Linux, allowing you to use virtual machines (VMs) inside of Kali Linux. However if you are wanting to install Kali Linux as a VM, you want our Kali Linux Guest VirtualBox guide.
VMs are great. There are many upsides with using them. One of the being, able to run multiple Operating Systems (OSs) at the same time. You can have your host machine “untouched”, and then only interact with the guest VMs. Another is when something is going right, take a snapshot. When something goes wrong, revert back.
VirtualBox is free and open source. There are a few other software such as QEMU, KVM/Xen with virt-manager. Then there is also VMware Workstation & Fusion, which is a commercial software (there is VMware Player which is free but it is limited in features).
Preparation
Before trying to install VirtualBox, please make sure your version of Kali Linux is up-to-date, and if required, reboot the machine:
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt update [. ] [email protected]:~$ [email protected]:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y [. ] [email protected]:~$ [email protected]:~$ [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f [email protected]:~$ Download
The first thing we are going to do is import VirtualBox’s repository key:
[email protected]:~$ curl -fsSL https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/oracle_vbox_2016.gpg [. ] [email protected]:~$ curl -fsSL https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/oracle_vbox.gpg [. ] [email protected]:~$ We then move onto adding VirtualBox’s repository. We add this to a separate file, so it does not interfere with Kali Linux’s main repository. We also will be making sure to state where the keyring is at so the files can be properly signed. Our CPU architecture is amd64. You may need to alter the example below if yours is different.
One thing to bear in mind, Kali Linux is based on Debian, so we need to use Debian’s current stable version (even though Kali Linux is a rolling distribution). At the time of writing, its “bullseye”:
[email protected]:~$ echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bullseye contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list [email protected]:~$ As we have altered our network repository, we need to re-build the cache:
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt update [. ] [email protected]:~$ As VirtualBox has various kernel modules (e.g. vboxdrv , vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp ), we need to make sure they are kept up-to-date when Kali Linux’s kernel gets updated. This can be achieved using dkms:
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y dkms [. ] [email protected]:~$ Setup
Now its time to install VirtualBox itself (along with its Extension Pack to expand VirtualBox’s advanced features):
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y virtualbox virtualbox-ext-pack [. ] [email protected]:~$ When prompted, read and accept the license.
You can now find VirtualBox in the menu or start it via the command line:
[email protected]:~$ virtualbox [email protected]:~$ If you now wish, you are able to install Kali Linux in a VirtualBox VM (on Kali Linux).
Kali Linux
Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. it is an open source project that is maintained and funded by Offensive Security Ltd, a provider of world-class information security training and penetration testing services. It was developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of Offensive Security through the rewrite of BackTrack, their previous forensics Linux distribution. Kali Linux is preinstalled with numerous penetration-testing programs, including nmap (a port scanner), Wireshark (a packet analyzer), John the Ripper (a password cracker), and Aircrack-ng (a software suite for penetration-testing wireless LANs). It is a supported platform of the Metasploit Project’s Metasploit Framework, a tool for developing and executing security exploits.
Special Features Available in Kali Linux:
- Kali Linux ISO of doom, the perfect hardware backdoor.
- Customizing and bending Kali Linux to your will using Kali Linux live build recipes.
- Mastering Kali Linux tool sets with Kali Metapackages.
- Kali Linux in the cloud – Kali Amazon EC2 images available.
- Kali Linux LUKS Full Disk Encryption (FDE).
- Nuking your Kali Linux hard disk with the Kali LUKS nuke option.
- Kali Linux running on Android through Linux Deploy.
- Kali Linux accessibility features, adding support for blind and visually impaired users.
- Kali Linux on a Raspberry Pi and a bunch of other interesting ARM devices.
- Kali Linux Live USB persistence with LUKS encryption.
- Kali Linux Evil Wireless Access Point recipe.
- Kali Linux EFI Boot Support.