Kali Linux 2022.4 is released, download now

• The Offensive Security team has released Kali Linux 2022.4 with new Azure Marketplace and QEMU images.
• The latest version comes with the latest versions of GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments, along with six new tools.
• The team also announced the release of Kali Nethunter Pro, available for PinePhone and PinePhonePro.

Kali Linux 2022.4 is now released and it is ready for download or to update the existing installations. The team also announced that Kali is now available on Microsoft Azure, similar to its Amazon AWS image, it is using the same kali-cloud build-scripts now to automate publishing to the Microsoft Azure store. It has no GUI or pre-installed tools out of the box.

More platforms, new tools

The team also includes a QEMU image with its pre-generated images to simplify the process for self-hosted Proxmox Virtual Environments (VE), virt-manager, or libvirt users. In the previous release, the team created a Generic Cloud image that should work in most cloud providers and self-hosting OpenStack users.

The Kali team also announced the official support of the Pine64 PinePhone and PinePhone Pro. The launch of Kali NetHunter Pro is a bare metal installation of Kali Linux with Phosh desktop environment, optimized for mobile devices. SD card images enable PinePhone and the PinePhone Pro to dual boot the operating system alongside the main operating system. Alternative versions with Plasma Mobile will be released soon as well as installers, allowing users to install Kali NetHunter Pro onto the internal flash memory.

Internal Bluetooth support has also arrived and support for some devices are already added. But, since each kernel needs new Bluetooth drivers enabled, it will take time to rebuild them. The team also updated Wardriving with bug fixes, Bluetooth, RTL-SDR, and Mousejack support. It allows QCACLD-3.0 users to use wardriving with internal wireless and Bluetooth chipsets.

The latest version also comes with Linux kernel 6.0 and the latest versions of GNOME and KDE Plasma desktops. Some of the changes that come with GNOME 43 are:

• 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.

The latest version also comes with KDE Plasma 5.26, improving the desktop experience and changing multiple widgets. Kali 2022.4 comes with new tools, which are:

• 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

Some of the other minor updates are:

• The Kali dragon logo is now in nerd-fonts (f327 aka nf-linux-kali_linux).
• There is a bug in the installation using speech synthesiser.
  • As a workaround, you can use Kali 2022.2, and upgrade.
  • The team will put out a message on social networks when to grab the weekly images with the fix.
• There is a bug with Metasploit-framework and libssl1.1/OpenSSL v3. As a result, there are issues with payloads using */*/reverse_https.
  • The team will address this as quickly as we can.
  • The team 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

If you already have an existing Kali Linux installation, remember you can always do a quick update:

echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list 
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrad
ecp -vrbi /etc/skel/. ~
[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

You should now be on Kali Linux 2022.4 We can do a quick check by doing:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release
VERSION="2022.4"
VERSION_ID="2022.4"
VERSION_CODENAME="kali-rolling"
uname -v
#1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.0.7-1kali1 (2022-11-07)
uname -r
6.0.0-kali3-amd64

FAQ

What is the latest Kali Linux version?

The latest Kali Linux version is Kali Linux 2022.4 and it was released on 06 December 2022.

Is Kali Linux free?

Yes, Kali Linux is completely free to use.

Is Kali Linux illegal?

Using Kali Linux is not illegal. It is mostly used by ethical hackers for penetration tests to harden an organization’s security. Utilizing Kali Linux tools with malicious intentions is illegal.

Is Kali Linux free?

Yes, Kali Linux is completely free to use.

What is Kali Linux based on?

Kali Linux is based on Debian.

What is Kali Linux used for?

Kali Linux is used for performing penetration tests and it comes with several tools. Hackers also use the distribution to utilize its tools for malicious actions.

Is Kali Linux easy to learn?

Kali Linux is a normal Linux distribution, so it is not hard to learn for an average Linux user. However, learning to use the hacking tools requires expertise.

Is BackTrack and Kali Linux the same?

BackTrack and Kali Linux is the same distribution. The name of the distribution was changed in 2013.

Is there a Kali Linux alternative?

Parrot OS can be used as an alternative for Kali Linux.

What is the default username and password for Kali Linux 2023?

The default username and password for Kali Linux 2023 is “kali/kali“.

Can I install Kali Linux on Windows?

You can install Kali Linux from Microsoft Store on Windows 10 after enabling Windows Subsystem for Linux. It is also possible to install Kali Linux on Windows by third-party virtual machine software such as VMWare and Virtual Box.

What desktop environment does Kali Linux use?

Kali Linux uses the XFCE desktop environment as default. Users can change to GNOME Shel or KDE Plasma during installation.

How many GB is Kali Linux?

Kali Linux has several images with varying sizes between 2.3 GB and 9.4 GB as offline installers.

Can Kali Linux be installed on a virtual machine?

Yes, Kali Linux can be installed on a virtual machine. A virtual machine (VM) allows you to run an operating system within another operating system. This means that you can install Kali Linux on a virtual machine and run it on top of your current operating system, without the need to replace it or partition your hard drive.
To install Kali Linux on VMWare, you can refer to our article: How to create VM and install a Linux distro on VMWare Workstation