Kali Linux

Kali Linux  is my main distribution on my laptop and serves as my everyday operating system of preference.

I use Kali Linux  to automate tasks with Bash, check SSL certificates, and I particularly appreciate Metasploit . Kali Linux comes with penetration testing tools, and I also perform programming with Python that is installed on the system. These are the tools I use daily.

I also use Kali Linux to create reports with a word processor. There is a useful tool to explore databases and connectivity, and there are numerous tools available to check network connectivity.

I have installed Kali Linux in a Docker  container and run it with connectivity through SSH, so I do not use the GUI and graphic interface much.

I use Kali Linux on my own laptop, and I believe I am the only security user using Kali Linux in my organization. I am also the only user in general.

The best features Kali Linux offers in my experience are the pre-installed security tools. This is very useful because I do not need to install all these security tools by hand in another distribution, which is why I use Kali Linux every day.

I find myself using the pre-installation of Metasploit  and other open-source security tools the most, as it stands out in Kali Linux. Although Metasploit is very old and outdated, it is handy for conducting small initial penetration tests. All the tools for checking Wi-Fi connectivity, password cracking, and testing password security are also very handy.

Kali Linux positively impacts my organization by allowing us to monitor changes and security posture for the company. We have all the tools to conduct periodic checks, which is especially useful for ISO 27000 certification.

Kali Linux helps with ISO 27000 certification by keeping documentation and proof. Every time I find something during penetration testing, such as an operating system for an app that falls outside of the normal metrics, I document it using Kali Linux, and keeping this documented is very handy to achieve and maintain ISO 27000 certification.

There are many improvements that can be made to Kali Linux. For example, a better database for Metasploit and keeping the tools more up to date would be beneficial. As I mentioned before, Kali Linux comes with a very old version of the product or software, but it is usually up to the user to update and upgrade.

There is a significant lack of examples for Kali Linux, so you always need to go to external resources to get examples on how to use several tools that come with Kali Linux. There is no easy way to find out how the tools work or what tools are installed in Kali Linux.

I have been working in my current field for seven years.

Kali Linux is very stable for my needs. It does the work, and there is also a version for my Raspberry Pi that I use for some examples.

Scalability is not applicable for this product, as I use Kali Linux as a single entity and a single operating system for my normal use. I do not need to scale up or handle increased workloads, but if I need more workload, I would probably need more CPU, and Kali Linux will handle that properly.

I have needed help with Kali Linux, but I have never received help from any source, as there is not an option to get support.

Kali Linux is my first distribution for security in Linux. I tried other distributions, but I always stick with Kali Linux. It was the first that I knew and the one that I always use.

I did not evaluate other options. I selected Kali Linux because it was the first one that showed me the right direction for security testing.

There is no investment involved because I am using the product on my laptop, so there is no return on investment. The return on investment is having all the tools readily available without any cost.

My advice to others looking into using Kali Linux is to only install it if you are a security-focused person and not to use it for daily, day-to-day activities if you are a normal user. I would rate my overall experience with Kali Linux as a seven out of ten.

My main use case for Kali Linux  is whenever there's an open-source or free tool to use with an API and Python that I need to utilize. I prefer Kali Linux  because it has a Linux environment and numerous open-source tools that work and are compatible with Kali Linux.

A specific example of how I've used Kali Linux in my work is that it has many offensive security tools. The last time I used it was when I was preparing for my OSWA exam, where I used the terminal extensively to probe the labs provided to me in the OSWA certification exam.

I also use Kali Linux as my go-to operating system. My main operating system on my personal laptop is Kali Linux, and for my office use case, I have Kali Linux set up in a VM.

The best features Kali Linux offers include the ability to customize everything and anything, from the terminal to the preferences to getting the environment set up and storing everything as I would want, and setting preferences accordingly.

When I say customizing everything, I customize my tools that run using the CLI, such as the terminal itself. I usually write a script that would automate running four or five tools simultaneously. For example, I would provide input for a first tool, and the output from the first tool would be the input for the second tool, and so forth. The output from the second tool would be the input for the third tool, and similarly, I have a script written that combines three or four tools and gives me the end result exactly the way I want it or in the particular format that I need.

A unique and really helpful feature of Kali Linux, compared to other operating systems, is that many of the offensive security tools are already pre-configured and pre-installed. I do not have to deal with a lot of hassle. I just boot up the operating system and I'm ready to go. The software is already loaded in the operating system.

On a personal level, I have done a significant amount of learning, experimentation, and hands-on practice with Kali Linux.

I think Kali Linux can be improved because it is not a beginner-friendly operating system. A basic hands-on guide for anyone who installs the operating system would be beneficial, so that they become acclimated to the operating system and understand the file directory structure. That could be a good starting point for Kali Linux.

In terms of needed improvements, I have found that when downloading Kali Linux from kali.org, we get the ISO file. However, when downloading a virtual machine image, such as a VMware image or VirtualBox image, I was unable to directly use it through VMware or VirtualBox. I think Kali Linux needs to provide a better image that would be compatible with running on these platforms. Additionally, the versions that are available, or the latest version whenever it is released, are not very stable. I generally prefer using an older version rather than the latest version of Kali Linux.

I have been using Kali Linux for four or five years.

Kali Linux is stable for my use cases, though not the latest version. If you downgrade two or three versions from the latest, you are good to go.

Regarding the scalability of Kali Linux for my work and projects, whenever I was conducting brute force attacks and provided more than two or three million lines of payload, the system would freeze. However, I believed this was a hardware fault rather than a software issue, though I am not entirely certain about this limitation.

I have not used the customer support for Kali Linux, but I have searched extensively on Stack Overflow and Kali forums. That was very helpful because most of the issues I faced were already mentioned in one of those forums, and I was able to solve the problems I was experiencing.

Before Kali Linux, I was using a Debian  operating system and I also tried Parrot  OS. I found Parrot  OS a little bit flashy. Kali Linux is more calm and composed. That is why I switched to Kali Linux. I still appreciate Debian , but it does not have the tools. If I'm getting a fresh operating system, I would still prefer Kali Linux.

I would say I have seen a return on investment in time saved, for sure. For metrics, I do not find any metrics apart from the learning that I have done.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Kali Linux is that this is not for commercial use. This is for personal use that I have done. The pricing, setup cost, and licensing were all nil for me. I installed the operating system from kali.org and ran it on a personal machine and in a VM on my professional machine.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing Kali Linux. I already knew about it.

Kali Linux has helped me with my learning and experimentation by allowing me to do many CTFs when I was learning to go into the offensive security side or doing penetration testing. There, I learned many probing attacks, such as HTTP probe, and then there is the Gitrob tool. Many of the offensive security tools that I used were in Kali Linux. The best part is automating it through the CLI. The CLI is the one feature that I have used the most in Kali Linux.

The most significant benefits I have experienced since using Kali Linux for my personal or professional work are the hands-on capabilities that we use on the tools at every stage of probing a website. This includes everything from reconnaissance to active attacks, passive attacks, and then trying to use Burp  Suite, which is a proxy tool. That is where I find it the most useful. Getting accustomed to the terminal gives you a different feeling than using the GUI.

Kali Linux stands out compared to other operating systems I have used for security work because it is a specific distribution of Linux that has all the required tools pre-loaded and configured. Python is already configured with the correct path variable, Java is installed already, and Go is pre-loaded. These are features that every offensive security software or operating system needs. If I'm using Windows and trying to attack a website, I have to manually install those programming languages that I will be writing scripts on, and then declare the path variables. That makes it more tedious than how Kali Linux works. Additionally, I can run multiple threads in Kali Linux, and the operating system is still able to support the performance, compared to Windows, which will lag or freeze if given multiple processes to run.

My advice for others looking into using Kali Linux is to first understand the basics of Linux, then understand how the Linux terminal works, and only after that should you dive into Kali Linux. If Kali Linux is the first operating system you are using in a Linux environment, you might become confused. Many of the features do not have a graphical user interface, so you will need to be more accustomed to the terminal.

Kali Linux is a great operating system. I appreciate it because it offers a diverse range of tools. I do not think I have ever used all the tools that are pre-provided in the operating system. An option to choose what different kinds of attacks you are using so you can streamline the software that you are downloading would be beneficial. If I need something for an active attack, that would be a different stream of tools that should be pre-loaded, compared to passive kinds of attacks. That could be a major upgrade or option for choosing at the time of download. You could get a lightweight operating system, and if needed, you can always download those tools later. Overall, I found this product to be valuable for my security work.

My main use case for Kali Linux  is for penetration testing.

A quick specific example of how I've used Kali Linux  for penetration testing is that there are some tools which could be used to simulate a threat or an attack on, for example, a web browser, and try to pinpoint the issues that happen. There are many tools in Kali Linux that allow an individual to do that.

The best features Kali Linux offers are that it is focused on cybersecurity and has a lot of tools related to cybersecurity.

The specific cybersecurity tools in Kali Linux I find most valuable or use most often include Nmap .

Kali Linux has positively impacted my work by facilitating and simplifying the setup for an operating system and installing tools. It is all in one package, so getting started to do the job happens without the headache of installations, setup, and preparations.

It helps me save a lot of time. For example, I have saved at least one week of installations and operations compared to Ubuntu .

I think there are a lot of efforts which are really great for improving Kali Linux. Increasing the tutorials and the help inside Kali Linux would make it more useful.

I have been using Kali Linux for two years.

Kali Linux is stable.

Kali Linux's scalability is really good; I am using it in a very good way.

I have not needed to reach out for help regarding customer support.

I previously used Ubuntu  and installed some tools there, but I switched to Kali Linux because it contains everything at once.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been good because I am using the free version.

I have seen a return on investment by using fewer resources and saving a lot of time.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been good because I am using the free version.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing Kali Linux.

My advice to others looking into using Kali Linux is to try to learn a lot about it before using it. When you start using it, you will find it very useful. I would rate my overall experience with Kali Linux as a 9.

I use Kali Linux  for penetration testing, network security, and application security, utilizing various tools available on the platform.

The primary use case for Kali Linux  is to achieve anonymity, which allows me to maintain significant control over my security measures. My day-to-day use case involves penetration testing and application security.

Kali Linux offers excellent features including being lightweight with low memory usage, easy installation, portability, and multiple architectures such as ARM architecture and server architecture. I can easily install various tools on these architectures and even create my own tools.

Kali Linux has positively impacted my organization because I can utilize various tools on the platform and create custom tools. The architecture is specific enough that I can run Kali Linux on my mobile device and install it on my tablet.

Kali Linux could be improved by including more tools.

I would personally like to see improvements in Kali Linux, particularly regarding Grub issues that sometimes occur when installing the VM. Additionally, I have experienced problems when updating Kali Linux from a higher version to a lower version, which resulted in crashes. These Grub issues should be resolved.

I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data.

I have been using Kali Linux for more than seven to eight years.

Kali Linux is stable based on my experience.

I find Kali Linux very scalable.

There is no customer support available for Kali Linux, so I have no comment on that aspect. However, I hope that customer support should be provided in the future, though I have never attempted to use it.

I previously used Parrot  OS before switching to Kali Linux.

I can easily install Kali Linux during the installation process.

I have seen a return on investment with Kali Linux, particularly in time-saving.

Kali Linux is a time-saving and cost-saving solution.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Kali Linux is straightforward because it is open source. I simply create a VM, so there are no costs involved.

Before choosing Kali Linux, I evaluated Parrot  OS.

I would rate Kali Linux an eight out of ten.

I chose this rating because the Grub issue should be resolved, and I would like to see more penetration testing tools added. Parrot OS has some excellent features for anonymity, and other current Linux distributions also have anonymity features that should be included in Kali Linux. My overall review rating for this product is eight out of ten.

I use Kali Linux  typically for different report generation based on customers and for queries related to customers. When I am troubleshooting in a live customer node, all of the customer nodes are based on the Linux environment. I need to troubleshoot different issues using basic commands and troubleshooting steps, which are all based on Kali Linux . All servers, virtual and metal servers, are based on Kali Linux only.

Last month, penetration testing was conducted in our organization for security purposes. Due to some issues in the server at that time, we switched from other servers to Kali Linux, and those experiences were very seamless. Identifying vulnerabilities and fixing those in ASAP mode was a very prominent work performed using Kali Linux. The penetration testing was successful due to Kali Linux because it simulated attacks to find and fix vulnerabilities in our systems and networks before malicious actors could exploit them. In terms of penetration testing and security auditing, it helped us significantly.

Kali Linux is used for security auditing purposes and vulnerability assessment purposes.

One of the most exciting features about Kali Linux is Wireshark , a network protocol analyzer for monitoring traffic, which is very important in my day-to-day work. We analyze TCP dumps to analyze network issues, port issues, and connectivity issues such as port open and close connections and different problems that may occur. Using Wireshark  for TCP dump analysis with Kali Linux is one of the best parts I can see.

The pre-installed toolset is one of the important features of Kali Linux because it comes with around 500-550 penetration testing, security auditing, and digital forensic tools, which are very important to me.

Kali Linux can run directly from a USB drive without installation, which is very ideal for forensic analysis as it prevents accidental data contamination in the host system. This is one important aspect of using Kali Linux.

The vulnerability assessments and auditing capabilities are very strong using Kali Linux because built-in tools such as OpenVAS and Burp  Suite enable comprehensive network and application scanning. This helped our clients proactively assess and fix weaknesses. When a vulnerability comes in a particular ICP  version, that part is already being fixed in a specific version. The assessments and auditing part of vulnerabilities are one of the important features which helped our organization.

My organization uses Kali Linux as the platform for internal and commercial cybersecurity training programs, such as different certifications. This created an additional revenue stream and ensures that teams have cutting edge skills.

Financial benefits are evident because our organization used Kali Linux to simulate real-world attacks on clients' networks, web applications, and systems to identify vulnerabilities before malicious actors do. In some latest products, our organization made a profit around 213 SEK billion by fixing one vulnerability which could have caused significant damage to our system. This was prevented by using Kali Linux and penetration testing.

Some of our work has already been automated using Kali Linux and some headcount has already been reduced. Though this is not ideal for employees, in terms of today's AI-related market, it reduced costs significantly and made a profit for the organization.

Kali Linux can increase its stability. As a rolling release distribution based on Debian  testing or unstable, Kali Linux can sometimes experience breakage during updates. More robust testing before pushing updates to the main repositories could help, or offering a more stable branch for users who prioritize reliability over the absolute latest tool versions would be beneficial.

The distribution comes with over 400 penetration testing tools, many of which are never used by an average user. It could use an easier approach with more granular ways to install or remove tool groups or meta-packages.

Kali Linux can optimize resource management. Although Kali Linux is designed to be lightweight, users often report performance issues, specifically when using virtual machines or on less powerful hardware. Improvements could be made in these areas. In our Ericsson environment, we use virtual machines only for live customer servers. Sometimes we experience different issues with performance degradation, especially in virtual machines. These areas can be improved.

Trial packs for one or two months at a cheaper cost would be beneficial to switch from different providers to Kali Linux. This could be explored further.

I have been using Kali Linux for about four years.

Kali Linux is stable, but it can increase its stability. As a rolling release distribution based on Debian  testing, Kali Linux can sometimes experience breakage during updates. This aspect can be improved.

Scalability is absolutely fine with Kali Linux.

Customer support is quite good for Kali Linux. They support within hours by solving the TTs.

We used to try different solutions such as Linux Ubuntu  and Oracle Linux  before switching back.

The vulnerability assessments and auditing capabilities are very strong using Kali Linux because built-in tools such as OpenVAS and Burp  Suite enable comprehensive network and application scanning. This has helped our clients proactively assess and fix weaknesses. When a vulnerability comes in a particular ICP  version, that part is already being fixed in a specific version. The assessments and auditing part of vulnerabilities are one of the important features which helped our organization. My organization uses Kali Linux as the platform for internal and commercial cybersecurity training programs, such as different certifications. This created an additional revenue stream and ensures that teams have cutting edge skills.

Kali Linux can optimize resource management. Although Kali Linux is designed to be lightweight, users often report performance issues, specifically when using virtual machines or on less powerful hardware. Improvements could be made in these areas. In our Ericsson environment, we use virtual machines only for live customer servers. Sometimes we experience different issues with performance degradation, especially in virtual machines. These areas can be improved.

Trial packs for one or two months at a cheaper cost would be beneficial to switch from different providers to Kali Linux. This could be explored further.

I would recommend that organizations try Kali Linux for several months to understand the changes and then decide according to their organization's specifications and needs before starting to use Kali Linux and purchasing packages on the marketplace. This review has received an overall rating of 9.