Hello guys, in this first post in the news section of the blog, I come to talk about the new version of Kali Linux released this past August 10, 2020.
Let's start with the news of this new version, which from the first glance shows that they have launched a new style for the command terminal, updating and configuring by default a very good shell interface called Zsh. Also includes enhancements for Win-Kex, HiDPI, & Bluetooth Arsenal.
In the next point I will put the characteristics that were improved with this update, we will mention them one by one. Be careful, these are the points that have just been improved with this update, if you want more information about the full operating system I leave you a link so you can go directly to the Offensive Security website.
- New Shell - Starting the process to switch from "Bash" to "Zsh"
- The release of "Win-Kex" - Get ready WSL2
- Automating HiDPI support - Easy switching mode
- Tool Icons - Every default tool now has its own unique icon
- Bluetooth Arsenal - New set of tools for Kali NetHunter
- Nokia Support - New devices for Kali NetHunter
- Setup Process - No more missing network repositories and quicker installs
Well, First things first, let's talk about what I see that for my taste is the most interesting, the New Shell (Zsh) which is characterized by being very editable by the user since it allows us to do many things with it already be using the powerlevel10k, which by the way if you want me to talk about how to configure a good shell in Linux you just have to leave me in the comments.
New Shell (Is coming)
Most people who use Kali Linux , are very experienced Linux Users. As result, they feel very comfortable around the command line. We understand that "Shells" are very personal and precious thing to everyone (local or remote!), as that is how most people interact with Kali Linux. To the point where lots of experienced users only use a "GUI" to spin up multiple terminals. By default, Kali Linux has always used "Bash" (aka "Bourne-Again-Shell") as the default Shell, when you open up a terminal or console. Any seasoned Kali user would know the prompt kali@kali:~$ (or root@kali:~# for he folder users!) very well!
If you have a fresh default install of Kali Linux 2020.3, you should have ZSH already installed (if not, do sudo apt install -y zsh zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions), ready for a try. However if you installed and earlier version Kali Linux have upgraded to 2020.3, you user will be lacking the default ZSH configuration that we cooked with lots of love. So for upgrade users only, make sure to copy configuration file:
kali@kali:~$ cp /etc/skel/.zshrc ~/
kali@kali:~$
Then all you need to do is switch to ZSH:
kali@kali:~$ zsh
--(kali@kali) - [~]
|_$
Win-Kex
Having Kali Linux on "Windows Subsystem for Linux" (WSL) is something we have been taking advantage of since it came out. With the relese of WSLv2, the overall functionality and user experiencce improved dramatically.
Today, the experience is improving once more the introduction of Win-Kex (Windows + Kali Desktop Experience). After installing it, typing in kex, or clicking on the button, Win-Kex will give you a persistent-session GUI.
After getting WSL installed (there's countless guides online, or you can follow them) you can install Win-Kex by doing the following:
sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install -y kali-win-kex
On the subject of WSL (and this is true for Docker and AWS EC2) something we have seen a bit is after getting a desktop environment, people have noticed the tools are not “there”. This is because they are not included by default, to keep the image as small as possible. You either need to manually install them one by one, or grab the default metapackage to get all the tools from out-of-the-box: sudo apt install -y kali-linux-default
On the subject of WSL (and this is true for Docker and AWS EC2) something we have seen a bit is after getting a desktop environment, people have noticed the tools are not “there”. This is because they are not included by default, to keep the image as small as possible. You either need to manually install them one by one, or grab the default metapackage to get all the tools from out-of-the-box: sudo apt install -y kali-linux-default
Please note, Win-KeX does require WSL v2 on x64 as it’s not compatible with WSL v1, or arm64.
For more information, please see the documentation page
Automating HiDPI
HiDPI displays are getting more and more common. Unfortunately, Linux support, out of the box, hasn’t been great (older Linux users may remember a time where this was very common for a lot of hardware changes.). Which means after doing a fresh install, there is a bit of tweaking required to get it working, otherwise the font/text/display may be very small to read. We have had a guide out explaining the process required to get it working, but the process before was a little “fiddly”. We wanted to do better.So we made kali-hidpi-mode. Now, either typing in kali-hidpi-mode or selecting it from the menu (as shown below), should automate switching between HiDPI modes.
Tool Icons
Over the last few releases, we have been showing the progress on getting
more themed icons for tools. We can now say, if you use the default tool listing (kali-linux-default), every tool in the menu (and then a few extra ones!), should have their own icon now.
We will be working on adding missing tools to the menu (and creating icons for them) over the next few releases of Kali, as well as expanding into the
kali-linux-large metapackage (then kali-tools-everything). We also have plans for these icons, outside of the menu – more information in an upcoming release!Kali NetHunters Bluetooth Arsenal
We are proud to introduce Bluetooth Arsenal by yesimxev from the Kali NetHunter team. It combines a set of bluetooth tools in the Kali NetHunter app with some pre-configured workflows and exciting use cases. You can use your external adapter for reconnaissance, spoofing, listening to and injecting audio into various devices, including speakers, headsets, watches, or even cars. Please note that RFCOMM and RFCOMM tty will need to be enabled in kernels from now on to support some of the tools.
Kali NetHunter for Nokia Phones
Kali NetHunter now supports the Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 6.1 phones, thanks to yesimxev. Images are available on our download site. Please note that those images contain a “minimal Kali rootfs” due to technical reasons but you can easily install all the default tools via sudo apt install -y kali-linux-default.
Setup Process
The full installer image always had all the packages required for an offline installation but if you installed a Kali Linux system with this image and without disabling the network, the installer would automatically run dist-upgrade during the install. This is done to make sure that you have the latest packages on first boot. And that step can take a very long time, especially after a few months after a release when lots of updates have accumulated. Starting with 2020.3, we disabled the network mirror in the full installer so that you always get the same installation speed, and the same packages and versions for that release – just make sure to update after installing!
Whilst we were at it, we fixed another related issue. If you didn’t have network access (either voluntarily or otherwise) during installation, you would get an empty network repository (/etc/apt/sources.list). This means, you would not be able to use apt to install additional packages. While there might be some users who will never have network, we believe that it’s best to actually configure that file in all cases. So that’s what we did. By default, any fresh installs going forward after 2020.3 will have network repositories pre-defined.
Whilst we were at it, we fixed another related issue. If you didn’t have network access (either voluntarily or otherwise) during installation, you would get an empty network repository (/etc/apt/sources.list). This means, you would not be able to use apt to install additional packages. While there might be some users who will never have network, we believe that it’s best to actually configure that file in all cases. So that’s what we did. By default, any fresh installs going forward after 2020.3 will have network repositories pre-defined.
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