Kali Linux is the go-to Linux distribution for learning and practicing hacking and penetration testing.
And, if you mess around with Linux distributions a lot, you've probably tried it out of curiosity.
warn!
The content introduced in this article is only for learning the installation of Kali Linux, please do not use Kali Linux for any unauthorized behavior. Kali Linux should be used, where authorized, to conduct reasonable penetration tests on authorized targets to understand their vulnerabilities and prevent them. The translator of this article and this website are not responsible for the unauthorized and illegal use and the consequences thereof.
However, no matter what you do with it, it's no substitute for a full-fledged desktop Linux operating system. Therefore, it is recommended (at least for beginners) to install Kali Linux using a virtual machine program such as VMware.
With a virtual machine, you can use Kali Linux as a regular application on your Windows or Linux system, just like running VLC or Skype on your system.
There are some free virtualization tools available. You can install Kali Linux on Oracle VirtualBox , you can also use VMWare Workstation, or you can buy a cloud server. This tutorial focuses on VMWare.
Install Kali Linux on VMware for Windows and Linux
Non-FOSS alert!
VMWare is not open source software.
For this tutorial, I'm assuming you're using Windows, as most VMware users prefer to use Windows 10/11.
However, in addition to the section on installing VMWare on Windows, this tutorial is also valid for Linux . You can easily install VMWare on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions .
Step 1: Install VMWare Workstation Player (on Windows)
If you already have VMware installed on your system, you can skip to the steps to install Kali Linux.
Go to VMWare's official Workstation Player webpage and click the "Download For Free" button.
Next, you can select the version (if you want a specific version or encounter a bug with the latest version) and click "Go to Downloads".
Then you'll see download buttons for the Windows and Linux versions. You need to click the button for "Windows 64-bit" because that's what we need here.
By the way, it does not support 32-bit systems.
Finally, when you get the downloaded .exe file, launch it to start the installation process. You need to click "Next" to start installing VMware.
Next, you will need to agree to these policies and conditions to proceed.
Now, you can choose the installation path. Ideally, keep the default settings. However, if you need better keyboard response/on-screen keyboard performance in a virtual machine, you might want to enable the "Enhanced Keyboard Driver".
Proceeding to the next step, you can choose to disable the update check every time you start the program (which can be annoying), and disable sending data to VMware, which is part of its user experience improvement plan.
You can check those settings if you want to use desktop and start menu shortcuts for quick access, or uncheck them like I did.
Now, go ahead and start the installation.
This may take some time, and when it's done, you'll see another window that takes you through the process and gives you the option to enter a license key. If you want a commercial license, you need VMware Workstation Professional, otherwise, the Player version is free for personal use.
Notice!
Make sure your system has virtualization enabled. Recent versions of VMWare for Windows require you to explicitly enable virtualization in order to use virtual machines.
Step 2: Install Kali Linux on VMware
To get started, you need to download a Kali Linux mirror file. And, if you plan to use it on a virtual machine, Kali Linux provides a separate ISO file.
Head over to its official download page to download the available pre-built VMware images.
You can download the .7z file directly or use a torrent (which is generally faster). In both cases, you can also check the integrity of the file with the provided SHA256 value.
Once the download is complete, you need to extract the file to any path of your choice.
Open VMware Workstation Player and click "Open a Virtual Machine". Now, look for the folder you extracted. Then browse through it until you find a file with a .vmx extension.
For example, Kali-Linux-2021.3-vmware-amd64.vmx.
Select the .vmx file to open the virtual machine. It should appear directly in your VMware Player.
You can choose to start the virtual machine with default settings. Or, if you want to tweak the hardware assigned to the virtual machine, feel free to change the settings before booting.
Depending on your computer hardware, you should allocate more memory and at least half of the processor cores for smooth performance.
In this case, I have 16GB of RAM and a quad-core processor. Therefore, it is safe to allocate almost 7GB of memory and two cores to this virtual machine.
Although you can allocate more resources, it may affect the performance of your host operating system at work. So, it is recommended to keep a balance between the two.
Now, save the settings and click "Play virtual machine" to start Kali Linux on VMware.
When it starts to load, you may see some prompts telling you that you can improve performance by tweaking some virtual machine settings.
You don't have to do this, but if you notice performance issues, you can disable side-channel mitigations (used for enhanced security) to improve virtual machine performance.
Additionally, you may be prompted to download and install VMware tools for Linux ; you'll need to do this for a good virtual machine experience.
Once done, you will see the Kali Linux login screen.
Considering that you started a pre-built VMware virtual machine, you need to enter the default login and password to continue.
- username:
kali - password:
kali
That's it! You have finished installing Kali Linux on VMware. Now, all you have to do is start exploring!