So i have been using Kali as my main OS for a few months now. If you know a few tricks to make it safe and also how to personalize it, its a great Distro. Just wandering if anyone else is doing the same or perhaps using BlackArch or any other specialized distros as their main os.
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Of late I've learned that most of the "Safety" features come down to the end user...
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Lol true. I do believe in creating a separate accounts for everyday use and Penn testing tho
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I have Kali Linux running on an old Thinkpad T400 that I had laying around that I'll be using as its main OS. I may install it on my linux desktop at home once I get it up and running.
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How often does Kali update?
I remember in a VM it was on kernel 4.3.0 and was never updating.
I have no idea, I would imagine that because it's based on Debian that it updates fairly frequently, but I would also imagine that given the applications Kali is designed for, it would have to be rock-steady before release so perhaps it has longer update intervals. I dunno.
They just came out with a rolling distro. It seems like they update as soon as Debian does or withing 24-48 hours after
Then I wonder why my VM wasn't updating, odd. Thanks for hte info tohugh.
It might not have updated since it was in a VM. If you were to fake the processor to make the VM think it wasn't a VM, it might update. I don't know enough about VMs to be sure, but something along similar lines happened with Nvidia GeForce drivers. If they realize they're running in a virtual machine, the drivers crash themselves.
Gonna try it out on real hardware soon, I am trying to work on the skills that Kali provide. What are these tricks to make it secure for daily tasks?
Create another account for daily use that is not a administrator is the main one. You can give put that account in a Sudo group so it can activate certain things but mainly what you want to do is not pen test under you main account. You would do that under a separate one, normally root or an account that has some root privileges since a lot of the pen testing software requires them
Why would anybody use a distro that is designed for pentesting as their main OS? Same goes for blackarch.
All the 1337 skiddy tools are available for every flavor of linux you want. Kali is more for a live usb in order to have the tools available, when you have no access to your machine.
This could be right up your ally.
cheers
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Stop don't use Kali as your main. It not mend to be used for daily use.
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Uh what?
Linux distros don't play games like that. That's squarely in windows space.
It's more likely that networking isn't properly configured.
I agree with @The_Cable in saying that kali is not designed to be a daily driver. Use it for pentesting or whatever, and use a different os for your day to day.
Just an fyi, you can install almost all the packages in kali from the Debian or Ubuntu repos. Fedora, centos and arch will have the packages as well.
It's 6 one way half dozen the other really. As long as you don't compromise yourself then it's fine. I've never really understood why people go up in arms when you use Kali as a main OS. It works just aswell as the others. Comes preinstalled with cool tools and no bloatware. The tools actually work unlike the other downloaded package version. It can and does everything a Debian based Linux OS can do.
So basically you said that it is possible to customize kali to make it fit as a daily driver. And you can customize every other distribution in order to use it for pen-testing. Thank you for sharing your insight and consider posting this on your blog in the blog section.
cheers
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no.. no no no no.. bad idea, bad DUFFMAN0651 BAD!
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well, I hope you do this in a VM, it's much safer...
Well since I don't hack other networks with Kali and just use it for managing my network. The security issues are almost exactly the same as any other distro. I also find Kali to be one of the most stable of the Linux distro's I've ever used. I guess I should explain the dangers of using Kali as a main OS because I'm pretty sure most of the people against it prob have no idea why they are. The main issue comes when you are actively breaking in or already have hijacked another's network. You will by default be giving them a lot of information about your device in the process. Now, a lot of that can be mitigated but that takes a ton more knowledge then just running the scripts and goes into the professional relm. In those instances of Kali is your distro you are most likely running it off a flash drive the size of a quarter. so that is basically the real issue of running Kali Linux as a main OS. It's the same issue if you run any operating system and try and access a network your not supposed to. Now what's cool about Kali in that regard is it can be made to run live straight off a usb and has the preloaded tools so it's basically downloaded off the site and good to go immediately but as far as running it as your main OS it's completely fine and I think actually performs better then Ubuntu and some other distro's I've used
Blasphemy! Running Kali as main is purest form of blasphemy!
That said i wouldn't advice it and it's not that stable it still based on the Debian Testing Repo. The biggest danger of Kali is the way its root privileges are installed and used. It's focus just doesn't lies on being stable and officework. it works, but i serious would not recommend anyway one to use it as main.
Using it as main is like one of those undocumented features. Yes it works but no you shouldn't use it like that. There are plenty of better alternatives.
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