The Industry Standard

Kali Linux is not about its tools, nor the operating system. Kali Linux is a platform.

Generic laptop PC Kali Linux desktop

All the tools you need

The Kali Linux penetration testing platform contains a vast array of tools and utilities. From information gathering to final reporting, Kali Linux enables security and IT professionals to assess the security of their systems.

Find out all about Kali's Tools

Kali Everywhere

Undercover Mode

Using Kali in an environment where you don't want to draw attention to yourself? Kali Undercover is the perfect way to not stand out in a crowd.

Kali NetHunter

A mobile penetration testing platform for Android devices, based on Kali Linux. Kali NetHunter is made up of an App, App Store, Kali Container and KeX

Win-KeX

Win-KeX provides a full Kali Desktop Experience for Windows WSL. Applications started via Kali's panel will share the desktop with Microsoft Windows applications.

Choose the desktop you prefer

Xfce logoXfce

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

Xfce consists of separately packaged parts that together provide all functions of the desktop environment, but can be selected in subsets to suit user needs and preferences. This is Kali's default desktop environment.

Kali Linux with Xfce desktop
Kali Linux with GNOME desktop

GNOME logoGNOME Shell

Every part of GNOME Shell has been designed to make it simple and easy to use. The Activities Overview is an easy way to access all your basic tasks. A press of a button is all it takes to view your open windows, launch applications, or check if you have new messages. Having everything in one place is convenient and means that you don't have to learn your way through a maze of different technologies.

KDE logoKDE Plasma

Plasma is made to stay out of the way as it helps you get things done. But under its light and intuitive surface, it's a powerhouse. So you're free to choose ways of usage right as you need them and when you need them.

With Plasma the user is king. Not happy with the color scheme? Change it! Want to have your panel on the left edge of the screen? Move it! Don't like the font? Use a different one! Download custom widgets in one click and add them to your desktop or panel.

Kali Linux with KDE Plasma desktop

Latest news from our blog

The end of the i386 kernel and images

The i386 architecture has long been obsolete, and from this week, support for i386 in Kali Linux is going to shrink significantly: i386 kernel and images are going away. Images and releases will no longer be created for this platform.

Kali Linux 2024.3 Release (Multiple transitions)

With summer coming to an end, so are package migrations, and Kali 2024.3 can now be released. You can now start downloading or upgrading if you have an existing Kali installation.

The summary of the changelog since the 2024.2 release from June is:

Our focus has been on a lot of behind the scenes updates and optimizations since the last release. There have been some messy migrations, with multiple stacks, all interrelating (transition have been like buses, all coming at once!). After the t64 transition finished up, it was straight into multiple other transitions: GCC 14, the glibc 2.40, and Python 3.12.

Kali Linux 2024.2 Release (t64, GNOME 46 & Community Packages)

A little later than usual, but Kali 2024.2 is here! The delay has been due to changes under the hood to make this happen, which is where a lot of focus has been. The community has helped out a huge amount, and this time they’ve not only been adding new packages, but updating and fixing bugs too! If you are reading this, Kali 2024.2 is finally ready to be downloaded or upgraded if you have an existing Kali Linux installation.

xz-utils backdoor: how to get started

Following the recent disclosure of a backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma, we are writing this “get started” kind of blog post. We will explain how to setup an environment with the backdoored version of liblzma, and then the first commands to run to validate that the backdoor is installed. All in all, it should just take a few minutes, and there’s no learning curve, it’s all very simple.