TL;DR Bad news for Kali Linux users! In the coming day(s), apt update is going to fail for pretty much everyone out there:
Missing key 827C8569F2518CC677FECA1AED65462EC8D5E4C5, which is needed to verify signature. Reason is, we had to roll a new signing key for the Kali repository. You need to download and install the new key manually, here’s the one-liner:
We are kicking off 2025 with Kali Linux 2025.1a! This update builds on existing features, bringing enhancements and improvements to streamline your experience. It is now available to download or upgrade if you’re already running Kali Linux. Kali Linux 2025.1a? What happened to 2025.1? There was a last minute bug discovered in a package after already producing our images. As a result, a re-build was needed, with a fix.
Late last year we had the pleasure of being reached out to by Microsoft in regards to participating in the launch of the new, modern, WSL distribution architecture. In summary, this new architecture allows for easier distribution and installation of WSL distros. For the full explanation of how this works, please view Microsoft’s blog post and their documentation.
Just before the year starts to wrap up, we are getting the final 2024 release out! This contains a wide range of updates and changes, which are in already in effect, ready for immediate download, or updating.
The summary of the changelog since the 2024.3 release from September is:
Python 3.12 - New default Python version (Au revoir pip, hello pipx) The End Of The i386 Kernel and Images - Farewell x86 (images), but not goodbye (packages) Deprecations in the SSH Client: DSA keys - Reminder about using ssh1 if required Raspberry Pi Imager Customizations Support - Able to alter settings at write time GNOME 47 - Now able to synchronize your favorite colors Kali Forums Refresh - New heart of the community home Kali NetHunter - Updates to the app, kernels, installer, store and website! New Tools - 14 new shiny toys added (and countless updated!) A New Python Version: 3.12 Python 3.12 is now the default Python interpreter. While it was released upstream a year ago, it took a bit of time to become the default in Debian, and then even more time to make it to Kali Linux, but finally it’s here. Every new version of Python brings along some deprecations or subtle changes of behavior, which in turn breaks some Python packages, and we have to investigate and fix all the issues reported by our QA system. Hence the delay.
With the launch of our brand-new forums, we thought we would update our documentation and explore how everyone can contribute to the growth of Kali Linux. Kali is a multi-platform project that thrives on the the contributions of its community. Whether you’re curious about how you can pitch in or simply want to learn more about how contributions shape our platform, keep reading. For a deeper dive, don’t forget to check out the relevant Kali Docs pages.
Over the past year we have been hard at work on refreshing the Kali Forums, and today we are proud to announce the official launch. We have taken what we have learnt over the years decades, and created a new home from scratch.
At the same time, we are welcoming a new team of community moderators who have been helping us over on Discord. Before you go check it out, lets first take a look at why we are doing this.
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.
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:
Qualcomm NetHunter Pro Devices - Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM845 SoC now supported New Tools - 11x new tools in your arsenal 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.
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.
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.