We find ourselves in the 4th quarter of 2020, and we are ecstatic to announce the release of Kali Linux 2020.4, which is ready for immediate download or updating.
What’s different with this release since 2020.3 in August 2020 is:
ZSH is the new default shell - We said it was happening last time, Now it has. ZSH. Is. Now. Default. Bash shell makeover - It may not function like ZSH, but now Bash looks like ZSH. Partnership with tools authors - We are teaming up with byt3bl33d3r. Message at login - Proactively pointing users to resources. AWS image refresh - Now on GovCloud. Includes Kali’s default (command line) tools again. And there is a new URL. Packaging guides - Want to start getting your tool inside of Kali? This should help. New tools & updates - New Kernel and various new tools and updates for existing ones, as well as setting Proxychains 4 as default. NetHunter updates - New NetHunter settings menu, select from different boot animations, and persistent Magisk. Win-KeX 2.5 - New “Enhanced Session Mode” brings Win-KeX to ARM devices. Vagrant & VMware - We now support VMware users who use Vagrant. ZSH Shell By Default In our previous quarterly release, 2020.3, we gave a heads up that we will be switching from Bash to ZSH as our default shell going forwards (where possible). We are happy to announce that after testing and feedback from users, the switch has now happened. Say hello to ZSH:
We have been humbled by the amazing response to our recent launch of Win-KeX. After its initial release, we asked ourselves if that is truly the limit of what we can achieve or could we pull off something incredible to mark the 25th anniversary of Hackers? What about “a second concurrent session as root”, “seamless desktop integration with Windows”, or - dare we dream - “sound”?
Its that time of year again, time for another Kali Linux release! Quarter #3 - Kali Linux 2020.3. This release has various impressive updates, all of which are ready for immediate download or updating.
A quick overview of what’s new since the last release in May 2020:
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 New Shell (Is Coming) Most people who use Kali Linux, (we hope), are very experienced Linux users. As a result, they feel very comfortable around the command line. We understand that “shells” are a 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 the older users!/) very well!
Despite the turmoil in the world, we are thrilled to be bringing you an awesome update with Kali Linux 2020.2! And it is available for immediate download.
A quick overview of what’s new since January:
KDE Plasma Makeover & Login PowerShell by Default. Kind of. Kali on ARM Improvements Lessons From The Installer Changes New Key Packages & Icons Behind the Scenes, Infrastructure Improvements KDE Plasma Makeover & Login With Xfce and GNOME having had a Kali Linux look and feel update, it’s time to go back to our roots (days of BackTrack) and give some love and attention to KDE Plasma. Introducing our dark and light themes for KDE Plasma:
Many outstanding discoveries have been made by our vibrant NetHunter community since 2020.1, so we have decided to publish a mid-term release to showcase these amazing developments on selected devices. Massive thanks to our dedicated developers @Kimocoder, @PaulWebSec, @simonpunk, @yesimxev, & #DJY who did an incredible job in bringing you the following highlights:
Monitor support for Qualcomm wifi chips in various snapdragon SOCs New RTL88XXXU drivers with injection support New USB function management GUI for HID attacks and much more GitLab CI to dramatically speed up the release workflows NetHunter Kernel-Builder to simplify building custom kernels Brand new NetHunter images for the following devices Nexus 6P with Android 8.1 Nexus 6P with LineageOS 17.1 OnePlus 7 with Android 10 Xiaomi Mi 9T with Miui 11 Nexus 6P images for Android 8.1 and LineageOS 17.1
Just a quick update to the 2020.1 release we put out last month. We made some major changes to the installers, and some people had a few issues with some of the images we released. So, we made some slight alternations to smooth things out and make the install process easier for everyone.
There was some recent noise around children and their use of Kali, so @Re4son stepped up with a new way to run Kali in locations where it may have been hard to in the past. This allows you to run Kali instances inside other Unix systems, making Kali even more accessible to kids than before. Welcome LXD.
We are here to kick off our first release of the decade, with Kali Linux 2020.1! Available for immediate download.
The following is a brief feature summary for this release:
Non-Root by default Kali single installer image Kali NetHunter Rootless Improvements to theme & kali-undercover New tools Non-Root Throughout the history of Kali (and its predecessors BackTrack, WHAX, and Whoppix), the default credentials have been root/toor. This is no more. We are no longer using the superuser account, root, as default in Kali 2020.1. The default user account is now a standard, unprivileged, user.
For years now, Kali has inherited the default root user policy from BackTrack. As part of our evaluation of Kali tools and policies we have decided to change this and move Kali to a “traditional default non-root user” model. This change will be part of the 2020.1 release, currently scheduled for late January. However, you will notice this change in the weekly images starting now.
Five years ago, the Python developers announced that they will stop supporting Python 2 in 2020. For a long time, nobody cared and Python 3 adoption was slow. But things have changed a lot lately as the deadline is right around the corner (1st January).
Debian is removing Python 2 support Debian is planning to get rid of Python 2 entirely for their next stable release so they are progressively getting rid of Python 2 code. They filed release critical bugs on leaf packages (i.e. packages without reverse dependencies) asking them to be ported to Python 3. If the Python 3 port is not happening soon enough, these packages will be removed from Debian Testing (which is what Kali is based on).
