Chapter 14 ■ Kali Linux 219

Optimizing Kali Linux

One of the rst things I do as a habit is update Kali Linux every single time
I open it up. Offensive Security pulls updates from Debian four times a day.
This ensures patches and updates are getting incorporated into Kali Linux on
a daily basis. Keep your system up-to-date and make it part of your routine. As
soon as the OS loads, open a terminal, and run apt-get update, as shown in
Figure 14.15. When that process completes and you get your command prompt
back, run apt-get dist-upgrade (also shown in Figure 14.15).

Figure 14.15: Updating Kali Linux through a terminal

Next, think about the credentials you used to log into this VM of Kali Linux.
Those are root credentials. This book has cautioned you with a discussion on
least privileges. Adding a nonroot user to Kali Linux is pretty easy. You can
still use the root/toor credentials as needed. As you can see in Figure 14.16, the
commands to add a user and password are simply useradd -m nt -G -s /bin/
bash and passwd nt, respectively.
You will probably want to use your name or initials, not mine (even though
mine are pretty awesome considering I’m in IT). Be cognizant of using any
information or credentials that someone else could use nefariously.
You also might want to consider disabling the screen lock feature. The easiest
and fastest way to disable the screen lock feature is to navigate the menu on
the left to the very bottom. There is an icon of nine dots, which is your Show
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Applications icon. At the top of the window is the Search eld. Type Settings,
navigate toward the bottom of the page, and choose Power. Like you see in
Figure 14.17, choose Never as the Blank Screen option.

Figure 14.16: Adding a nonroot username and password

Figure 14.17: Turning off the Blank screen saver

The next feature you might want to disable is the Automatic Screen Lock.
You will nd this under Privacy in the Settings menu, as shown in Figure 14.18.
 Chapter 14 ■ Kali Linux 221

Figure 14.18: Configuring Automatic Screen Lock

Using Kali Linux Tools

Some of the tools in Kali Linux have been discussed in previous chapters of
this book—including NMAP, Burp, Wireshark, Social Engineer Toolkit, and
Metasploit Framework—but there are so many more. Here are some of my
favorites out of hundreds that are extremely specialized but can be put in the
following categories:
■ Information gathering
■ Maltego
■ Recon-ng
■ Sparta
■ Utilities
■ MacChanger
■ Nikto
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■ Wireless
■ Kismet
■ WiFite
■ Brute forcing
■ John the Ripper
■ Hashcat
With these tools, you can test your computer system security using the same
techniques that an attacker would. Kali Linux is specically built to meet the
requirements of security auditing and specically geared toward security spe-
cialists. It is not a general-purpose operating system and should be used only
while working toward achieving your security requirements.
As you see in Figure 14.19, by clicking Applications in the upper-left corner,
the menu that drops down already breaks down the tools into different genres
such as information gathering, password attacks, and forensics. Explore the
menus in your own Kali Linux instance to get familiar with the names of the
tools and recognize the placement of those you already know.

Figure 14.19: Kali Favorites menu

Maltego
In the beginning of any type of penetration test or campaign, you want to use
your tools to gather as much information as you can. Maltego is one of the
best. When you go to Applications ⇨ Information Gathering ⇨ Maltego, as
 Chapter 14 ■ Kali Linux 223

shown in Figure 14.20, you have several choices that require a key. But there is
a Community Edition, which you can access by clicking the Run button under
Maltego CE (Free).

Figure 14.20: Starting Maltego CE in Kali Linux

After you have created a user login for Maltego, you will be able to fully
utilize the features. As you see in Figure 14.21, after logging in, you will access
Maltego and have a choice to build a new graphic interface or use an example
to get familiar. This is the default example of what data mining looks like.
Maltego renders graphs full of links based on relationships between pieces of
data sprinkled across the Internet. Maltego uses the visual node representation
to assist you in nding the information that is out in the wild that could possibly
be used to compromise your environment. There is no graphical export in the
community version, but the data is still there at your ngertips.

Recon-ng
While Maltego is one of my favorite ways to present the data, Recon-ng is a tool
written by one of my favorite organizations: Black Hills InfoSec. Recon-ng is a
Python web reconnaissance framework. It has modules, database interaction,
and built-in functions to help you gather information. It looks like Metasploit
and SET to reduce the learning curve, but even with the obvious simplicity, it is
a rather complex tool. Type help at the default prompt for a list of all commands.
Next, type show modules. You will get a list of all the discovery, exploit,
import, recon, and reporting modules. Next, type user hackertarget and then
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show info, as you see in Figure 14.22. You can use this module to enumerate
hostnames, among other things.

Figure 14.21: Data sources of Paterva, the owner of Maltego

Figure 14.22: Recon-ng welcome prompt