Kali Linux 2.0 Moves to Rolling Releases, Gains More Security Tools

A new release of the widely used Linux security distribution gets a major upgrade that features rolling updates.

Kali Linux 2.0 provides users with multiple options for a desktop environment, with GNOME 3 as the default choice.

The development process behind Kali is now changing, with the Linux distribution moving to a rolling release mode of continuous updates.

What makes Kali Linux particularly powerful is its comprehensive list of integrated security tools that enable researchers and penetration testers to audit, analyze and test.

Among the popular tools in Kali is the Metasploit penetration testing framework. Metapsloit, a freely available open-source project, also is backed by commercial tools from security vendor Rapid7. Prior to Kali Linux 2.0, Rapid7 maintained the Metasploit packages in Kali Linux.

Armitage is an attack management tool for Metasploit. Among its many features is a “Hail Mary” tool that will launch a flood of exploits against a target.

Kali Linux 2.0 includes the free edition of Burp Suite that provides researchers with an integrated platform of Web application security testing capabilities.

The Browser Exploitation Framework (BeEF) project, which is included in Kali Linux 2.0, is all about browser security.

In a typical penetration testing exercise, a security researcher can find lots of information and data. Helping to make sense of that data is the Maltego open-source forensics and intelligence application.

For many applications, the password is quite literally the key to access and often the weakest link as well. To that end, Kali Linux includes multiple types of password attack tools to help penetration testers validate password security.

The Social Engineer Toolkit (SET) is a platform to help security researchers test social engineering attacks, but only when done in a lawful manner. The terms of services specifically state that “the Social-Engineer Toolkit is designed purely for good and not evil.”

Often security researchers will want to record their efforts to replay and demonstrate to others. That becomes a one-click exercise with the integrated screen recorder in Kali Linux 2.0.