Configuring Kali Linux
After writing the kali image to the MicroSD card, insert the card and Login into the Kali OS with the username kali and password kali.
Kali is full-featured and comes with a lot of the tools we need already installed. There are some configuration changes we need to make including:
- Enabling SSH
- Changing Default Password
- Resizing the microSD card
- Updating OS
- Enable SSH
- Enter kalipi-config at the command prompt to launch the Kali-Pi Software Configuration Tool (kali-config).
- kali@kali:~$ sudo kalipi-config
- Select Option 05 from the main menu and answer Yes to enabling the SSH server.
SSH is now enabled on your Kali Linux installation. The default login and password will allow you to log into the server using SSH, we will change the default password in the next step.
Change Default Password
Changing the default password assures that somebody cannot easily ruin your pen-testing tool that they just found on their network. Hacking into your penetration tool is not a good look, so change the default password.
Select Option 01 to change the default password.
We are changing the password for the user kali, click the Ok button.
Enter the new password and, Retype the new password to confirm.
Changing the default password assures that somebody cannot easily ruin your pen-testing tool that they just found on their network. Hacking into your penetration tool is not a good look, so change the default password.
Select Finish and Ok to exit the configuration tool.
Resizing the MicroSD card
To make sure we have enough room on our microSD card, we need to expand the card so that we are using the full capacity of our memory card. Kali Linux comes with the gparted command that will allow us to resize the memory card.
If we do not resize the partition using the full capacity of our memory card, depending on the size of the card, we could run out of disk space while performing apt-update or installing additional software later.
- Open a terminal and type the following:
kali@kali:~$ sudo gparted - After the gparted application launches, locate and select the ROOTFS.
Select the bar highlighted in yellow, this represents the allocated filesystem. Right click and select the “Resize/Move” command or just click on the -> icon just above the partition information.
Click on the black arrow and drag the allocated (or yellow) area to the far right to increase the size of the partition.
Click the Resize button to allow the changes.
Select the “Apply All Operations” menu selection from the Edit menu.
Confirm the changes by clicking the “Apply” button.
Depending on the size of your memory card, this could take several minutes.
Close the gparted window.
Keeping Kali Linux up-to-date
Before installing anything or deploying your Kali system, you should always confirm that the software is up-to-date. Having the latest release with bug fixes, new software features, and security fixes will prevent you from having issues later.
At the command prompt type:
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt-update
The sudo apt-update command updates all the package indexes and doesn’t actually update any software on your Kali installation, but updates what the latest software is and where to download it from.
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt upgrade
The sudo apt-get upgrade command, upgrades the software on your Kali installation. Depending on your Internet connection and the amount of upgrades needed, this could take a while.
kali@kali:~$ sudo reboot
The sudo reboot command reboots your system so it can start up with all the updates applied. When your system reboots, everything will be up-to-date and have the latest software, bug fixes, features, and security updates.
