Kali here, Kali there! Why you should not expect detailed answers.

jsbjsb001 · 12-13-2020, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

It seems that some IT security courses use Kali. Therefore, it is possible to have a legitimate need to install and configure it even without being a professional pen tester. Let's not jump to the conclusion that newbie Kali users only want to look cool.

I personally have no problem whatsoever offering whatever help I can to people that have legitimate reasons to use it. In fact, I'm sure I can remember doing just that, and they were able to solve their problem from memory.

But if we are being honest, a lot of Kali threads here are people that do not have any legitimate reason to use it, and it's usually all too obvious to me when I see a thread where the poster has a misguided belief that either; "it's cool" and that's about the only reason they are using it, or they are going to somehow learn a lot more than what they would if they'd picked something like Ubuntu instead. It's complete nonsense that "you won't learn anything by using something like Ubuntu". You should also bear in mind that I'm no fan of Ubuntu either, and haven't used it as my "daily driver" for years now.

At the end of the day, it's designed to be used as a "live system" or inside a VM, and *not* for general purposes. And a part of helping someone is being honest with them about that.

KDSR · 01-25-2021, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

LMAO.. I used this Quote on my Twitter ...

Quote:

"Life's tough...It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

The Best Feature of this Forum is the "Search" button... One can find ALL the Info they are looking for by using it.

Trihexagonal · 01-13-2022, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

What people don’t really understand either is that Kali is nothing special. It’s a rolling Debian release with hacker tools installed.

This. Plain and simple. Without any of the increasingly passive-aggressive stones thrown by people who live in glass houses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

Hi,
Look at the sticky; Using Kali Linux? PLEASE READ!! in the <Newbie> forum. You will find several links to helpful information as to where to present your queries.

On the page linked to it suggests Debian as a choice for beginners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

I use Slackware to hack at home (testing): cli, no desktop, in a VM and install whatever tools I need. Super easy to maintain. You can install the tools you need in ANY distro and learn the tools, which is what hacking is all about; not the distro hosting the tools.

FreeBSD has most of them and is even more 1337 than Kali.

Approximately how many people that have Nmap installed do you think know they've got Ncat installed?

Of those, how many have ever used it? How many know how?

How many who know how have never seen Mr. Robot?
Here, Sir!

Code:

┌──(jitte㉿itachi)-[~]
└─$ nc -C linuxquestions.org 80
GET / HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2022 11:32:56 GMT
Content-Type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Length: 161
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Via: 1.1 google

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Index of /</title>
 </head>
 <body>
<h1>Index of /</h1>
<ul></ul>
</body></html>
                                                                                    
┌──(jitte㉿itachi)-[~]
└─$

How many know it has the potential be used as a readily available backdoor if they are compromised?

Here, Sir!
Turn Ncat into a simple web server
https://nmap.org/ncat/guide/ncat-tri...#ncat-httpserv

Should they not be using Nmap either?

I'm sitting in my recliner on my Kali box because it's got wi-fi and bluetooth, which I have yet to configure on my FreeBSD boxen.

It's not as hard to run as FreeBSD RELEASE IMO and Kali is a rolling release. It's maintained with 2 commands to update and upgrade the system often as I like and a third to do a full upgrade for a version bump:

Code:

udo apt update
sudo apr upgrade
sudo apt full upgrade -y

I tweak everything to suit my own taste and it looks much like pix of my FreeBSD machines I've posted here:

ondoho · 01-14-2022, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trihexagonal

Code:

sudo apt full upgrade -y

Anybody who recommends running apt with the '-y' options has already discredited themselves.

Trihexagonal · 01-14-2022, 03:21 PM

From the Kali site:

Quote:

How to update Kali?

To update Kali, first ensure that /etc/apt/sources.list is properly populated:

Code:

kali@kali:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# See https://www.kali.org/docs/general-us...-repositories/
deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free

# Additional line for source packages
# deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
kali@kali:~$

Quote:

After that we can run the following commands which will upgrade us to the latest Kali version.

Code:

kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update
kali@kali:~$
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y
kali@kali:~$

That's how well informed some people in this thread are.

And some aren't.

Kali, like FreeBSD, isn't for everybody.
If you install Kali, run rkhunter and are alarmed it found malware...

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...es-4175696986/

You, yes you, might be one of them, too.

goumba · 02-05-2022, 04:57 AM

I'm with ondoho. Just because the Kali website says to use "-y" doesn't make it a good idea.

How many times to we see "don't copy and paste what you see on a website into the terminal"?

Just imagine if you will someone got to your sources.list (or however Debian manages its repos now). You do

Code:

sudo apt full-upgrade -y

and go get your coffee. When you come back, you have a compromised box.

Or, it doesn't even have to be nefarious. A package is broken, and something you need right now will be uninstalled. It gets uninstalled and you can't have it back because it's broken.

Having to answer "y" gaves you that second chance to check that everything will work.

Trihexagonal · 02-05-2022, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goumba

I'm with ondoho.

Nuff said.

Imagine actually using it. This may help:

ondoho · 02-06-2022, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goumba

Or, it doesn't even have to be nefarious. A package is broken, and something you need right now will be uninstalled. It gets uninstalled and you can't have it back because it's broken.

Having to answer "y" gaves you that second chance to check that everything will work.

Yes. Regardless of the distro or even operating system you use, so many problems (questions asked on LQ) wouldn't have happened in the first place if people actually read what was on the screen, before pressing Enter.

pan64 · 02-06-2022, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Yes. Regardless of the distro or even operating system you use, so many problems (questions asked on LQ) wouldn't have happened in the first place if people actually read what was on the screen, before pressing Enter.

Murphy's technology law:
When all else fails, read the instructions.

Trihexagonal · 02-11-2022, 03:09 AM

Since I'm the only one not afraid to look:

Quote:

About Kali Linux

Kali Linux is a multi platform solution, accessible and freely available to information security professionals and hobbyists.

Developed in a secure environment: The Kali Linux team is made up of a small group of individuals who are the only ones trusted to commit packages and interact with the repositories, all of which is done using multiple secure protocols.

GPG signed packages and repositories: Every package in Kali Linux is signed by each individual developer who built and committed it, and the repositories subsequently sign the packages as well.

https://www.kali.org/docs/introducti...is-kali-linux/

If you are unfamiliar with Linux generally, if you do not have at least a basic level of competence in administering a system, if you are looking for a Linux distribution to use as a learning tool to get to know your way around Linux, or if you want a distro that you can use as a general purpose desktop installation, Kali Linux is probably not what you are looking for.

...it is NOT a recommended distribution if you’re unfamiliar with Linux or are looking for a general-purpose Linux desktop distribution for development, web design, gaming, etc.

https://www.kali.org/docs/introducti...se-kali-linux/

While the latest release on the Kali site is still listed as 2021.4a, I ran:

Code:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

And got upgraded to Kali 2022.1, without the -y flag.

Maybe they were listening and heard your cries of contrived concern.
Maybe they will see fit to finally send my account activation letter.
Now that I'm a free agent...