Kali is a Debian-based Linux distribution developed, funded, and maintained by Offensive Security. Its usage is focused on advanced penetration testing and security auditing, so the distribution is aimed mainly at security professionals and Linux enthusiasts.
Following the August release of version 2022.3, the new Kali Linux 2022.4 is the latest release for this year, bringing both internal updates and exciting new distribution capabilities.
Kali Linux 2022.4 Highlights
There are many new features in this Kali release, so let’s highlight the most important ones.
Azure Marketplace
The big news in this release is that Kali Linux is now available on the Azure Marketplace for users of Microsoft’s cloud service.
Unfortunately, the distribution image available there is not in its full glory. What does this mean? Choose to use Kali Linux from the Azure Marketplace. You will get an operating system without any graphical environments and, most importantly, without the default toolset that Kali comes with.
So, you will need to install them manually if you want to use them. Here is the official guide for remotely installing the default Xfce graphical environment on Kali.
Updated Desktop Environments
Although Kali cannot be called a Linux distribution intended for everyday use as a regular desktop workstation, its graphical environment is a significant component, allowing users to interact with many penetration testing and security tools. In its last release for the year, Kali Linux 2022.04, the developers have thought to delight users with updated versions of the desktop environments.
Kali Linux includes the Xfce desktop environment by default. However, there is a pleasant surprise for users of the two most popular desktop environments, GNOME and KDE Plasma. Here they will find the most recent and up-to-date versions of GNOME 43 and Plasma 5.26.
Kali NetHunter Pro
Kali NetHunter is a free and open-source mobile penetration testing platform for Android devices based on Kali Linux. In addition, the distro now has official support for Pine64 PinePhone and PinePhone Pro devices.
For the time being, Kali is providing SD card images ready for dual booting of the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro with the underlying operating system. Furthermore, there are plans to offer different versions with Plasma Mobile and installers to install Kali NetHunter Pro on the internal flash memory soon.
New Security Tools in Kali Linux 2022.4
Of course, without adding new security tools, Kali never launches an update, and the latest Kali Linux 2022.4 release contains six of them:
- BloodHound.py – A Python-based ingestor for BloodHound
- Certipy – Tool for Active Directory Certificate Services enumeration and abuse
- Hak5 WiFi Coconut – A user-space driver for USB WiFi NICs and the Hak5 WiFi Coconut
- LDAPDomainDump – Active Directory information dumper via LDAP
- PEASS-ng – Privilege escalation tools for Windows and Linux/Unix* and macOS.
- Rizin Cutter – reverse engineering platform powered by rizin
Other Highlights
Apart from those mentioned above, we should note some additional changes here.
Under the hood, Kali Linux 2022.2 featured the Linux kernel 6.0. In addition, Kali Linux has been added to the Raspberry Pi Imager list, making it easier to flash Kali on your SD card.
Finally, we’ll highlight that the pre-generated installation images now include a Kali image for QEMU. This will simplify things for users who run self-hosted virtual environments like Proxmox or use a GUI tool for managing KVM-based virtual machines such as virt-manager.
You can refer to the official announcement for detailed information about all changes in Kali Linux 2022.4. If you plan a fresh installation, Kali Linux 2022.4 is ready for download from the projectโs website.
Of course, if you already have an existing Kali Linux installation, remember you can always get the latest by running:
echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgradeCode language: PHP (php)Then you need to reboot your system, and you should be on Kali Linux 2022.4.
