The release of Kali Linux 2021.2 has occurred, designed for testing systems for vulnerabilities, conducting audits, analyzing residual information, and identifying the aftermath of attacks by malicious actors. All original developments created within the distribution are distributed under the GPL license and are available through a public Git repository. Several ISO image options are prepared for download, sized at 378 MB, 3.6 GB, and 4.2 GB. Builds are available for x86, x86_64, and ARM architectures (armhf and armel, Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, ARM Chromebook, Odroid). By default, the Xfce desktop is offered, but KDE, GNOME, MATE, LXDE, and Enlightenment e17 are also optionally supported.
Kali includes one of the most comprehensive toolsets for computer security specialists: from tools for testing web applications and penetrating wireless networks to software for reading data from RFID identification chips. It comes with a collection of exploits and over 300 specialized utilities for security checks, such as Aircrack, Maltego, SAINT, Kismet, Bluebugger, Btcrack, Btscanner, Nmap, p0f. Additionally, the distribution includes tools for accelerating password cracking (Multihash CUDA Brute Forcer) and WPA keys (Pyrit) using CUDA and AMD Stream technology, allowing the utilization of NVIDIA and AMD GPUs for computational operations.
In the new release:
- The Kaboxer 1.0 toolkit has been introduced, allowing applications to be distributed in isolated containers. A distinctive feature of Kaboxer is that such containers with applications are distributed via the standard package management system and installed using the apt utility. Currently, three applications are distributed in container form within the distribution — Covenant, Firefox Developer Edition, and Zenmap.
- The Kali-Tweaks 1.0 utility has been proposed, featuring an interface to simplify the configuration of Kali Linux. This utility allows the installation of additional thematic toolsets, modification of the command shell prompt (Bash or ZSH), enabling experimental repositories, and changing settings for launching within environments. of virtual machines.
- The backend has been completely redesigned to support the Bleeding-Edge branch with the latest package versions.
- A patch has been added to the kernel to disable the restriction on connecting handlers to privileged network ports. Opening a listening socket on ports below 1024 no longer requires elevated permissions.
- New utilities added:
- CloudBrute — searching for company infrastructures, files, and applications in unprotected cloud environments
- Dirsearch — brute-forcing common files and directories in hidden paths web server.
- Feroxbuster — recursive content search through brute-forcing
- Ghidra — reverse engineering framework
- Pacu — framework for AWS environment research
- Peirates — security testing for Kubernetes-based infrastructure
- Quark-Engine — malware detector for Android
- VSCode — code editor
- Added the ability (CTRL + p) to quickly switch between single-line and multi-line command input prompts in the terminal.
- User interface improvements have been made based on Xfce. The quick launch panel located in the upper left corner has been enhanced (a terminal selection menu has been added, and shortcuts for a browser and text editor are provided by default).
- In the Thunar file manager, an option has been offered in the context menu to open a directory with root privileges.
- New wallpapers for the desktop and login screen have been proposed.
- Full support for the Raspberry Pi 400 all-in-one has been ensured and improvements have been made for Raspberry Pi board builds (Linux kernel updated to version 5.4.83, Bluetooth functionality on Raspberry Pi 4 boards has been enabled, new configurators kalipi-config and kalipi-tft-config added, first boot time reduced from 20 minutes to 15 seconds).
- Docker images for ARM64 and ARM v7 systems have been added.
- Support for installing Parallels Tools on devices with the Apple M1 chip has been implemented.
- Concurrently, the release of NetHunter 2021.2 has been prepared, which is an environment for mobile devices based on the Android platform, bundled with tools for testing systems for vulnerabilities. With NetHunter, it is possible to check for mobile-specific attacks, such as emulating USB device operations (BadUSB and HID Keyboard — emulating a network USB adapter that can be used for MITM attacks, or a USB keyboard performing character injection) and creating rogue access points (MANA Evil Access Point). NetHunter is installed in the standard Android platform environment as a chroot image, in which a specially adapted version of Kali Linux runs. The new version includes support for Android 11, patches for rtl88xxaum, extended Bluetooth support, improved Magisk root functionality, and increased compatibility with dynamically created storage partitions.
Source: opennet.ru
