Kali Linux - Arguments for a little newbie!

[iTpHo3NiX]

I'm just curious. If you guys aren't running Kali in a VM as a part of a pen testing lab alongside some other vulnerable OS to experiment pen testing with, then whose computers are you practicing on? lol

Considering most of what I do is wireless auditing, my router is usually the target, laptop 1 is usually Kali, laptop 2, desktop, and phones are usually clients and allows me to practice. Theoretically, when I get bored I go wardriving and break into neighbors routers.

[iikibT]

I run kali in a triple boot systeem. I have the advantage of booting on a ssd without the struggle with vm and have windows as my prior os. I can easily switch to one of the three distro. They fit my needs. I don't see a disadvantage in such a dual or triple boot?

If your other partitions and/or disks are not encrypted then there is the disadvantage of "if my Kali gets owned, all my personal files are compromised".
There is also disadvantage of "if my Kali gets owned, it stays owned" in contrast with running Live USB or immutable VM.

However if you are not doing shady things, you should be ok =)

[dimi]

If your other partitions and/or disks are not encrypted then there is the disadvantage of "if my Kali gets owned, all my personal files are compromised".
There is also disadvantage of "if my Kali gets owned, it stays owned" in contrast with running Live USB or immutable VM.

However if you are not doing shady things, you should be ok =)

Ok, thank you. I googled for running in persistence and saw a small light in distance, but the light is coming closer now
Apparently, the triple boot was a bad idea

[KOR]

I'm still on the grind with Kali, but wouldn't it be fine to run it as a different user and the sudo command? I know it doesn't work all the time, but it could be a viable option.

[Darkvision]

I'm still on the grind with Kali, but wouldn't it be fine to run it as a different user and the sudo command? I know it doesn't work all the time, but it could be a viable option.

sure. so long as that user is root.

[iikibT]

I'm still on the grind with Kali, but wouldn't it be fine to run it as a different user and the sudo command? I know it doesn't work all the time, but it could be a viable option.

It would, but Kali still sucks if you try to use it as your main distro =)

If you want to have persistent Linux and use all the tools found in Kali (without manually installing them 1 by 1), you can for instance run Ubuntu with kalibuntu PPA, or by installing blackarch on top of your Arch, etc.

[KOR]

sure. so long as that user is root.

Really? I thought you could get away with using the tools if you used the sudo command and not be root?

It would, but Kali still sucks if you try to use it as your main distro =)

If you want to have persistent Linux and use all the tools found in Kali (without manually installing them 1 by 1), you can for instance run Ubuntu with kalibuntu PPA, or by installing blackarch on top of your Arch, etc.

I wouldn't use it as a main distro, I use it off a VM for playing around with or liveUSB. I'm not one for putting it as my main distro and then using it for photo editing. What a waste.

[Darkvision]

Really? I thought you could get away with using the tools if you used the sudo command and not be root?

Their may be a way around it, and i would argue considering its linux their is, but to me the simplest/easiest solution is just to install the tools you want/need and fuck the rest of that noise.

Dont get me wrong i can see the advantages of kali on a live USB, since you can boot any system into your tool set, but you could do the same still with any other distro and the tools you want, with greater compatibility, and more out of the box control. IMO the ONLY argument that can be made is as a company using it for pentesting since its a "known" environmental variables. For any home user id say set your own shit up.

[weiqiix]

https://www.kali.org is a good distribution because it has allot of tools ready for use, or available on the repositories.

I use Kali Linux Light (with some extra tools installed afterwards) in a virtual machine, and it works for study/testing. Not so much for wifi related stuff.

USB is a good solution for "working" with Kali, it _could_ work with wifi, but not so much for study/testing.

And even if adding a new user is not difficult, I can't see Kali as a main system or in dual boot. It is after all a dangerous tool.

And there are other security centered distributions around, like https://www.backbox.org or https://labs.fedoraproject.org/security/; my advice would be to run an entire lab in virtual machines, attack and victim machines alike (try http://sourceforge.net/projects/metasploitable/ for example), and choose a distribution after trying more than one.

[KOR]

I'd quite like to try BlackArch as well at some point. Still trying to find the time to get through python, though.

Their may be a way around it, and i would argue considering its linux their is, but to me the simplest/easiest solution is just to install the tools you want/need and fuck the rest of that noise.

Dont get me wrong i can see the advantages of kali on a live USB, since you can boot any system into your tool set, but you could do the same still with any other distro and the tools you want, with greater compatibility, and more out of the box control. IMO the ONLY argument that can be made is as a company using it for pentesting since its a "known" environmental variables. For any home user id say set your own shit up.

Good advice. I can certainly take this one up, but would you have a preferred OS for doing this? Talis? Mint? Maybe make your own using the linux guide?