Kali Linux is a Debian based Linux distribution, released on the 13th March 2013 as a complete rebuild of BackTrack Linux. It is one of the best Linux distributions for hacking and security testing, comes with an enormous amount of penetration testing tools from various fields of security and forensics that can be used to determine an organization’s loophole in a risk mitigation project.

One of its main features is that it can run on any type of devices, including 32-bit, 64-bit Intel and AMD processors as well as the Raspberry Pi.

We are going to install Kali Linux on a virtual box and will use it as a regular application in Windows system.

Prerequisites:

1. VirtualBox should be installed
2. At least 4GB of RAM is required
3. At least 30GB to 40GB of free disk space
4. Virtualization feature should enable on the processor

Installation Steps:

Step 1:  Download Kali Linux ISO image file

You can find it on the official download page: https://www.kali.org/downloads/

Select the image of your choice based on your requirements.

Step 2: Create a guest OS on VirtualBox

After downloading an image file open up VirtualBox

Select type as Linux, version Debian (64-bit) as you will not be able to find Kali Linux in option and then type any name of your choice in the Name bar

Select the amount of memory of your choice. The recommended memory is at least 1GB but you can select it based upon your system’s resources

We are going to create a Virtual Hard drive so choose second option that says “Create a virtual hard disk now”

Next it will ask hard drive file type so leave it default as we want to make a VDI file

It will ask the storage on the physical hard drive, select this option based upon your requirement. The best practice is to select as default i.e. “Dynamically allocated”

Allocate memory to your machine as required, minimum requirement is 20GB. If you select less than 20GB then it will show some errors while installing.  After allocating memory select the tab “Create”

Your VM will be created

 Step3: Select an image file and install Kali Linux

Now select the VM Kali and go to settings for more configuration

Go to System tab and select Processor, here you can choose number of processors depends upon how many processors you want to give your virtual machine. Select 2 from the right side bar

Go to Storage tab and select Controller: IDE, select Empty, at the right most corner select the tiny CD icon from where you can browse the ISO file that you have downloaded on your PC. Select the image file

Now let’s start the virtual machine

Select the Graphical install option as we need to install GUI based interface

Select the language of your choice

Select your location

Set the keyboard configuration based upon your choice

Set the hostname of the guest as ‘Kali’, you can choose any name

Set the appropriate domain name if you want to configure it, in our case we will leave it as blank

Set the password for your machine

Next the installer will ask you about the partitions of the disk. The easiest option for you is to use ‘Guided – Use Entire Disk’, Set the partitioning disk (leave it default as we will do a configuration by using the entire disk without partitioning)

Continue the installation

After that it will ask for a network mirror for configuring package manager but in our case we are not using it therefor select ‘no’

Set the proxy information if you have any otherwise leave it blank

It will ask now to install the GRUB boot loader, select yes and proceed to continue

The message shows up when the installation will be completed, press continue

Login as root user and its password

Now explore the variety of security tools (Nmap, Wireshark, Automater, John the ripper, WifiTap etc) and conduct the test by using this GUI Interface