Kali Linux Installation

kali-linux
Installing the Kali Linux 2022.1 virtual machine on VMware Workstation Player, with bridged networking and a static IP address.
Published

Apr 1, 2022

For the purpose of this course, we are going to install Kali Linux according to “Virtualization: Type 2 Hypervisor” section of this article.

Step 1. Download and install a type-2 hypervisor

You can skip this step if you already have a hypervisor type installed on your host operating system.

Amongst Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation Pro, and VMware Workstation Player, I am going to choose the latter from here.

  • Run the installer.
  • Next.
  • Read “VMWARE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT” then hit “I accept the terms in the License Agreement”, then hit “Next”.
  • Next.
  • Next.
  • Next.
  • Install.
  • Wait about 2-3 minutes to complete the installation.
  • Reboot? Yes.
  • After reboot, open the VMware Workstation Player you installed earlier.
  • Select “Use VMware Workstation 16 Player for free for non-commercial use”; then hit “Continue”.
  • Finish.

Step 2. Deploy Kali Linux VM

  • Get Kali Linux from here.
  • Hit download icon “↓”.
  • Right-click and extract the content of the kali-linux file to a permanent path.

Extract .7z file
  • [Optionally,] you can delete the .7z file.
  • Open up VMware Workstation Player.
  • Click on Open a Virtual Machine.

VMware Workstation Player - Open a Virtual Machine
  • Double-click on the kali-linux-2022.1-vmware-amd64.vmx file you had previously downloaded.

Opening the downloaded .vmx file from VMware Workstation Player to import the Kali virtual machine
  • The VM will be imported to your VMware Workstation Player.

Kali Linux VM
  • Before turning on the VM, we need to adjust the networking:
    • Go to Player -> Manage -> Virtual Machine Settings…
    • Select Network Adapter
    • Select “Bridged” Network connection

Bridged Network
  • Click OK.
  • You can now hit “Play virtual machine”.
  • Note that if the host virtualization is not enabled on your computer BIOS, you need to power cycle your computer and enable it through BIOS/firmware.
  • Log in to the GUI with the default credentials of kali/kali

Step 3. Initial Network Setup

  • Right Click in the Networking icon then select “Edit Connections…”

Edit Network Settings
  • From there, select “Wired connection 1”. then hit the edit icon.
  • Navigate to “IPv4 Settings” tab, then give it an IP within the same network as your host operating system:

IPv4 Settings tab of the wired connection, set to a static address on the same network as the host operating system
  • Click “Save”
  • Right-click anywhere on the desktop, then select “Open Terminal Here”

Opening a terminal from the desktop right-click menu to check the address that was just configured
  • Check your IP configuration:
┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:0c:29:56:c3:12 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.0.80/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:fe56:c312/64 scope link noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
  • Check if you can reach your Default Gateway
┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ ping 10.0.0.1
PING 10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.21 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.31 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.32 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.979 ms
^C
--- 10.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3349ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.979/1.202/1.321/0.136 ms

┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$
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