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Kali Linux

Score7.7 out of 10

30 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Kali Linux?

Kali Linux is an open source, advanced penetration testing platform supported by Offensive Security headquartered in New York.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Kali Linux.
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Kali Linux a great security toolkit

Incentivized
Dave KingView profile
Director of IT in Information Technology at Preis PLC (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I started using Kali when taking security courses. Building a Test Lab and using ti to test and harden the security of the network.

Pros

  • logical and intuitive interface
  • come with over 600 useful tools
  • built Linux Debian distribution

Cons

  • GIU interfaces for some tools
  • Kali is mostly CLI based and requires knowledge of the CLI commands

Most Important Features

  • Network Scans
  • Traffic analysis
  • Pen testing

Return on Investment

  • Identifying weaknesses before they become a problem
  • Hardening a Corporate or Home network

Kali, the cybersecurity sidekick

Incentivized
John ReeveView profile
Co-founder, Lead developer, Lead designer in Engineering at Pelago Design (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a SaaS company we must perform regular security scans to ensure our servers are up to date and configured properly. We use Kali's security tools for this purpose.

Pros

  • Analyzing SSL certificates
  • Analyzing SSL server configurations
  • Vulnerability scanning
  • Port scanning

Cons

  • Kali is a collection of tools, so the documentation is fragmented. It would be nice to have more centralized docs.

Most Important Features

  • Verifying SSL certificates
  • Confirming SSL configurations
  • Scanning web sites for potential vulnerability issues

Return on Investment

  • Almost entirely positive. It's an indispensable tool in cybersecurity.

Other Software Used

SolarWinds AppOptics

It's the best OS for any IT infrastructure enthusiast

Incentivized
Om KhardView profile
Network Engineer in Information Technology at Freelancing (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Port analyses
  • Hosting any website
  • Using system as a proxy server
  • More secure than Windows

Cons

  • To make the Graphical interface more interactive, because Linux distros are more tend to be used in CLI.

Most Important Features

  • Proxying
  • Making as a Server
  • Port Analyses
  • Scanning
  • Enumeration in binary , hex , or octal or even in ascii every tools are available

Return on Investment

  • Till now Kali Linux have not made a single penny negative impact on our companies business , its so powerful and useful at the same time for our company.

Alternatives Considered

CentOS Linux and Ubuntu Linux

Other Software Used

Nmap, Burp Suite, Terminal

Kali Linux comes with 600 preinstalled tools

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Kali Linux is a great operating system that comes preinstalled with a ton of tools that can be used for penetration testing.

Pros

  • Forensics
  • Steganography
  • Reverse engineering

Cons

  • Option to deselect tools upon install
  • Instructions for all the tools
  • Lightweight install option

Most Important Features

  • Burp suite preinstalled
  • Ghidra preinstalled
  • Multiple Steganography tools preinstalled

Return on Investment

  • Kali is a free OS which makes it very useful to install so many tools while not paying a premium

Alternatives Considered

Ubuntu Linux, PortSwigger Burp Suite and Autopsy Digital Forensics

Other Software Used

Ubuntu Linux, Autopsy Digital Forensics, PortSwigger Burp Suite

Great OS for closing all security holes.

Incentivized
Verified User
Consultant in Research & Development (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Provides high security.
  • Does great job with penetration testing.
  • Has good number of testing tools with in.

Cons

  • Usage wise, it is tough for use by beginners. Can be improved.
  • With Kali Linux have noticed driver related issues especially with Nvidia graphics cards.
  • Kali Linux can be improved for use as a day to day OS.

Most Important Features

  • High number of inbuilt testing tools.
  • Good for penetration testing of in house applications.
  • Capable of knowing and creating back doors with in an application.

Return on Investment

  • Initial stages of figuring out back doors in an application hence making them secure.
  • ROI is good as it reduces in production security threats by letting us know well in advance.
  • Entire development team along with its designers get a huge sigh of relief as all security holes are sealed well in advance before going into production.

Alternatives Considered

Parrot Analytics

Other Software Used

IBM AIX, Oracle Solaris, Wireshark, AnyDesk, LibreOffice, Debian OS