Offensive Security has released a new version of hacker-centric Kali Linux. Dubbed as Kali Linux 2016.2, this updated Linux distribution brings some modern desktop environments to deliver fresh experiences for various security assessment and penetration testing operations.
The updated Kali Linux comes in multiple ISOs to offer desktop environments such as KDE, Mate, LXDE and Enlightenment. All these environments are integrated specifically for 64-bit platforms.
Lead trainer and developer at Offensive Security Mati Aharoni said the development of providing desktop environments instead of the traditional GNOME had emerged through user suggestions. “Although users are able to build and customise their Kali Linux ISOs however they wish, we often hear people comment about how they would love to see Kali with $desktop_environment instead of GNOME,” explained Aharoni, in an official release.
“We then engage with those people passionately, about how they can use live-build to customise not only their desktop environment but pretty much every aspect of their ISO, together with the ability to run scripted hooks at every stage of the ISO creation process – but more often than not, our argument is quickly lost in random conversation,” Aharoni added.
OS enhancements
Apart from the variety of experiences, the latest Kali Linux brings some bug fixes and operating system enhancements. A major noticeable enhancement in the new changelog is the HTTPS support that comes within busybox to offer secure installations over SSL.
Retirement of “sana” repository
The Offensive Security team has not just added some new features to its Linux distribution but also announced the retirement of its “sana” repositories from its servers.
“We announced the ‘sana’ release EOL a few months ago along with its public repositories. We have given a few months grace and are now finally purging the ‘sana’ repositories from our servers,” Ahorani said.
Weekly updates
The team is also set to publish updated weekly builds of Kali Linux to avoid the situation of a long “apt-get dist-upgrade”. These weekly updated ISOs will be available for download via Kali Mirrors page.
