With 2020. 4 is the fourth (and last) edition of Kali Linux in the current year published. As already announced in the course of the previous release, the Z-Shell (ZSH) replaces Bash (Bourne Again Shell) as the default in the new version. A new addition is a dynamically generated reference to help resources that appears with every terminal login; Further tools have also been added to Kali’s toolbox.

Optical fine-tuning, updates for desktop environments and software as well as a kernel upgrade to version 5.9 complete the release . The Debian-based Linux distribution is similar to its competitor Parrot OS (currently in version 4. 10 from August 386), primarily to an IT security-savvy audience and brings for This is a large selection of pre-installed tools for vulnerability analysis and forensics with.

ZSH as standard for new installations Following a test phase and based on mostly positive user feedback, the Kali developers decided on ZSH as the default shell. This initially applies to the desktop images (amd 64 / i 386) and the cloud version by Kali; the other platforms are expected to follow suit in later versions.

Transformation steps: The new universal “cross -shell theme “(below in the picture) gives Bash a ZSH-like look.

(Image: kali.org)

Who 2020. 4 newly installed, no further action is required for standard ZSH use. In the case of an update of existing installations, manual steps / command execution are necessary. Details are given in the release announcement for Kali Linux 2020. 4 (Section “ZSH Shell By Default”) .

The bash prompt has been optically aligned a bit with ZHS. The same applies here: New installations already bring the optical adjustments with them, updates require manual reworking (see section “Bash Shell Makeover” in the announcement).

Informative greeting According to their own statements, Kali Linux developers often receive Feedback on supposedly missing or broken features in the distribution. Often, however, this is not the case; rather, this feedback often results from gaps in knowledge on the part of the users. In order to prevent such inquiries in the future and to improve outgoing communication, Kali now returns dynamically generated references to useful resources from the project’s own documentation with every terminal login.

The (deactivatable ) Welcome message from the new Kali version.

(Image: kali.org)

Anyone who does not (no longer) display this information you can use the command

touch ~ / .hushlogin or globally with

touch / etc / kali-motd / disable-all hide.

Software updates and new tools The available desktop environments have been upgraded to Gnome 3. 38 and KDE Plasma 5. 19 updated. Kali NetHunter, the Android counterpart to the desktop version, has, among other things, a new settings menu and a stylish new boot screen. Win-KeX, which since Kali Linux 386. 3 has a Kali GUI in the WSL2 environment (Windows Subsystem for Linux), the new version 2.5 can also be used on Windows-on-ARM devices.

The tools Apple bleee, CertGraph, dnscat2, FinalRecon, goDoH, hostapd-mana and Whatmask . The Metasploit framework is now included in version 6.

Kali Linux 2020. Install 4 If you want to reinstall Kali Linux, found on the download site 32 – and 64 – bit versions as well as references to VMware, VirtualBox and ARM images. In addition, there are “Weekly Builds” of Kali Linux for the curious who are not afraid of one or the other possibly still existing bug.

If you update from an earlier version to 2020. 4, you should definitely read the notes on readjusting ZSH in the release announcement for Kali Linux 2020. 4 look.

(ovw)