This is the ninth entry in a series of cybersecurity themed articles; stay tuned for more if you’re enjoying this content!
Kali Linux is, according to their documentation, a Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. This Linux distro contains more than 600 advanced penetration testing tools including: reaver (for cracking WPS enabled wi-fi networks), nmap (for network host discovery), and wireshark (for monitoring and viewing network activity) to name a few with which I’m familiar. If you’re looking to ethically hack a system, Kali Linux is a great starting platform for such an undertaking. Kali Linux runs on all sorts of hardware, ranging from Raspberry Pis to many powerful commercially available Linux laptop computers.
I have personally used Kali Linux to crack poorly secured wireless networks (for testing only, DO NOT CRACK NETWORKS YOU DO NOT PERSONALLY OWN OR HAVE PERMISSION TO BE CRACKING), and it was astounding to me how simple the process is to launch a pixie dust attack against a vulnerable AP and obtain the network’s pre-shared key. There are SO. MANY. ARTICLES. showing exactly how to perform such an attack that I’ll not cover that in this article. Suffice it to say that Kali is the Linux distro to use if you want to ensure the security of your own network!
Stay safe out there!