Kali Linux 2022.4 adds 6 new tools, Azure images and desktop updates

Offensive Security has released Kali Linux 2022.4, the fourth and final version of 2022, with new Azure and QEMU images, six new tools, and improved desktop experiences.

Kali Linux is a distro designed for ethical hackers to perform penetration testing, security audits, and cybersecurity research against networks.

With this release, the Kali Linux team is introducing a variety of new features, including:

• The Kali Linux distribution is back on Microsoft Azure
• six new toys tools.
• Kali NetHunter Pro Released
• Gnome and KDE Plasma desktop updates
• Improved ARM support

Offensive Security has decided to release Kali Linux 2022.4 in conjunction with the Black Hat Security Conference, BSides LV and DefCon as a “nice surprise for all to enjoy!”

With this release, Kali Linux uses Linux Kernel 5.18.5. However, Raspberry Pi releases use version 5.15.

Kali Linux images for Azure, QEMU

Kali Linux is now available on Azure Marketplace, allowing you to deploy the image and perform penetration testing from the cloud.

In fact, Kali Linux 2022.3 arrived on Azure first, with the team tweet his addition on August 30, after the release of 2022.3.

The Kali team also now offers a pre-built image for QEMU

“We now include a QEMU image with our pre-generated images. We hope this will make it easier for people using self-hosted Proxmox (VE) virtual environments, virt-manager or libvirt,” the Kali team announced.

Six new tools added in Kali Linux 2022.4

It’s never a new version of Kali Linux without new tools to play with.

This release adds six new tools, including the Windows NTLM relay tools, a Windows privilege escalation tool, and a driver for Hak5’s Coconut WiFi.

Below are the six new tools added in Kali 2022.4:

• bloodhound.py – A Python-based ingestor for BloodHound
• certipy – Tool for Active Directory Certificate Services enumeration and abuse
• hak5-wifi-coconut – A userspace driver for USB Wi-Fi network cards and the Hak5 Wi-Fi Coconut
• ldapdomaindump – Active Directory information dump via LDAP
• peass-ng – Privilege escalation tools for Windows, Linux/Unix* and MacOS.
• rizin-cutter – reverse engineering platform powered by rizin

GNOME and KDE Plasma Desktop Updates

This release brings many desktop updates, including GNOME 43 with a new GTK3 theme, shown below.

KDE Plasma has also been updated to version 5.26, with changes to various widgets.

Kali NetHunter Updates

Kali Nethunter Pro is officially released, with images available for PinePhone and PinePhonePro.

“The launch of Kali NetHunter Pro is the start of a new chapter for Kali Linux and NetHunter, a bare metal installation of Kali Linux with the Phosh desktop environment, optimized for mobile devices.”

“First, we are releasing SD card images for the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro for dual booting with the main operating system. Soon we will be releasing alternate versions with Plasma Mobile as well as firmware installation so you can install Kali NetHunter Pro on internal flash memory,” reads the Kali Linux 2022.4 announcement.

Along with the official release of NetHunter Pro, Kali Nethunter has also received improvements.

With this release, NetHunter now has internal Bluetooth support, improved Wardriveing, audio support for Kex, and fixes for crashes on Android 11 and Android 12.

How to Get Kali Linux 2022.4

To start using Kali Linux 2022.4, you can upgrade your existing installation, select a platform, or directly download ISO images for new installations and live distributions.

For those who are updating from a previous version, you can use the following commands to upgrade to the latest version.

echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

cp -rbi /etc/skel/. ~

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

If you are running Kali on Windows Subsystem for Linux, be sure to upgrade to WSL2 for the best experience, including support for graphical applications.

You can check the WSL version Kali is using with the ‘wsl -l -v’ command in a Windows command prompt.

After the upgrade is complete, you can check if the upgrade was successful using the following command:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release

Although we’ve only shared the highlighted improvements in Kali 2022.4, you can check out the full changelog on the Kali website.