Virtual Machines are specialized software that allows someone to run a computer inside of another computer. These are especially useful for things like testing environments. They allow us to test code on a simulated environment before pushing it to production and breaking our environment, they allow researchers to see how malware will affect a machine in a safe way without doing harm harming their own environment, practice ethical hacking legally, among many other uses.
Kali Linux is a OS used for penetration testing (ethical hacking), this is one of, if not the most popular, OS used for pen testing. It comes with preinstalled tools to do all different kinds of hacking, from web apps, networks, and wireless.
You can learn more about Kali here.
VirtualBox
Open a browser and navigate to https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.
Select which operating system you want to use, download and install.
Kali Linux
Next, Open a browser and navigate to https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-platforms.
You’ll want to select the Virtual Machines Box:
Next you’ll want to select the type of virtualization software you are using (this will also depend on what kind of OS your using) I’m using virtualbox. Select yours and download it.
After its downloaded Open virtual box and select New.
You’ll be greeted with a window that looks like this:
Name yours whatever you like, I just chose Kali
Keep your VM folder in the default path unless you want it somewhere else.
Skip ISO image.
Skip OS edition.
Under OS select Linux.
Under OS Distribution Select Debian.
OS Version is Debian 64 bit (If your not sure which version to use go to your search bar on Windows and type in system information, next to System Type you’ll see your architecture type).
Next Skip down to Specify virtual hard disk
Select Use an Existing Virtual Hard Disk File, Select the Folder with the Green arrow
A new Window will pop up.
Select Add.
Under Not Attached you should see kali-linux-YourVersion-virtualbox-amd64.vdi.
Select it (You’ll see a small blue bar to the left indicating your choice) then go to the bottom and hit Choose. (My image shows it in the attached section because I already did this step).
Once that is done select Finish on the bottom right of your ‘New Virtual Machine’ window. You should now see a new machine populated on the left side of your Virtualbox Manger, under whatever you named it.
Before you Start it, right click on the machine and go to settings > Display > Video Memory and turn it all the way to the right (128MB) (This is to help it become full screen).
Next hit start and wait for the machine to start, you’ll be greeted with a login window. The default startup login credentials are kali:kali.
