Kali linux help

tbrown_01923

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 29, 2006
780
I am stupid - I know this going into it, but I purchased an entry level book on the different tools Kali. I wanted to go through them to understand what kind of threat someone slightly smarter than me would pose to the different systems I am a stakeholder of.

Download VMWare Player - CHECK (easy)
Download Kali image - CHECK (easy)

Get Kali to talk to wireless adapter - WTF? Where does one even begin to start?

I purchased this card (honestly I miss clicked, but I think the card is supported):
Issues:
  • Laptop has no CD Rom Drive
  • Laptop has no ethernet card (some combo USB thing)
  • Did I mention I am stupid?
Background: I am am software engineer / architect / technical leader (interim CTO type). Recently I have been asked focus on security side and as such I have been pursuing (and passing) certifications. I am way more on the road mapping / policy / tooling side than the active pen-testing. However, I wanted to get my hands a little dirty, to be able to build my understanding top down and bottom up simultaneously. Now I am feeling foolish. : (
 

kneemoe

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 19, 2006
2,436
Glens Falls, NY
You probably need to allocate that card to the vm you are running. No optical drive shouldn't be an issue, you should be able to use the iso file instead. I haven't used vm player in years but if you clunk around in the menus you should find what you need. Try doing these with the vm powered down
 
Sep 13, 2013
97
Get Kali to talk to wireless adapter - WTF? Where does one even begin to start?
The guest OS (Kali) doesn't talk your wireless adapter, it talks to the network interface of the virtual machine.
This will typically show up as eth0 or similiar in the guest OS.

You use VMware Player settings to configure the VM's network adpapter, ie NAT, bridged etc, according to your needs.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
You can also try VirtualBox which is free, and in my experience, more functional than the free version of VMware (but probably not as good as the paid version).
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
Use Virtual Box. It should guide you through booting from the ISO. Before you start the VM, go into settings for the VM and then click on Network. In there, make sure Nework Interface one is enabled (should be by default) and set the network settings to "bridged adapter" like below.

upload_2017-5-29_23-7-40.png
Once you get the machine booted you'll still may not have network. You may need to do an "ifup eth0" command as root/sudo but I don't know anything about Kali Linux or the type of system you're trying to build (Desktop, console, simple, web server, etc.) so I don't know the default settings. Anyway, the rest of the answers can be easily found online. Youtube is really good for step by step tutorials.
 

NortheasternPJ

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SoSH Member
Nov 16, 2004
19,271
View attachment 15824
Once you get the machine booted you'll still may not have network. You may need to do an "ifup eth0" command as root/sudo but I don't know anything about Kali Linux or the type of system you're trying to build (Desktop, console, simple, web server, etc.) so I don't know the default settings. Anyway, the rest of the answers can be easily found online. Youtube is really good for step by step tutorials.[/QUOTE]

Kali is really just a variant of Debian with a million hacking tools installed on it. I haven't been hands on in a couple years, but I always found running Backtrack/Kali in a virtual machine was a pain in the ass and caused more problems than it's worth, especially when dealing with things like wireless adapters and getting the wireless adapter to do things it normal shouldn't do.