Learning Hub / Your Attack Machine / Install Kali Linux

Install Kali Linux

Guide 2.1 Difficulty: Beginner ~25 minutes

There are two good ways to get Kali running in VirtualBox. The pre-built appliance is the fastest route for beginners; the ISO install teaches you a little more and gives full control. We'll cover both — pick one.

New to all this? Use the pre-built VirtualBox appliance (Option A). It's the quickest path to a working machine.

Option A — Pre-built VirtualBox appliance (recommended)

  1. Download the image

    Go to kali.org/get-kali → Virtual Machines → VirtualBox. Download the 64-bit image (a .7z archive) and verify the SHA-256 checksum shown on the page.

    The Kali Get Kali page with the VirtualBox pre-built virtual machine download selected
    Figure 1. Downloading the pre-built VirtualBox image from kali.org.

  2. Extract the archive

    Use 7-Zip (Windows), Keka (macOS), or 7z x on Linux to extract it. You'll get a .vbox file and a virtual disk.

    terminal
    $ 7z x kali-linux-2024-virtualbox-amd64.7z

  3. Import into VirtualBox

    Double-click the .vbox file, or in VirtualBox choose Machine → Add and select it. Kali appears in your VM list.

    VirtualBox Manager listing the imported Kali Linux virtual machine
    Figure 2. The Kali VM added to VirtualBox Manager.

Option B — Full ISO installation

Prefer to install from scratch? Download the Installer ISO from kali.org, then create a new VM in VirtualBox:

  1. Create the VM

    Click New. Name it Kali, set Type: Linux, Version: Debian (64-bit), and point the ISO field at your downloaded Kali installer.

    VirtualBox New Virtual Machine dialog configured for Kali Linux with Debian 64-bit selected
    Figure 3. Creating a new VM for the Kali installer.

  2. Allocate resources

    Assign 2–4 GB RAM (2048–4096 MB), 2 CPU cores, and a 40 GB dynamically allocated virtual disk.

  3. Run the installer

    Start the VM and follow the Kali graphical installer: choose language, set a hostname, create your user, and select Guided – use entire disk for partitioning. Install the default desktop (Xfce) and the GRUB bootloader.

    The Kali Linux graphical installer running inside a VirtualBox window
    Figure 4. The Kali graphical installer.

Step — Attach Kali to the lab network

Before first boot, connect Kali to the isolated network you created in guide 1.2.

  1. Open network settings

    Select the Kali VM → Settings → Network → Adapter 1.

  2. Set Host-only

    Set Attached to: Host-only Adapter and choose your lab network. (You can temporarily add a second NAT adapter later when you need to update — see guide 2.2.)

    Kali VM network settings with Adapter 1 set to Host-only Adapter on the lab network
    Figure 5. Attaching Kali to the isolated host-only network.

First login

Boot the VM and log in. The pre-built appliance uses default credentials kali / kali — change the password immediately:

kali@kali
$ passwd
Changing password for kali.
Current password:
New password:

Checkpoint: Kali boots to its desktop, you can log in, and you've changed the default password. Next we'll update it.

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