Kali Linux Tutorial 2026 | Kali Linux For Beginners 2025 | Kali Linux Commands | Simplilearn

Key Takeaways

[music] Hello everyone and welcome to Kallay Linux tutorial at simply learn. If you're passionate about cyber security and penetration testing then Kali Linux is a go-to platform for ethical hackers, security researchers and IT professionals. Kali Linux is a Debian based distribution packaged with hundreds of pre-installed tools for penetration testing, foreign sex and network analysis. So whether you are looking to break into the world of ethical hacking or sharpen your skills, Kylie Linux offers everything you need to get started. In this tutorial, we are going to introduce you to the basics of Kali Linux, its tools and how to set it up and navigate it. By the end of this session, you'll be ready to use Kali Linux to test security vulnerabilities and improve your skills for a career in cyber security. Now, here's the agenda of our today's session. First we are going to start with introduction to Kali Linux and why to use it. Then we are going to set up Kali Linux and its configurations. Moving ahead we are going to explore Kali Linux tools and its key features and then we are going to test some basic commands and navigations in Kal Linux. Now before we move on just a quick info guys simply learn has got executive certificate program in cyber security in collaboration with IIT Canour. In this course you're going to master cyber security with real world projects tools and career support. You're going to build AI powered security expertise with 100 plus assignments and gain expertise with 10 plus real world projects and case studies and also you're going to defend against cyber threats using 30 plus hands-on tool. So guys hurry up now and join the course. The course link is mentioned in the description box. Now here's a short quiz to test your knowledge. Kali Linux is primarily used for web development, ethical hacking and penetration testing, database management or gaming. Please mention your answers in the comment section below. Before we move into the session, I request you guys that do not forget to hit the subscribe button and click the bell icon so that you don't miss out any update from our end. So let's get started. So guys, let us first try to understand what exactly is Kali Linux. Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for cyber security and penetration testing. It comes with pre-installed with suit of tools for scanning, exploiting and securing networks and systems. You are going to see tools like N map, metas-ploit and viral shark which are kind of integral parts of Kali Linux for task such as vulnerability assessment and network analysis. Guys keep in mind that always use these tools legally and with permission. Now let us try to move ahead and install Kali Linux. So now before we install Kali Linux guys this is the official documentation of Kali Linux. So you can access this ad kali.org. Now just click all over here and here you can look for like let's say if you want to go for installation. So you're going to get the given things. Now for this tutorial I'll be using Windows operating system to install Kali Linux and for that we'll be requiring WSL. WSL stands for Windows Subsystem for Linux. To get Kali Linux up and running we are going to use this WSL. So this method doesn't require virtual box. So it's kind of quicker and more efficient. Now all you need to type is WSL then install and then give a flag D and then type Kali Linux. Now I have already installed Kali Linux on my system. So I won't be doing that. So guys this is a command that you need to type in order to install Kali Linux. Now if you [clears throat] don't have WSL installed on your system then you can do this. Type install WSL on Windows. Let's say based on your operating system, you can just type this and you are going to get directed to the official website of Microsoft. So you can see in this documentation you are going to see this given command. So open your PowerShell. Okay, just type all over here PowerShell and then type this given command WSL install. So this is going to install your WSL and then you can install Kali Linux using WSL. So guys this is the bare minimum setup of Kali Linux. I hope so. [clears throat] So guys this is a bare minimum setup that you need to install Kali Linux. Now let me also tell you that what exactly is going to happen. So WSL actually registers Kali Linux as default Linux distribution and uh while installing if you are prompted to reboot please do so. So after reboot you can open Kali Linux either from the menu or type WSL dali Linux in PowerShell. Now guys, if you want to start your Kali Linux, then type WSL - D and Kali Linux. Just type enter and you will be directed into Kali Linux. So guys, you can see all over here we are right now into Kali Linux. Now basically on the first launch, you will be also required to create your username and password. Be sure to remember them as you can use them later. Now you can see over here we are inside the Kali Linux terminal. Now that Kali Linux is installed, it's important to update your system and get the latest patches and security update. So for the same purpose, what you can do, you can type pseudoapp update and it is going to ask you for the password. Just enter your password and it is going to install all the latest patches. Now after this you need to type pseudo app full upgrade. So guys after this just press enter. So you can see it is going to upgrade it. So this command basically installs all the update for the packages and the y flag auto confirms the prompt so that you won't be asked for any further confirmation. Then what you can do is you can type something like this pseudo apt then let's say auto remove and give a y flag and then type sseudo apt clean. Now what is this command basically doing guys? This command removes unnecessary packages that are no longer needed. Now this is going to save the disk space and clean up the cache of downloaded files. Let's say if you didn't created a nonroot user during the first launch then you can create using this command. Let's say you need to type sudo add user and here you can give your username. So that for example I can type a kill. Okay. And then what you can do is in the next section you can just type pseudo user mod and get this flag ag and after that p sudo a. Okay. So and after this pseudo ail. So this should be done in the next line. This should be done in the first line. So in this way you can create a nonroot user. Now this kind of enhances the security. It also ensures you don't accidentally perform administrative tasks with full system privileges. So this is kind of pretty much important. Now let us move ahead and try to install some of the important Kali Linux tool. So guys in order to install these tools you need to type pseudoapp install metas-ploit framework n mapap wireshark john the ripper burpsuit air crackng nikto hydra netcat go buster the harvester and multivore. These are kind of some of the top Kal Linux tools that you can actually learn in Kali Linux and also it has a wide functionality and you can literally do a lot of amazing things with these tool. We are going to cover some of these tools and try to perform the activity. Since I have already installed all of these in my given system, so I won't be doing that. But in order to install it, you can type this command pseudoapp install, metas-loit framework, n map, wireshark, john, burp, suit and the rest of them. Before we dive deep into these tools, let us get first familiar with some of the basic Linux commands. These command will help you navigate, manage files and understand your file system. Now the first command is pwd. This command shows the current working directory. It's a way to know where you are in the system. Then the next command is lsla. This list all files and directories in the current directory with detailed informations such as permissions, ownership, file size and modification dates. Then your next command is cd-en this. So this command basically takes you to your home directory which is usually home/ your username. Then the next command is mkdir let's say practice. So this command basically creates a new directory named practice. Let's say you want to get inside this directory. So you need to type cd practice. So this is going to change your current directory to practice. Next command is touch hello.txt. So this creates an empty file named hello.txt in the current directory. Now after this when you have created hello.txt you can just type lsla and this is going to show all the files in that directory including this hello.txt and also their details. Now I want to give you a small exercise to make sure you are very wellversed with these basic Linux command. So guys what you can do is you can create a folder named lab okay and then create a file inside it let's say readme.txt and then you run lsla to show the output. So guys please try this given activity and let me know in the comment section below how many of you have successfully done this activity. Now let's move ahead and explore the Kali Linux tools. Now our first tool is N MAPAP. So basically if I talk about N map MAPAP. So N MAPAP is a one of the most powerful network scanning tools which is basically used for discovering devices and services on a network. Now guys, we are going to walk through a network discovery scan and a port service scan to learn how to identify active hosts and open ports on specific machines. So let us start with the step one. First we are going to discover hosts on our local network. So for this type this given command that is n map sn and then you give 192.168.1.0/24. Now let me first explain you what this exactly we are doing. So here we are basically trying to you know and after that just print enter. Now it is going to start the given network scan on this and uh let us see you can see we are getting these logs and map scan report okay for 192.1681.4 4 and you can see the host is up. It is also giving us the latency and you can also see all over here it is saying that 12 hosts are up. So you can see a lot of logs regarding the given thing. Now guys we have successfully scanned the given IP address. Now you'll be wondering why to use N map. So, N map is primarily used to map out networks discovering which devices are online and identifying open ports and services. Let me give you one real world scenario. Let's say basically network administrators use N mapap to audit the devices connected to their network and also they identify unauthorized devices or any discrepancies in the network configuration. So this is kind of very much important for you to decide when to use this tool. So you can use this given command when you want to find out which devices are active on your network. So basically after that you're going to see that N map scans the report at this given IP 192.168.1.1 and you can see then it is going to show the host is up with given latency. and map is going to scan a report for the given thing and it is going to give the you know how much latency you are getting. Now let us try the next command. Now guys let us try to explore the port and service scan. So you need to type pseudo n map ss sv t4 and the given IP address. Now let me explain you what exactly we are doing. So the SS is performing a sin scan which is kind of a quick scan. Then SV is basically detecting the service versions which are running on open ports and T4 is setting up an aggressive timing template to speed up the scan. So this is what the meaning of the given command. Now let us press enter and you can see it has started the scanning and you can see it sees that the host seems down. If it is relay up but blocking our ping probes type PN and map done. So you can see when I have pinged on this given IP address it's showing that the host is down. Now let us try for another IP. Let's see whether it is up or not. So guys you can see it's taking bit of time to do the scanning. So guys you can see all over here it says the scan is done and it says one host is up. Now let us try to perform another activity. In this we are going to actually detect the operating system. So guys as you can see all over here the O is enabling the operating system detection and it is helping to identifying the operating system of the given target. So this is the same command. So just the difference is that you need to give the O flag. Now after this just press enter and you can see it is going to start the given scan since the host is not up. So let's try to change the IP. Now guys you can see all over here I have changed the IP to 1.5 and here you can see it has started the given scan you can see the given scan uh report that you have port which state is there so state is open and which service it is using so you can see on 22 TCP services SSH 23/TCP you are using Telnet then you are using HTTPs and 50 60 SIP So this is basically uh used to perform the operating system detection. Now let us move ahead and try the next command. Let's say if you want to scan for specific ports. So you can do this. So here you can type sudo n map p for port and you can give the port numbers like at443 and then the given IP address. Now since 1.10 10 is not active. So I could just give as5 and add the given thing. So you can see all over here you are going to get the port scan also. And here in the given log you are going to see what is the state and what services it's using. So guys you already know that 80 port is for HTTP and 443 is for HTTPS. Now let's move ahead to the next part. Now let's say if you want to actually perform an in-depth scan regarding the target then you can do the aggressive scan. So so you can see all over here we have given the hyphen a all over here and which a stands for aggressive scan and this is the given IP address. Now let us type enter and see the given output. Now the expected output for this given command is also going to show like how much time the host has been up what is the latency what are the ports and what is the state of that port is it open or closed what services you are using all over here. So basically this command is going to provide the detailed information about the open ports and services including version numbers and other critical data. So it's taking bit of time. We can escape this part and move to the next part that is metas-ploit framework. So I'll just press enter and try to exit. Now guys would be wondering what exactly is metas-ploit. So metas-ploit is a powerful tool for penetration testing that allows you to exploit vulnerabilities in the system. It has large database of exploits, payloads and other tools. So what basically it does is that metasloit is used in a scenario of penetration testing which basically allows the users to exploit vulnerable systems. Now it comes with pre-built exploits payloads and tools for scanning and attacking the systems. Now let us first explore the commands and flags for metas-ploit. So you have already installed metas-ploit. So I have shown you that given command sudo app install - y medasloit framework. Then let us move ahead to the next part. So in this we are going to initialize the metasploit database. So all you need to type is p sudo mfsd and uh you can just type db. So guys after that press enter. Now you can see all over here it is saying that field connect to bus host is down then it is starting the database system has not been booted with systemd as in it system and you can see we are getting certain logs all over here. So let us try to actually uh resolve this. So guys as you can see all over here I have reinitialized the database. So I'm trying to connect it with uh the Postgress database. So there is uh so this is basically the minimal installation of Kali Linux and uh there are some supplementary dependencies that need to be installed. So I have done that and u you can see all over here it has created a configuration file and um it is also creating a database MSF test. So this is like the setup of first creating the given database so that you can access the given uh you know database of the exploits which is present in metas-loit. So this given command msfdb is basically initializing the posgress SQL database. Now this is going to be used by metasloit to manage data about targets, exploits and sessions. Now let us try to start the metas-ploit console. So basically MSF console launches the metasploit console which is the interface used to interact with metas-ploit. So you can see we have got this given diagram very amazing diagram and this is kind of metas-ploit. So this is the interface uh used all over here and here we can actually interact with metas-ploit. Now type the command help to know the available commands all present over here in metas-ploit. So press enter and you can see all over here. So there are a lot of things which you can see. So you can see this is for help menu. This is for banner. This is basically changing the current working directory. Then for changing the color there's a color command. And for connecting for let's say for communicating with the host the command is connect. Then for debugging the command is debug. Similarly for exit features and there are various other commands like versions unload tips threads spool and all those things. So you are also going to find the module commands all over here with the proper description. So the commands like advanced back clear rm favorite favorites and all those thing. So you can explore these given commands and uh this will be kind of very much helpful when you are trying to explore metasloit. Now guys let us try to search for exploits. So for searching the exploits type search MS17010 type enter and you can see all over here we are going to see these given exploits present all over here. So you can see the target devices Windows 7, embedded standard 7, Windows 8 then you can see all over here these thing. Now basically it's searching for the specific exploit related to MS7010 vulnerability. Now this vulnerability is also known as eternal blue and you can see all the related thing all over here. So this is a given exploit that we are trying to find. So these were some of the basic commands relatable to metas-ploit. Now let us explore the third tool that is Nikto. So guys what is Nikto? Nectto is a web scanner that looks for common vulnerabilities such as outdated software or misisconfigurations. [snorts] Now this tool is quick and easy to use making it ideal for checking the security of web servers. Now let us explore commands and flags for nto. So guys you can see all over here we have the nikto hyphen edge http and this is given IP address that we are trying to actually do the scanning after this just click enter and you can see it is going to start the web scanning so basically 192.168.1 is the address of the web server that you are trying to xcan now in the given output what you are going to see if the host is up you're going to see the target IP what is the server that's using if the SSL is detected or not then it is also going to perform the SSL specific checks and it is going to scan the host okay so this is what you can do with all over here so you can see the host is not up so that's why you are seeing it zero host now let us try to scan with a specific port so guys all over here you can see I have used the same hyphen and edge but at the end I am using hyphen P and port 8080. So let's change the IP address for the moment and let's press enter. So guys for scanning the particular port you need to type nto- http and then you give the port number. So guys in this way you can perform the port scanning with nikto using this. So guys you can use nectto also to scan specific vulnerability and you can see all over here we have given hyphen tuning one. So tuning one scans for specific vulnerability types like xss or command injection. Let's press enter and this command is basically trying to search for the given uh vulnerability based on the things that we discussed. Let us wait for a couple of time. Let's see. So guys, you can see this IP is not up that's why it's not showing anything. But if you give any IP which is up, you are going to see the given output. So guys, this was all about Kali Linux tutorial. You have got a hands-on idea regarding what are the tools that you can use. There are more tools for you to explore. So guys, you can look for the official documentation for the same. And also guys, I would like to request you that do not forget to hit the subscribe button and click the bell icon. And also if you like these kind of videos, then do press the notification bell icon so that you don't miss out any update from our end. Thank you guys for watching this video.