Kali has been around for quite some time. Known previously as BackTrack, with releases from versions one to five, Kali Linux was first seen in 2015 and released as Kali 1.0. From 2016 onward, Kali was then named according to the year. For instance, at the time of writing this book, the version used was Kali 2017.2, released in September 2017.

For those running older versions of Kali, or purchasing this book at a later date where new versions of Kali Linux may be available, you can easily update your instance of Kali Linux by using the sudo apt-get update distro command, demonstrated toward the end of this chapter.

For safety and security reasons, it is always best to download Kali Linux directly from the website of its creators, Offensive Security. The main reason for this being that the downloads of Kali on other pages could possibly be fake, or worse, infected with malware such as Trojans, rootkits, and even ransomware. Offensive Security has also included hashes of all versions of Kali downloads on their site, allowing users to compare the hash of their downloaded version of Kali with what was generated and posted by Offensive Security on their website (https://www.kali.org). Once there, you can click on the Downloads link ,or go directly to the Kali Linux Downloads page by visiting https://www.kali.org/downloads/.

Once on the Downloads page, we can see six download versions of Kali available for download, each with specific category information:

• Image Name: Specifies...

As mentioned in Chapter 1, Introduction to Digital Forensics, Kali Linux can be used as a live response operating system as well as a full operating system, installed and run from a hard disk. After downloading Kali Linux, the ISO image can be burnt to a DVD using any ISO file burning tool, such as ImgBurn. The DVD can then be used as a live OS, or it can also be used to install Kali to a hard disk. Tools such as UNetbootin can also be used to install Kali Linux to removable storage media, including a flash drive, SD card, or external hard disk drive, depending on the user's preference.

For use along with this book, I recommend that you first burn Kali Linux to a DVD and then install Kali onto a new hard drive, thereby catering to the concept of forensic readiness. In this instance, forensic readiness refers to the hard drive being brand new and...

VirtualBox can run on many platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and Solaris. In this section, we install VirtualBox 5.1.28 into our host machine and take it from there.

VirtualBox can be found at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads:

Once VirtualBox has been downloaded, it can be installed and then configured to run Kali Linux and many other operating systems, depending on the amount of RAM available.

When setting up a new guest OS or guest virtual machine, we first click on New and then fill in the following details:

• Name: Kali-Forensic (or name of your choice)
• Type: Linux
• Version: Debian (64-bit)

We then click Next and proceed to...

In this chapter, we dived into the technical aspect of Kali Linux and discovered the types of modes available to us via the Kali Linux ISO image, whether running it from a live DVD, or installing it in a virtual environment. As well as being used as a live response forensic tool from a DVD, Kali can also be installed onto removable storage such as a flash drive or SD card. Being such a versatile operating system, we can also install Kali as a full-fledged operating system.

We also looked in depth at installing Kali Linux in a virtual environment using VirtualBox. For beginners, I'd definitely recommend this method of installation, as it allows for trial and error within an isolated environment. Be sure to allocate enough RAM, and also remember that the 32-bit version of Kali only allows up to 4 GB of RAM to be recognized and utilized. As a reminder, I once again suggest...