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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Microsoft Windows is one of the two most common OSes, and managing its security has spawned the discipline of IT security. Kali Linux is the premier platform for testing and maintaining Windows security. Kali is built on the Debian distribution of Linux and shares the legendary stability of that OS. This lets you focus on using the network penetration, password cracking, and forensics tools, and not the OS.
This book has the most advanced tools and techniques to reproduce the methods used by sophisticated hackers to make you an expert in Kali Linux penetration testing. You will start by learning about the various desktop environments that now come with Kali. The book covers network sniffers and analysis tools to uncover the Windows protocols in use on the network. You will see several tools designed to improve your average in password acquisition, from hash cracking, online attacks, offline attacks, and rainbow tables to social engineering. It also demonstrates several use cases for Kali Linux tools like Social Engineering Toolkit, and Metasploit, to exploit Windows vulnerabilities.
Finally, you will learn how to gain full system-level access to your compromised system and then maintain that access. By the end of this book, you will be able to quickly pen test your system and network using easy-to-follow instructions and support images.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Kali Linux 2018: Windows Penetration Testing Second Edition
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
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Commissioning Editor: Vijin BorichaAcquisition Editor:Rahul NairContent Development Editor:Ronn KurienTechnical Editor:Aditya KhadyeCopy Editor:Safis EditingProject Coordinator:Jagdish PrabhuProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Tejal Daruwale SoniGraphics:Tom ScariaProduction Coordinator: Arvindkumar Gupta
First published: June 2016 Second edition: October 2018
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Contributors
About the authors
Wolf Halton is an Authority on Computer and Internet Security, a best selling author on Computer Security, and the CEO of Atlanta Cloud Technology. He specializes in—business continuity, security engineering, open source consulting, marketing automation, virtualization and data center restructuring, network architecture, and Linux administration. Wolf has been a security engineer since 1999 and has been training security engineers since 2005.
Bo Weaver is an old school ponytailed geek. His first involvement with networks was in 1972 while in the US Navy working on a R&D project called ARPA NET. Here he also learned the power of UNIX and how to out smart the operating system. Bo has been working with and using Linux daily since the 1990's and a promoter of Open Source. (Yes, Bo runs on Linux.) Bo has also worked in physical security fields as a private investigator and in executive protection. Bo now works as the senior penetration tester and security researcher for CompliancePoint a Atlanta based security consulting company.
Bo is Cherokee and works with native youths to help keep native traditions alive and strong.
About the reviewer
Paolo Stagno (aka VoidSec) has worked as a consultant for a wide range of clients across top tier international banks, major tech companies, and various Fortune 1000 industries. At ZeroDayLab, he was responsible for discovering and exploiting new unknown vulnerabilities in web applications, network infrastructure components, new protocols and technologies. He is now a freelance security researcher and a penetration tester focused on offensive security. In his own research, he discovered various vulnerabilities in software of multiple vendors and tech giant such as eBay, Facebook, Google, Oracle, PayPal and many others. He is an active speaker in various security conferences around the globe such as Hacktivity, SEC-T, HackInBo, TOHack, and Droidcon.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Kali Linux 2018: Windows Penetration Testing Second Edition
Packt Upsell
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the authors
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Disclaimer
Choosing Your Distro
Desktop environments
Desktop environment versus Window Manager
Enlightenment (E17)
E17 Window Manager issues
Gnome desktop
Gnome 3 desktop issues
KDE desktop
KDE issues
LXDE desktop
LXDE issues
MATE desktop
MATE issues
Xfce desktop
Xfce issues
Choosing your look and feel
Configuring Kali to be your Daily Driver
User account setup
Summary
Sharpening the Saw
Technical requirements
Installing Kali Linux to an encrypted USB drive
Prerequisites for installation
Booting up
Configuring the installation
Setting up the drive
Booting your new installation of Kali
Running Kali from the Live DVD
Installing and configuring applications
Gedit – the Gnome Text Editor
Geany – the platform-agnostic code IDE
Terminator – the Terminal emulator for multi-tasking
Etherape – the graphical protocol-analysis tool
Setting up and configuring OpenVAS
Reporting tests
KeepNote – stand-alone document organizer
Dradis – web-based document organizer
Running services on Kali Linux
Summary
Information Gathering and Vulnerability Assessments
Technical requirements
Footprinting the network
Nmap
Zenmap
The difference verbosity makes
Scanning a network range
An annotated list of Nmap command options
Using OpenVAS
Using Maltego
Using KeepNote
Summary
Further reading
Sniffing and Spoofing
Technical requirements
Sniffing and spoofing network traffic
Sniffing network traffic
tcpdump
WinDump (Windows tcpdump)
Wireshark
The packet
Working with Wireshark
Spoofing network traffic
Ettercap
Ettercap on the command line
Summary
Further reading
Password Attacks
Password attack planning
Cracking the NTLM code (revisited)
Password lists
Cleaning a password list
My friend, Johnny
John the Ripper (command line)
xHydra
Summary
Further reading
NetBIOS Name Service and LLMNR - Obsolete but Still Deadly
Technical requirements
NetBIOS name service and NTLM
Sniffing and capturing traffic
Using Ettercap data
NetBIOS scanning using NBTscan
Responder - so many hashes, so little time
Using Responder with Metasploit
NetBIOS response BadTunnel brute force spoofing
EvilGrade
Ettercap setup
The attack
Summary
Further reading
Gaining Access
Pwnage
Technical requirements
Exploiting Windows systems with Metasploit
Using advanced Footprinting
Interpreting the scan and building on the result
Exploiting a 32-bit system
Accessing Systems With Xfreerdp
Summary
Further reading
Windows Privilege Escalation and Maintaining Access
Technical requirements
Windows privilege escalation
Escalating your privileges
MSFvenom
MS16-032 Secondary Logon Handle Privilege Escalation
Windows Escalate Service Permissions Local Privilege Escalation
Windows Escalate UAC Protection Bypass (ScriptHost Vulnerability)
Maintaining access
Remote Access Tools
Metasploit's persistence_exe module
Windows registry-only persistence
Summary
Maintaining Access on Server or Desktop
Maintaining access or ET Phone Home
Covering our tracks
Maintaining access with Ncat
Setting up a NetCat Client
Phoning home with Metasploit
Running a port scanner inside Metasploit
The Drop Box
Cracking the Network Access Controller (NAC)
Creating a spear-phishing attack with the Social Engineering Toolkit
Using the Spear-Phishing Attack Vectors menu
Choose a subject, or write a new email message
Using Backdoor Factory to evade antivirus
Summary
Further reading
Reverse Engineering and Stress Testing
Technical requirements
Setting up a test environment
Creating your victim machine(s)
Testing your testing environment
Reverse Engineering theory
One general theory of Reverse Engineering
Working with Boolean logic
Reviewing a while loop structure
Reviewing the for loop structure
Understanding the decision points
Practicing Reverse Engineering
Using debuggers
Using the Valgrind debugger
Using the EDB-Debugger
EDB-Debugger symbol mapper
Running OllyDbg
Introduction to disassemblers
Running JAD
Creating your own disassembling code with Capstone
Some miscellaneous Reverse Engineering tools
Running Radare2
The additional members of the Radare2 tool suite
Running rasm2
Running rahash2
Running radiff2
Running rafind2
Running rax2
Stress testing Windows
Dealing with Denial
Putting the network under Siege
Configuring your Siege engine
Summary
Further reading
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Preface
Microsoft Windows is one of the two most common OS and managing its security has spawned the discipline of IT security. Kali Linux is the premier platform for testing and maintaining Windows security. Kali is built on the Debian distribution of Linux and shares the legendary stability of that OS. This lets you focus on using the network penetration, password cracking, forensics tools and not the OS.
This book has the most advanced tools and techniques to reproduce the methods used by sophisticated hackers to make you an expert in Kali Linux penetration testing. You will start by learning about the various desktop environments that now come with Kali. The book covers network sniffers and analysis tools to uncover the Windows protocols in use on the network. You will see several tools to improve your average in password acquisition from hash-cracking, online attacks, offline attacks, and rainbow tables to social engineering. It also demonstrates several use cases for Kali Linux tools like Social Engineering toolkit, Metasploit and so on to exploit Windows vulnerabilities.
Finally, you will learn how to gain full system level access to your compromised system and then maintain that access. By the end of this book, you will be able to quickly pen test your system and network using easy to follow instructions and support images.
Who this book is for
If you are a working ethical hacker who is looking to expand the offensive skillset with a thorough understanding of Kali Linux, then this is the book for you. Prior knowledge about Linux operating systems, Bash terminal, and Windows command line would be highly beneficial.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Choosing Your Distro, discusses about the pros and cons of the different desktop environments and will help you decide which desktop is right for you.
Chapter 2, Sharpening the Saw, introduces you to the set-up that works best, the documentation tools that we use to make sure that the results of the tests are prepared and presented right, and the details of Linux services you need to use these tools.
Chapter 3, Information Gathering and Vulnerability Assessments, shows you how to footprint your Windows network and discover the vulnerabilities before the bad guys do.
Chapter 4, Sniffing and Spoofing, covers network sniffers and analysis tools to uncover the Windows protocols in use on the network. Learn how to exploit the vulnerable Windows networking components.
Chapter 5, Password Attacks,shows you several approaches to password cracking or stealing.You will see several tools to improve your average in password acquisition from hash-cracking, online attacks, offline attacks, and rainbow tables to social engineering.
Chapter 6, NetBIOS Name Service and LLMNR - Obsolete but Still Deadly, helps you understand how Kali Linux is an excellent toolkit to attack obsolete protocols and applications and obliterate expired operating systems.
Chapter 7, Gaining Access,demonstrates several use cases for Kali Linux tools like Social Engineering Toolkit, Metasploit, and so on to exploit Windows vulnerabilities.You will also learn to use the exploit databases provided with Kali-Linux, and others. Finally,learn to use tools to exploit several common Windows vulnerabilities, and guidelines to create and implement new exploits for upcoming Windows vulnerabilities.
Chapter 8, Windows Privilege Escalation and Maintaining Access, teaches you several methods to use Kali tool-set to get admin rights on your vulnerable Windows host.
Chapter 9, Maintaining Access on Server or Desktop, covers some devious ways to maintain access and control of a Windows machine, after you have gained access through the techniques you learned in the previous chapters.
Chapter 10, Reverse Engineering and Stress Testing, is the beginning of how to develop an anti-fragile, self-healing, and Windows network. Go ahead make your servers cry!
To get the most out of this book
You will require following to code test this book:
Router/firewall
Linux workstation 8 cores 32 GB RAM for a VM server. (running VirtualBox)
Windows 2008 server for the DC (VM)
Windows 2008 server file server (VM)
Win7 client (VM)
Win10 client (This was a physical laptop)
Laptop running Kali 4 cores 8 GB of RAM. For the attacking platform. (My personal laptop)
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781788997461_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "This produces a fast scan-the T stands for Timing (from 1 to 5), and the default timing is -T3."
A block of code is set as follows:
html, body, #map { height: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0}
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
nmap -v -sn 192.168.0.0/16 10.0.0.0/8
nmap -v -iR 10000 -Pn -p 80
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Open the Terminal from the icon on the top bar or by clicking on the menu links:Application | Accessories | Terminal".
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].
Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packt.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.
Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.
If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.
Reviews
Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!
For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.
Disclaimer
The information within this book is intended to be used only in an ethical manner. Do not use any information from the book if you do not have written permission from the owner of the equipment. If you perform illegal actions, you are likely to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Packt Publishing does not take any responsibility if you misuse any of the information contained within the book. The information herein must only be used while testing environments with proper written authorizations from appropriate persons responsible.
Choosing Your Distro
Since the first edition of our book, a lot has changed with Kali Linux. Besides Kali now being a Rolling Distribution, it now comes with several Desktop Environments and several different kernel architectures. This means you can run Kali from a small Raspberry Pi or from a full-blown workstation built for speed and power. By adding a normal user account and a little extra configuration and packages, you can make Kali your Daily Driver OS. In this chapter, we will discuss the several desktop environments and the pros and cons of each. This will help you decide which distro to download for your trip into the world of hacking with Kali. If you are not familiar with Linux, this chapter helps give you some under the hood knowledge of Linux and its design.
Desktop Environments
Choosing your look and feel
Configuring for your Daily Driver
Desktop environments
One of the big differences between Unix/Linux systems and Windows is they truly are modular in design. Sure, I know Microsoft says Windows is modular in design, but this really isn't the case. With Windows, the desktop is seamlessly integrated into the operating system. So, until Server 2012, you had to run a Windows server with a running GUI. With Server 2012, you have the option to run the machine headless, but the server's use is very limited running in this mode. Try to uninstall Internet Explorer; well, you can't. Yes, Internet Explorer is an application that has one of the largest security footprints of any common application. Yes, Internet Explorer has system-level access. Yes Toto, this is a problem, which we will exploit later in this book, but for this chapter let's focus on desktop environments.
Linux truly is modular in design. Linux's father is Unix, and Unix's whole design concept was small interactive programs that could be chained together to perform larger tasks. Linux is also designed this way. Actually, Linux is just the kernel of the operating system invented by one man, Linus Torvalds. Almost everything else is a collection of small applications bolted together to make the boy go. A large and constant component set that helps the kernel interact with the hardware is encompassed by the name GNU toolset. Most of these tools were ported from Unix, or rewritten to avoid copyright complications, but still use the same inputs and outputs.
So, with this design structure, the GUI is just another module that can be changed or completely removed from the operating system without any effect on the lower working parts. This gives Linux the ability to do anything from being a Smart Watch to running the Hadron Collider or... be a hacking machine.
Desktop environment versus Window Manager
One important distinction that may help you understand how Desktop Environments work on Kali and other Linuces (plural of Linux) is that of the Window Manager. A desktop environment, also called a GUI, generally includes folders, wallpapers, desktop widgets, icons, windows, toolbars, and interfaces for applications. The Microsoft Windows desktop environment may have been the first such metaphorical construct you discovered. Your smartphone has a desktop environment, and the dramatic failure of the Windows 8 desktop environment was an attempt to merge development of the Windows CE (phone GUI) and Windows 7/Server 2003 GUI. The mistake Microsoft made was assuming that there were more workstations with touch screen capability. Plainly the technology existed, but the monitors were expensive and not in wide use. Bo and Wolf think the Ubuntu Unity desktop environment was a failure based upon the same design assumption. Mouse-driven workstation interfaces are here to stay for a little while longer.
In Kali, a desktop environment usually interacts with a Windowing System such as the X Windows System, or Wayland, which runs directly on top of the hardware, and a Window Manager application which is the interface the user sees and with which the user interacts. The Window Manager provides the look and feel of the Kali Linux experience. There are several Window Managers that can be used with almost any desktop environment in Kali Linux. One of these is the Enlightenment Window Manager, which is included in Kali ISO downloads as E17. The main difference between E17 and a full desktop environment, such as KDE or Gnome, is that E17 has few applications that are built specifically for E17, whereas KDE and Gnome have specialized apps that need a large number of dependencies met to run them in some other desktop environment. Kate and gedit are the specialized text editors for KDE and Gnome respectively.
Enlightenment (E17)
Installing the E17 ISO is rather similar to the installations of any of the other desktops, as long as you are using the default install option. The standard boot screen is runlevel 3, with only a command-line interface, so you have to use the startx command to see the desktop interface. This is shown in the following screenshot:
On your first login to the E17 environment, you will be asked a series of questions you already answered in the installation process:
Language
: The default highlighted is US English.
Keyboard Layout
: The default highlighted is English (US).
Profile
: This is hardware profile and the choices are
Mobile
and
Computer
. The default highlighted is
Computer
.
Sizing
: This is title size. The choices are from
0.8
to
2.0
. The default highlighted is
1.0
.
Window Focus
: The choices are
Click
and
Mouse Over
. The default highlighted (and the general Linux default) is
Mouse Over
.
Checking to see if Connman exists
: Connman is the Enlightenment network connection manager. Click to install/enable Connman.
Compositing
: This is the source of most of the eye candy in E17. The default is to
Enable Compositing
, but you might want to use hardware-accelerated (Open-GL) compositing if you are doing a bare-metal installation. If there is a shortage of RAM or you are using a machine with an older processor, you might not want to use compositing at all:
Updates
: You can enable
Checks for Enlightenment Updates
. The default is a check in the box to authorize this update. If you are running within a target network, clear this checkbox. It isn't particularly stealthy to have a randomly occurring network check going out to
https://www.enlightenment.org/
if the network is supposed to be Windows-only.
Taskbar
: Enabling the taskbar lets you see open applications and Windows on your Kali Linux E17 desktop. This is enabled by default.
Once you are through with the configurations, E17 will show you the desktop. The following screenshot shows the default desktop. The first thing you might notice is that the background is a flat white plate. The menu line at the top is from Virtual Box. The menu bar at the lower edge is reminiscent of the Apple Mac toolbar. The floating menu bar in the middle is achieved by right-clicking the desktop:
The basic default file management window is shown in the following screenshot. It is readable but hardly exciting. If you click on the desktop menu, you can add gadgets. I have added a system gadget to the Taskbar, but you could just as easily place it anywhere on the desktop. The following screenshot shows the right-click menu from the Backlight gadget. If you click Begin Moving Gadgets, you can move all the gadgets around until you click on Stop Moving Gadgets:
E17 Window Manager issues
Almost all of the security tools are lumped together under the
Other Menu
, under the
Applications Menu
, which may cramp your style somewhat.
If you open the click menu too close to the right-screen border, the submenus are offscreen. The effect of
Other Menu
overcrowding is shown in the following screenshot:
This version of Enlightenment is several years old. The current major version is 22. Perhaps the folks at Offensive Security who created Kali decided to freeze Enlightenment at major version 17 because the Enlightenment developers are moving toward using the Wayland windowing system, and by default Kali-E17 is using the
xorg
windowing system.
To check whether your version of Kali is running xorg or Wayland, type xdpyinfo on the command line. If it is running a pure Wayland environment, the command will fail. If it is using xorg, it will produce several lines of information about your video configuration. The following screenshot shows a truncated screen of the results on the default installation:
The easiest way to get at all of the security tools would appear to be opening the
Applications
|
Run Everything
dialog, as shown previously. I discovered that this returns an error code when I attempted to open
xterm
, the default terminal emulator in E17, to install my favorite software installer app,
Synaptic
. I had to go to the
Applications
|
System Menu
and open xterm from there. There does not appear to be a simple fix for the failing
Run Everything
widget. Perhaps upgrading to the current stable version of Enlightenment (E22.x) would solve it, but the solution would probably require revamping the windowing system, which is a non-trivial undertaking.
To install synaptic:
#> apt install synaptic
To change wallpaper in E17, click on Applications | Settings | Wallpaper Settings. This opens the dialog that is shown in the following screenshot. You can choose your own desktop image or one of the factory images:
Gnome desktop
Back in the days of Backtrack, which was the precursor security platform to Kali Linux, the default desktop environment was a very stripped-down version of KDE. When Backtrack was deprecated and Offensive Security published Kali, the default desktop was changed to Gnome. Backtrack was a live-disk CD only, and was not intended to be installed on any computer. The Backtrack version of KDE was stripped down to be able to load from a standard CD. This stripping down removed a lot of the desktop functions. When Kali was published, it was designed to load from a live DVD, and to be installed on x386 and amd_64 architectures. Gnome is slightly reminiscent of the Windows 3.11 look and feel, and uses less memory to draw the desktop than KDE.
The Gnome desktop has been around since the early days of Linux. The Kali Linux default desktop environment is Gnome 3. When you do a standard install, the desktop looks like this:
The toolbar on the left border is the favorites group. When you open any application, its icon arrives in the favorites group on the left, as can be seen in the following screenshot, where I have opened OWASP ZAP:
The security tool menu is found under the Applications tab in the upper-left corner of the desktop. This is a very good categorized list and makes it easier to find any tool you wish to use. The list is shown in the following screenshot:
Changing the desktop image in Gnome 3 is easy, but the settings menu is a bit hard to find. It is hidden under the icon in the upper-right corner. The following screenshot shows the system menu, which has the sound volume control, the network connection dialog, and the settings editor:
Most of the settings in Gnome are found in the settings dialog, shown in the next screenshot. There are settings sheets for Wi-Fi, Background, Notifications, Search, Region & Language, Universal Access, Online Accounts, Privacy, Sharing, Sound, Power, and Network. The following screenshot shows the desktop editor, with the default desktop images:
To change the images, you simply click on the image you wish to change. That opens a dialog box and you can choose one of several included images, or choose one of your own from the images in your Pictures directory:
Gnome 3 desktop issues
There doesn't seem to be any easy way to add applications to the favorites group
The drop-down menu bar uses a slider bar to take you down to the
Usual applications
menu instead of a full-length sub-menu
KDE desktop
KDE has been around since the early days of Linux and is Bo Weaver's favorite. With age comes stability and KDE is a very stable desktop. The look and feel are very similar to Windows, so for a Windows user it is easy to use. One advantage of KDE is that the desktop is highly configurable. If you don't like what it looks like, just change it. This can be a big advantage. KDE comes with all the latest Jumping Monkeys and features. You probably like your desktop environment your way, like we do. It doesn't matter what latest thing has been added as long as you can configure the desktop to be the same as it has been for years. This helps with muscle memory. Muscle memory comes into play because having everything in the expected place makes the overhead of the job lower, because there isn't any time spent searching for common tools you use every day. It is more effective not to have to think about where a tool is hidden on the machine or how to save a file since the developers decided the application no longer needs a menu bar. With KDE, you can change your desktop back to an old-school no-frills desktop with everything just like it has been for years. If you are bored, you can customize the desktop beyond any semblance of the default Kali look. The next screenshot shows the default desktop with the Start menu open at Applications. The menu organization is similar to the Gnome 3 menu you have already seen:
One drawback of KDE is since it is so highly configurable and does come with a lot of built-in features, it is very heavy on the memory of the machine and puts a demand on the video card. KDE does need to run on a modern machine with a good amount of memory. Also, being so highly configurable, it is easy to sometimes screw up your settings.
One advantage of KDE is the desktop widgets. Desktop widgets are small applications that run on the desktop to do a number of things. When hacking, you need to keep an eye on your local system resources. There are widgets you can use to keep an eye on system memory, CPU, and network usage at a glance. It's a sad thing to be in the middle of work, fire up one more tool, and have your system crash because you ran out of memory. Using a widget, you can keep an eye on memory usage, network, and CPU usage.
KDE also works really well when using more than one monitor and is completely configurable in assigning which monitor is the main monitor and where your toolbar go. It also reverts to using a single monitor without a reboot or playing with the configuration. This is great when your machine is a laptop that you move a lot.
The KDE developers seem to understand that the desktop interface for a tablet will not work on a workstation that uses a mouse. Since the advent of the tablet, KDE now really comes with two interfaces, Plasma and Neon, and they interchange when the hardware changes. They both use the same backend toolsets; only the look and function changes when changing from tablet mode to workstation mode. This was a failure with the Windows 8 desktop and also a failure with the Gnome desktop. You cannot design an interface to work with your finger and with a mouse. What you will always end up with is an interface that doesn't work well with either.
KDE issues
KDE is graphically busy and uses a lot of resources. This makes it unsuitable for a very old machine, or one with low graphics memory.
SHOW STOPPER!
: This is an installer issue, and you may not get this effect. The folks who created Kali Linux add updates to the ISO disk files over time, and when Wolf did this install, it came up with this issue. It is easy to fix, and the important thing is not to panic. You did nothing wrong if your install shows up like this. After installation, the KDE instance loads to the tty1 full-screen CLI and
startx
does not start the GUI.
startx
is part of the
xinit
package, so you can install
xinit
by entering the following as root (the account you just logged in as):
#> xinit
LXDE desktop
LXDE, which stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, was designed in 2006 by Hong Jen Yee, a Taiwanese programmer who wrote the first module of LXDE. It was a file manager. This is reminiscent of the creation of the Linux kernel itself, where Linus Torvalds started with a file manager module. Installations had problems, but the live disk seems to work well. I noticed the Kali-Linux graphical installation asks for machine domain but regular installation does not. The following screenshot shows the default LXDE desktop.
This desktop environment is also reminiscent of Windows XP with the menu launch button in the lower-left corner:
To change the desktop background, go to the menu in the lower-left corner and choose Preferences | Desktop Preferences. The menu is shown in the next screenshot. If you want great choices for background images, check out https://pixabay.com/:
LXDE issues
SHOW STOPPER
: Graphical installation failed because
No partition table planned and no creation of file systems have been planned
SHOW STOPPER
: Regular installation failed because
No Operating System Installed
MATE desktop
The MATE desktop is a fork of the now-deprecated Gnome 2 desktop environment. MATE stands for MATE Advanced Traditional Environment. This is a similar structure to the GNU acronym, GNU is Not Unix. The renaming of the fork to MATE avoids naming convention issues with the still-current Gnome 3 environment.
MATE includes forks of many Gnome applications, and developers have written new applications. The names are in Spanish to reflect MATE's Argentinian origin.
MATE applications include the following:
Caja
: File manager (from Nautilus)
Atril
: Document viewer (from Evince)
Engrampa
: Archive manager (from Archive Manager)
MATE terminal
: Terminal emulator (from GNOME Terminal)
Marco
: Window manager (from Metacity)
Mozo
: Menu item editor (from Alacarte)
Pluma
: Text editor (from Gedit)
The first boot, and all subsequent boots, of MATE bring us into runlevel 3, as shown in the following screenshot:
The default GUI for MATE is familiar to most Linux users, as it is a near-mirror image of Gnome 2. The next screenshot shows that desktop with the default Kali logo. The Applications, Places, and System menu structure has been a long-standing mark of a Linux desktop, and many longtime Linux users welcomed the efforts of the MATE team to maintain the tradition:
The following screenshot shows all three system menus from the MATE desktop with representative submenus open. The Places menu opens Caja (file management) windows:
The look and feel menu offers you 12 preset appearance preferences, and those can then be customized further. The following screenshot shows a selection of those presets:
MATE issues
The behavior of booting into runlevel 3 is difficult but not insurmountable, as we know to try startx
