TrustRadius Insights for Kali Linux are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
Kali Linux has been widely utilized by users for various purposes. It serves as a valuable tool for building test labs and testing network security. Network engineers and pentesters find Kali Linux particularly useful as it provides a wide range of tools and utilities for performing real-life network scans and analyzing network traffic. The system offers features to check for and prevent malicious traffic from infiltrating networks using the Linux firewall 'iptables'. Security-conscious SaaS companies rely on Kali Linux's security tools like Nmap, OWASP's ZAP, BURP, and more to conduct regular security scans, ensuring their servers are up to date and properly configured. Consulting companies and their clients also utilize Kali Linux for high-security testing across different departments. With its preinstalled security-focused tools, Kali Linux proves to be an excellent operating system choice for security consultants and specialists. Additionally, the software enables organizations to validate application vulnerabilities, perform random testing, and simulate training scenarios to familiarize new hires with company security policies and practices.
As a SaaS company we must perform regular security scans to ensure our servers are up to date and configured properly. We use Kali's security tools for this purpose.
Pros
Analyzing SSL certificates
Analyzing SSL server configurations
Vulnerability scanning
Port scanning
Cons
Kali is a collection of tools, so the documentation is fragmented. It would be nice to have more centralized docs.
Likelihood to Recommend
Kali is well suited for the following:
Analyzing SSL certs to verify
they are installed correctly
Analyzing SSL configuration on
servers to confirm correct ciphers are enabled
Scanning our web servers for
vulnerabilities as part of our regular security testing
Scanning wordpress sites to
identify out of date plugins and other potential security issues.
Running port scans on our servers
to make sure only certain ports are open
It is not appropriate for users who aren't already familiar with cybersecurity. Kali is an advanced OS geared for cybersecurity applications.
Kali Linux is a great operating system that comes preinstalled with a ton of tools that can be used for penetration testing.
Pros
Forensics
Steganography
Reverse engineering
Cons
Option to deselect tools upon install
Instructions for all the tools
Lightweight install option
Likelihood to Recommend
Kali OS is excellent for what is what built for. The OS comes with 600 preinstalled tools with a wide variety of capabilities. Most of the time I have used Kali Linux I don't use a majority of the tools so it would be beneficial for a lighter weight option. Install and update takes a good amount of time due to the amount of tools.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1-10 employees)
Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux OS, and it has a variety of tools and utilities for a Network Engineer and Pentester to perform a real-life Network scan and analyze the traffic through my organization's Network. It checks if any malicious traffic doesn't pass through using the Linux firewall "iptables", where iptables is a daemon process consists of a set of security rules to analyze the traffic protocols in the application layer or even in lower layers. It provides a range of tools for Security purposes to scan a network like Nmap, OWASP's ZAP, BURP, and many more.
Pros
Port analyses
Hosting any website
Using system as a proxy server
More secure than Windows
Cons
To make the Graphical interface more interactive, because Linux distros are more tend to be used in CLI.
As a consultant working for a consulting company, this flavour of Linux called Kali Linux is being used across by several customers of ours. We also use for Kali Linux in few of our in house off shore development centers within the organization. The main goals for using Kali Linux is for high security and penetration testing with in and across various departments.
Pros
Provides high security.
Does great job with penetration testing.
Has good number of testing tools with in.
Cons
Usage wise, it is tough for use by beginners. Can be improved.
With Kali Linux have noticed driver related issues especially with Nvidia graphics cards.
Kali Linux can be improved for use as a day to day OS.
Likelihood to Recommend
Kali Linux is especially well suited in environments where high security is needed for your custom developed applications. This is well suited for offensive testing your high security in house developed applications. It is also very good for doing penetration testing on in house developed applications and safe guarding them from external attackers. Kali Linux is tough for use as a day to day Linux operating system as this was never intended to be used by beginners and occasional Linux users.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Research & Development (5001-10,000 employees)
Kali Linux is used by my organization's security consultants and specialists to perform and verify applications vulnerabilities, perform random testing, and simulating trainings for new hires to be familiarised with company security policies, process and practices.
Pros
Open source
Suite of tools for PT
NEtHunter
Cons
Support for forensic
Network vulnerabilities
Windows support
Likelihood to Recommend
The tools are useful to guide security specialists to perform PT and scanning of the applications. Users do not need much training to start using the tools and explanations in place to guide the users when they are using the tools. Most of the time results are valid and be repeated again and again to demonstrate the vulnerabilities.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)