Kali Linux 2019.4 is Rolling Out

Powered by Linux kernel 5.3.9, Kali Linux has been released Kali Linux 2019.4 update in 26th November 2019. This is going to be final release of Kali in 2019. We can download it from https://www.kali.org/downloads/. In this big update we can see many exiting feature like

• New default desktop environment, Xfce
• All New GTK3 theme (for Gnome and Xfce)
• Introduction of “Kali Undercover” mode (Looks like Windows in public places)
• Kali Documentation is now Git powered and it got a new home
• Public Packaging – getting our own tools into Kali
• Kali NetHunter KeX – Full Kali desktop on Android (This is exciting)
• Added PowerShell
• Much more up-gradation with bug fixes

 

All new Kali Linux is Booting

New Looks with Desktop Environment and GTK3 Theme

There are lots of update to go over for this 2019.4 release, but the most in your face item that everyone is going to notice first are the changes to the desktop environment and theme. So we cover it first.

An update to the desktop environment has been a very long time coming. We have been talking about how to address this, what we wanted to do, experimenting on different approaches. As a summary we had a few issues we wanted to address head-on:

•  Performance issues – GNOME is a fully-featured desktop environment but GNOME is heavy and slower then Xfce . They wanted to speed things up, and have a desktop environment that does only what it’s needed for, and nothing else. Gnome has been overkill for most Kali Linux users, as many just want a window manager that allows you to run multiple terminal windows at once, and a web browser.
• Fractured user experience – Kali Linux supports a range of hardware, from the very high end to the very low. Because of this, traditionally lower-end ARM builds have had a completely different UI than Kali's standard. That’s not optimal, and they wanted to unify this experience so it did not matter if we are running on a bare metal install on a high end laptop or using a Raspberry Pi, the UI should be the same.
• Modern look – Kali have been using the same UI for quite a while now, and Kali's old theme maintainer had moved on due to lack of time. So we wanted to go with something fresh, new, and modern.

 Are you a GNOME lover ? Don't worry Kali still have a Gnome build for you, with a few changes already in place. The developers also released a FAQ about the new theme that you can find on our docs page.

Kali Undercover

 With the change to the environment, developers thought that they would take a side step and do something fun. Thanks to Robert, who leads Kali Linux's penetration testing team, for suggesting a Kali theme that looks like Windows to the casual view, and they have created the Kali Undercover theme.

Kali Undercover theme

If you are working in a public place, doing stuff like penetration testing, and you might not want the distinctive Kali dragon for everyone to see and wonder what it is you are doing. So, the developers made a little script that will change your Kali theme to look like a default Windows installation and don't want people to say they are using a Linux distribution, but a Windows operating system. That way, you can work a bit more incognito. After you are done and in a more private place, run that script again and you switch back to your Kali Linux's default theme. Like magic!

PowerShell

On to other features, you shouldn't missed that PowerShell is now in Kali (the have a blog post about it). This has been really great to bring the ability to execute PowerShell scripts directly on Kali by using following command:

apt install powershell

And we can run this using following command :

pwsh

As you can see in following screenshot:

NetHunter Kex – Full Kali Linux Desktop on Android phones

Another feature we are super excited about is the introduction of  Kali NetHunter Kex. In a nutshell, this allows us to attach our Android device to an HDMI output along with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and get a full,, Kali desktop. Yes. From our  phone.

 This is in beta stage they are trying to push the limits. Do do this we need a compatible phone with USB Type C hub to attach the phone with a Monitor/Projector and add Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with it.

If you are already using Kali Linux then you don't need to download and install it again just run following command in terminal :

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

Once this completes, log out, so we’re back at the login manager. Then switch to a console via CTRL+ALT+F11 (on the Chromebooks this is the key pointing left next to the ESC key).

Login and then run:

rm -rf .cache/ .config/ .local/ && sync && reboot

After reboot, the menu will have the correct entries. They’re still looking into why it occurs on only some of the images.

To try the new Xfce Desktop Environment try following command:

apt-get -y install kali-desktop-xfce

You should now be on Kali Linux 2019.4 Version. You can do a quick check by doing:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release

The screenshot will say's us that we are in the All new 2019.4 update of Kali Linux.