![]() Its good reputation for security and stability.After much deliberation, Debian was chosen as the new basis for Kali Linux because of: Conforming to the FHS standard got them thinking about whether they should jump the Ubuntu ship and switch to something else, especially in light of recent changes such as Unity Next and Mir. Debian chosen as the new baseīackTrack has utilized three major distributions and package management systems as its base over the years: Slax, Knoppix, and (most recently) Ubuntu. Now that the filesystem is organized properly and the developers no longer need to maintain /pentest, the Kali development process is simplified dramatically. Kali Linux does away completely with the /pentest directory and instead has everything stored where it should be ( /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/lib, etc.), which is quite a relief for users and developers alike. In violation of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard ( FHS) adhered to on nearly all UNIX-likes, especially Debian Linux, these pentesting programs are placed in different folders than a vanilla installation, thus making them a hassle to find. web - Maybe web pentesting frameworks? No wait, that would go under 'exploits', right? voip - Wait, what's the difference between this and 'telephony'? telephony - Something to do with telephone communications? passwords - I guess password crackers go here. exploits - Metasploit and Nessus/OpenVAS, probably. database - Anything database-related goes here, whatever that means. I had to put up with an unclear, ambiguous file structure something like this: It summarizes perfectly my experiences during my first experience with BackTrack years back when the hierarchy was first released. Hen does a tool go in /pentest, and when should it be placed in the $PATH ? Where should a tool like “sqlmap” be placed? Should it be in /pentest/web, or /pentest/database? ![]() Where would they then be placed? A good example (taken from this Kali news post) was: As BackTrack’s software count grew in size (and it certainly did), certain cases arose where the programs in question either fit into multiple categories or had such a generalized nature that they could not fit into any category. However, this efficiency did not last too long. Looking for the location of Nessus’ daemons? Go to /pentest. Wanted to find Metasploit and all of its respective libraries? Just go to /pentest. Besides, the structure allowed for the programs and their dependencies to remain separate from the system. Much of it stemmed from its unorthodox /pentest file hierarchy, a special set of folders used for organizing and storing all the pentesting-specific packages, which had been devised four years ago.įor a long while, the sorting of the hacking programs into categories seemed a rather simple and intuitive concept, and it was decently easy to locate existing binaries on the hard disk as well as install and integrate new ones. Kali’s creation was intended to address a few key points of criticism BackTrack has received over the years. First announced and finalized just a month ago in March 2013, Kali aims to be a complete restructuring and replacing of BackTrack from the software perspective while keeping the philosophy, community, penetration testing options, and even much of the branding intact. But now, faced with an aging tool management architecture for its penetration testing tools, parent company Offensive Security wants to try something new.Įnter Kali Linux. Originally based on a merger of two earlier established distros, the Slax-based WHAX (formerly Whoppix) and a Knoppix-based LiveCD named Auditor Security Collection, BackTrack saw a switch to an Ubuntu-based system during its later life, mostly to benefit from its Aptitude package management system and wide driver compatibility. ![]() Packed with tools and affirmed by near-universal acclaim, the veteran BackTrack has seen a whopping 7+ years of active development and explosive community growth. BackTrack Linux was and still is reputedly one of the best security-oriented Live Linux distributions out there, for both offensive and defensive purposes.
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