Meet Karmbian, an ARM Linux Distro for Ethical Hackers Based on Kali Linux and Armbian

Karmbian

I love new projects, and today I would like to introduce you guys to Karmbian, a very promising ARM Linux distro for ethical hacking and penetration testing based on Kali Linux and using the Armbian toolchain.

Launched just a few days ago, Karmbian is a Kali Linux based distribution optimized for ARM devices, including single-board computers (SBC) like the Raspberry Pi and ROCK64, as well as ARM laptops like the PineBook Pro.

Being based on Kali Linux (formerly BackTrack), you can imagine that the whole purpose of the Karmbian project is provide ARM fans with a light and complete GNU/Linux distribution for ethical hacking and penetration testing.

Now you’ll ask yourselves, why not run Kali Linux directly on my ARM device? Well, the Karmbian explain that running Kali Linux on a SBC has not always been possible. That’s why Karmbian is also using the Armbian toolchain, a Debian and Ubuntu based computer operating system for ARM development boards.

“Karmbian opens the possibility of running Kali on numerous SBCs that aren’t supported otherwise,” said lead developer Shane Scott. “Having it based on Armbian allows novice users to customize their Kali build for their SBC very easily.”

The first release of Karmbian is optimized for single-board computers using the RK3399 chip, such as PINE64’s ROCK64 and ROCKPro64, as well as ODroid N2. But you can also use it on ARM laptops like the PineBook Pro from PINE64, and other SBCs supported by Armbian.

Pre-build images are available for download now from the project’s GitHub page (link below). The images are available with the core Kali Linux desktop pre-loaded or command-line only, so make sure you’re downloading the right one for your needs.

If you want to build Karmbian images for your ARM device, you will need a 64-bit SBC or ARM laptop with at least 2GB of RAM and around 35GB of free disk space. A 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or Kali Linux 2020 installation is needed for native building.

The developers promise to bring support for more devices in the coming weeks, starting with the Raspberry Pi, so keep an eye on this space for more news about Karmbian very soon.

Last updated 4 years ago

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com