Also streamlines support for Nvidia CUDA GPU cracking

Apr 26, 2017 01:10 GMT  ·  By

Offensive Security, the developers of the BackTrack-derived Kali Linux open-source, security-oriented operating system, announced the availability of the Kali Linux 2017.1 rolling release.

Since Kali Linux became a rolling distro, the importance of such updated images was never the same, but Kali Linux 2017.1 appears to be a major release of the ethical hacking distro, adding a bunch of exciting new features and improvements to the Debian-based operating system.

"As with all new releases, you have the common denominator of updated packages, an updated kernel that provides more and better hardware support, as well as a slew of updated tools - but this release has a few more surprises up its sleeve," reads the release announcement.

Here's what's new in Kali Linux 2017.1

Prominent new features of Kali Linux 2017.1 include the implementation of drivers for RTL8812AU wireless chipsets, bringing wireless injection attacks to the 802.11 AC standard, apparently for the first time in an ethical hacking OS. Users can install the driver by running the "sudo apt install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms" command.

Support for Nvidia CUDA GPU cracking was streamlined in the Kali Linux 2017.1 release, which means that ethical hackers can now take full advantage Nvidia graphics cards when using tools like Pyrit and Hashcat. Talking about GPU support, Kali Linux 2017.1 brings CUDA GPU cracking to Amazon's AWS and Microsoft Azure.

They created Azure and AWS images of Kali Linux because Microsoft’s Azure NC-Series and Amazon’s AWS P2-Series appear to offer pass-through GPU support, due to the latest trends of using cloud-based instances of Kali Linux for password cracking operations.

Last but not least, it looks like the popular OpenVAS 9 open-source vulnerability scanner and manager was made available in the Kali Linux repos. Users can install it if they run the "sudo apt install openvas" command in a terminal emulator. Kali Linux 2017.1 is available for download right now from our website.

OpenVAS 9
OpenVAS 9

Kali Linux 2017.1 (2 Images)

Kali Linux 2017.1 released
OpenVAS 9
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