Install Kali Linux on

Virtualbox in 3 Easy Steps

How to install Kali Linux on Virtualbox? In this tutorial, we’ll
walk you through the easiest way in which you can install
Kali Linux on your VirtualBox. Ready to roll? Let’s go!

What is Kali Linux and Why Do People

Use It?
Kali Linux is one of the best Linux distributions created for
penetration testers. All the tools that a network security
tester or a hacker might ever need, are pre-installed and
set-up perfectly in this distribution making things really
easy. This is not just limited to the software, even the
hardware is perfectly integrated by using the right drivers
to improve hardware functionality.

What’s VirtualBox and Where Can I Get

it?
VirtualBox is a virtualization software used to test different
operating systems on simulated hardware. It allows you to
run multiple operating systems independently without
affecting your primary OS.

Difficult to understand? It really isn’t! Your operating

system makes use of the physical hardware that’s
allocated to it when the system is booted. VirtualBox takes
a part of that hardware from the Operating system and
allocates it to a VirtualMachine. The OS that’s installed
inside a virtual machine works and runs exactly as it would
run on regular hardware.

Basic terminology to note:

Host Machine/System – The physical hardware that

you’re using
Guest Machine/System – The hardware that you
allocate to your Virtual Machine through Virtualbox
settings
Host OS – The operating system that’s installed on
your physical computer
Guest OS – The operating system that you will install
within a Virtual Machine

You can download VirtualBox from the official website

(link to the website). The installation is very
straightforward and you should have no difficulty in
getting Virtualbox set up.

How To Install Kali Linux on

VirtualBox?
If you’re installing Kali Linux on your computer as a
secondary OS, you can go about installing it the same way
you’d do for any other operating system. Download the
ISO file from the official website (link to website), burn
it to a USB or a CD, and boot from it.
We can follow similar steps while installing Kali Linux on
Virtualbox too. But because of the popularity of virtual
machines, there’s an option to directly load up a pre-
configured Kali system on Virtualbox! So without wasting
more time, let’s download the VirtualBox image and boot it
up.

Install Kali Linux on VirtualBox Using

the VirtualBox Image
This is the simplest way to go about installing Kali on
Virtualbox. The virtual machine image files can be found
right on the official website.

1. Download Kali Linux VirtualBox Image

Visit the Kali Linux official website and go to the download

page.

Kali Linux Virtualbox Image download to install Kali Linux on VirtualBox

Kali Linux Download

On the downloads page, you can scroll down to find Kali

Linux images for VMware and Virtualbox. For this
tutorial, we’ll download the 64-bit Virtual Box image.
Virtualbox Kali Image Download

Virtualbox Kali Image Download

2. Import the OVA File to Install Kali Linux on

VirtualBox

Once downloaded, you’ll have a .ova file which contains

the complete data for the operating system to boot! Yes,
it’s all set up and ready to start. All you need to do is
import the “appliance” to install Kali Linux on Virtualbox.

To import the ova file:

Open VirtualBox
Click on the File menu
Select Import Appliance…
Import Appliance Kali Linux On Virtualbox

Import Appliance Kali Linux On Virtualbox

A new window will pop up as shown in the below

screenshot where you need to select the ova file.

Select Appliance Virtualbox

Select Appliance Virtualbox

I’ve selected the kali-linux-2020.1 VirtualBox file and

then click “Next”. The immediate next screen will display
the default settings for the virtual machine. You can
choose to go with the defaults or edit them based on your
requirements.

When you click on the import button, you’ll see a

“Software License Agreement” pop-up like the one in
the screenshot below. Simply agree and move ahead.

Import Appliance Import Screen

Import Appliance Import Screen

Once you’ve agreed to the terms and conditions, the

process to install Kali Linux on VirtualBox will begin. You’ll
see the importing progress bar like the one below. This
can take several minutes depending on the speed of your
host system.

Importing Kali Linux On Virtualbox

Importing Kali Linux On Virtualbox

3. Boot Kali Linux on VirtualBox

The importing will take some time depending on the host

system hardware that you have. For me, it took around 15
minutes. Once that’s done, you’ll see the operating
system added to the list of Virtual Machines as shown in
the screenshot below.

Kali Linux Installed On Vbox

Kali Linux Installed On Vbox

Select the operating system, and click on the start button

on the top. This will boot the Virtual machine right away
and will take you to the login screen like below:

Kali Linux Installation Complete

Kali Linux Installation Complete

The username and password are both kali. Once

you’re logged in, you can change the password using the
passwd command in Linux.

That’s it! If you’ve read through till here, you should know
how to install Kali Linux on Virtualbox. If you followed
along, you will also have the Kali Linux system installed on
your VirtualBox.

Here’s what the default setup looks like:

Kali Set Up Complete

Kali Set Up Complete

The best part is since the image comes pre-configured,

you don’t even have to set up VirtualBox Guest
Additions on it. Everything is already set up and you can
start working right away!

Who Should Install Kali Linux on

VirtualBox?
This is a choice that you’ll have to make based on the
requirements that you have from the installed operating
system. There are a few pros and cons when you install
Kali Linux on Virtualbox. Let’s discuss these pros and cons
below and you can decide if it’s something that you
should consider for yourself instead of installing Kali as a
secondary OS.

Pros of installing Kali Linux on VirtualBox

 Run multiple OS without affecting the main
Play around with the OS without worrying about
losing important data
Manage resources as required
VirtualBox installed OS’ are portable
Create snapshots and roll-back changes with a single
click
Perfect for testing Operating systems

Cons of installing Kali Linux on VirtualBox

Noticeably slower performance

Limited support for GPU acceleration
USB wifi adaptors work best when the OS is natively
installed
Due to the ease of rolling back changes, you’d not
learn to troubleshoot
An extra layer of abstraction between the physical
hardware, operating system, and the guest OS

Finally…
So we’re done with setting up and installing Kali Linux
2020 on VirtualBox! The OS is made to be very fast and
efficient even for Virtualbox and you’ll notice that as soon
as you’re done installing it.

You can obviously download and install Kali using the Kali
Linux ISO file if you want to learn the complete setup
process from scratch. That entire process is very
straightforward too and the Kali Linux installer does most
of the work for you. But for the purpose of getting an up
and running Kali Linux installed on VirtualBox, the Vbox
image is the perfect way to go.

We hope this tutorial proved useful to you. Make sure you

bookmark our website for more awesome tutorials like
these in the future!