Kali Penetration Testing build

[plot42]

Hello All - I was looking to get a Kali Laptop built that could perform some basic "Penetration tests" - mainly websites and device discovery on internal networks - all completely ethical...

I have limited experience with Kali and the last time i touched linux was redhat when it first came out (Yes i am old).....

I would appreciate any advice how i could get something like this built relatively quickly - Options i have are;

1. Is there a guru or person/company that sells the whole thing (new/used laptop with everything built on it for me ). ?

2. Is there people that sell a prebuilt /custom image for me to load onto my own laptop ? with minimal configuration form my side ?

3. Am i better of buying a laptop with Kali and then going "old school" to build with what i need ?

4. Do i just have to suck it up and do it all myself...?

Thanks for your advice !

[Fred Sheehan]

1. Yes you can buy a laptop with one of several Linux distributions pre-installed, not seen any with 'Just Kali' on them. Being Debian based then a laptop with Debian or Ubuntu shouldn't have any hardware issues for Kali

2. No there isn't, Kali is free and you can install it on a host of platforms, how much effort depends purely on the hardware inside it

3. Unless you need a dedicated machine, running Kali in a VM with a USB WiFi adapter is often a better bet for many, and has less issues than running it 'bare metal' typically

4. In the Linux world genrally, yes, 'This is the way', the reason that Linux isn't widely adopted in the Desktop space is precisely because of this.

Go for something with Intel or Atheros WiFi chipsets in them, intel keyboard and mouse controllers, Intel or AMD GPU and most things should work with minimal hassle if you want to go bare metal install.

[plot42]

Thanks for your help - appreciated.

For the external test - i decided to go with someone from Fiverr, who did the scan and a report for $40. Seemed like an easier option at the moment, without the expense of purchasing a laptop.