About the translation of the book "Kali Linux Revealed"

In the summer of 2017, the first edition of the book “Kali Linux Revealed: Mastering the Penetration Testing Distribution” was published. She is dedicated to working in Kali Linux. The book, in English, can be purchased at Amazon, it can be read online or downloaded as a PDF file.

The book seemed interesting to us, an idea appeared to translate it into Russian. But the project is big and serious, so before you start, I want to consult with the Habr community, put to the vote the question: “Translate or not?”.

Taking this opportunity: by popular demand, we have released a PDF version of our translation of a series of articles about Bash scripts. Details here .

Kali Linux is a popular distribution based on Debian, the main task of which is penetration testing. It includes many tools that are supported by frequent updates.

Immediately it should be said that the book in question is not about how to investigate and hack systems, but how to use the distribution kit. According to the authors, it is intended for a wide range of readers. For beginners, it is suitable as a textbook, more experienced users will allow to put in order knowledge, professionals will be able to find in it some useful details. It is also positioned as a guide for preparing for Kali Linux Certified Professional certification .
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In our opinion, the main audience of the book is newbies who want to seriously come to the study of Debian, and in particular Kali Linux. The book is focused on practice, it includes 12 chapters, at the end of each chapter there is a small section where the reader is asked to perform the exercises. The complexity of the exercises, as you move through the book, grows.

For example, in the second chapter, as an exercise, you are offered to download a ready-made image, test it, create a live flash drive and boot from it. In the fifth chapter, you can find a course project for installing Kali on Rasberry Pi 3 and setting up the device as a wireless access point. In the ninth chapter they propose to create a custom Live-ISO, which will allow Angela in this series of Mr. Robot do its thing without touching the keyboard.

In addition to the main material, the chapters contain small tie-ins, for example, why pentesters usually look for files with the setuid attribute.

Here is a brief description of the chapters:

1. About Kali Linux . Here, in addition to historical background, it is told about the relationship of the Kali Linux distribution with Debian, about why this distribution was created, about the scenarios for its use, about its capabilities and features.
   
2. Getting started with Kali . Here we are talking about where you can download a ready-made system image, which image to choose, how to check it, how to create a bootable DVD or flash drive to work with the system in Live mode.
   
3. Basics of Linux . Linux overview, command line, file system, useful commands.
   
4. Installing Kali Linux . System requirements, normal and automatic installation, installation on ARM devices, problem solving.
   
5. Customize Kali Linux . Here they talk about network settings, about managing users and groups, about configuring services, and about managing them.
   
6. Getting help . They write about working with documentation, about the community and about preparing bug reports.
   
7. Protection and monitoring Kali . This chapter deals with security policies, system protection, logging and monitoring.
   
8. Debian package management . Here, the reader is introduced to the package manager, repositories, talk about how to work with packages, including - to solve various problems encountered during their installation and updating.
   
9. Extended use of the system . This chapter is devoted to modifying Kali packages, recompiling the Linux kernel, building your own Live images.
   
10. Kali Linux in the organization . Here we are talking about the network installation of the system, configuration management, expansion and configuration of Kali.
    
11. Introduction to software security assessment . Here they tell about the CIA models and about the use of Kali in assessing the security of systems.
    
12. Further prospects . In this short chapter, the authors talk about what attention can be paid after mastering the Kali Linux distribution. For example - to study Metasploit. As one of the final projects here it is proposed to deploy in the cloud the so-called Kali Linux ISO of Doom.
    

If we decide on the expediency of translating this book into Russian, the work will be completed before the end of this year. We will post the full text on GitHub, we will publish selected items here.

Dear readers! We invite you to vote, to answer the question of whether, in your opinion, it is worth doing the translation. In addition, we would be grateful if you share your thoughts about the book “Kali Linux: Revealed” and the distribution kit Kali Linux.