How to install Kali Linux in Virtual Box?

When you need to begin with Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), you will look after for the most sought out Linux distribution for the purpose i.e. Kali Linux. However, as a beginner you may not have a separate PC or you may not have a Network or servers to begin practicing tools and methods to become professional VAPT expert. There is also a chance that you may corrupt your Laptop or PC while installing and using Kali Linux being a beginner. Thus, you must start your journey with Kali Linux by installing it in a virtual machine.

One of the most popular virtualization software is Oracle Virtual Box. You can install Kali Linux and other operating systems on your existing Windows machine as a guest operating system inside virtual box. You can experiment and learn by interacting between these virtual machine to learn VAPT and become a IT Security Expert.

Let us check out the easy steps involved in installing Kali Linux as a Guest Machine in Virtual Box on a Windows PC:

1. Download Kali Linux ISO file

Open Kali Linux official website in any web browser, navigate to menus and click on Downloads → Download Kali Linux. You will see a table consisting of ISO image files. Click the first installer file to begin download.

Save the Kali Linux ISO file to your PC.

2. Download and Install Virtual Box

Now open Oracle Virtual Box official website, navigate to menus and click on Downloads → Windows hosts.

Save the setup file to your PC. Navigate to Download location and run the Virtual Box setup file. Install Virtual Box with default options. First time, virtual box may open on its own, however, you may start it from Start Menu later on.

3. Install Kali Linux in Virtual Box as Guest Machine

Open Virtual Box and click on ‘New’.

A wizard will open to fill in details for installing Kali virtual machine. In the “Name and operating system” dialog box, provide the name of the Machine e.g. Kali Linux.

Check the default machine folder where all files related to Kali Linux guest machine will be stored. This is a important folder so you must keep it at a particular location on a separate disk partition (other than operating system) with sufficient disk space as it will occupy a lot of space. For learning purpose we will proceed with default location.

Choose “Type” as “Linux” and “Version” as “Debian”. Click on next to proceed.

Select appropriate virtual RAM. Ideally keep it one-fourth or not more than half of actual RAM in your PC. Kali Linux guest machine will use host machine’s RAM only when running. Allocating it higher amount of RAM may slow down your Host machine while allocating lower amount of RAM may slow down the Guest machine as the resource is shared between Host and Guest machine.

Next, select options to create a “Virtual hard disk” with “VDI” format and “Dynamically allocated” storage on physical drive while proceeding ahead. Allocate a maximum amount of Hard Disk space to the virtual machine as per availability of physical disk space on your PC. The virtual disk will expand as needed since it will be dynamically allocated, thereby, saving you on physical disk space unless not actually needed by the virtual machine.

The virtual Machine will be created and visible in Virtual Box. Select the machine and click on “Start” to run the machine. The boot loader will display options to install Kali Linux. Select “Graphical Install” and follow the instructions during the setup.

Once, the setup is complete, restart the machine. Kali Linux with default tools will be ready for use.

Watch the demonstration of the above process in below video:

Note: There may be scenarios when you have a Linux PC. You can also install Virtual Box in Linux. Check out how to install Virtual Box on Linux?