Kali Linux 2018.2 – Spectre & Meltdown | What’s New

Kali Linux 2018.2 Released! Find out what’s new, kernel & tools, and how to upgrade to Kali Linux 2018.2. New Linux 4.15 kernel with Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. Included is better support for AMD GPUs and new support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization. There is easier access to commonly used tools and much more so check it out!

Easier Metasploit Script Access

You can now make use of all these scripts directly as of metasploit-framework_4.16.34-0kali2 and we have included links to all of them in the PATH variable, each of them prepended with msf-.

root@kali:~# msf-<tab>
msf-egghunter          msf-java_deserializer  msf-nasm_shell
msf-exe2vba            msf-jsobfu             msf-pattern_create
msf-exe2vbs            msf-makeiplist         msf-pattern_offset
msf-find_badchars      msf-md5_lookup         msf-pdf2xdp
msf-halflm_second      msf-metasm_shell       msf-virustotal
msf-hmac_sha1_crack    msf-msf_irb_shell

root@kali:~#
root@kali:~# msf-pattern_create -l 50 -s ABC,123
A1A2A3B1B2B3C1C2C3A1A2A3B1B2B3C1C2C3A1A2A3B1B2B3C1
root@kali:~#

Meltdown and Spectre

Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. These hardware vulnerabilities allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. A malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents.

Package Updates

In addition to the above changes, there have been updates to a number of applications including Bloodhound, Reaver, PixieWPS, Burp Suite, Hashcat, and more. Since there are far too many packages to include in a default ISO, to see the full list of changes, we encourage you to review the Kali Changelog.

Download Kali Linux 2018.2

If you would like to check out this latest and greatest Kali release, you can find download links for ISOs and Torrents on the Kali Downloads page along with links to the Offensive Security virtual machine and ARM images, which have also been updated to 2018.2. If you already have a Kali installation you’re happy with, you can easily upgrade in place as follows.

root@kali:~# apt update && apt full-upgrade