How to Verify Integrity and Authenticity of Kali Linux ISO Image

Before installing Kali Linux, IT professionals should verify the integrity and authenticity of Kali Linux ISO Image. This will protect the data of IT professionals as well as the data of their customers. Kali Linux also allows the professionals to download the setup file from the external mirrors. That means we should not blindly trust on those mirrors because the mirrors in which we are being re-directed could be compromised. And we as a IT professional might be the victims of attacks.

Steps to verify the Kali Linux ISO file

Download Kali Linux ISO image from their Official website only. Other websites should not be trusted and may contain malware. Download the image which is suitable for your CPU. Most modern systems have 64-bit processors. Kali linux can also be installed on smart devices. In that case you need to download KALI ARM IMAGES. Also save checksum SHA256Sum from Kali Linux download page.

Kali Linux ISO Image Installer and SHA256Sum
Kali Linux ISO Image Installer and SHA256Sum



Now generate the checksum of your downloaded image and match it with the copied checksum of Kali Linux website. In Windows checksum can be generated using this command:

certutil -hashfile kali-linux-2020.1-installer-amd64.iso sha256
Verify Integrity of Kali Linux ISO Image - Windows
Verify Integrity of Kali Linux ISO Image – Windows



In Linux, checksum can be generated using this command:

sha256sum kali-linux-2020.1-installer-amd64.iso
Verify Integrity of Kali Linux ISO Image – Linux
Verify Integrity of Kali Linux ISO Image – Linux

If both checksums are matched, that means your download Kali Linux image is correct. If it does not match, then you should not use that Image file and try to download from other Official Kali Linux mirror.

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