How to create a Kali Linux Virtual Machine with VirtualBox - Walkthrough

Today we're gonna create a Kali Linux virtual machine with VirtualBox.

As I'm in information security and I'm studying pentesting, I've been asked this question so many times that I decided to create a tutorial for it, hoping it will help.

Why Kali Linux?

Kali Linux is a very popular Linux distro, used for hacking, pentesting and forensics.

Its current version, as of today, is the rolling version 2 2016, based on Debian.

Kali is not the only pentesting distro around, but it's become popular because it gathers thousands of tools ready to go in the same place.

Why VirtualBox?

VirtualBox is a free open-source virtualization software, currently owned by Oracle, that supports Windows, Mac and Linux.

It's a great solution, if you don't need to do anything fancy, like playing video games.

The problem

Creating a Kali Linux Virtual Machine with VirtualBox can be challenging.

In fact, you need to stick with some specific settings, otherwise the installation fails miserably.

What you need

• Kali Linux ISO (32-bit, or 64-bit, depending on your system architecture); 
• VirtualBox

Installation

For you to create a new virtual machine with VirtualBox, you need to click New. 

This will bring up a dialog box where you need to enter the name of the virtual machine and select the operating system to be installed.

In our case, the box will look as follows:

Then you'll assign the desired amount of RAM to your VM. 

Afterward, you'll create a virtual drive for your virtual machine.

The solution

This is the most critical stage of the whole process.

For you to successfully create a Kali Linux virtual machine with VirtualBox, you'll need to assign more than 20 GB disk space to your new virtual machine, otherwise the installation process fails.

I discovered this solution on an Internet forum, after investigating on a series of failed previous attempts with VirtualBox that had temporarily led me towards other solutions.

This problem, in fact, doesn't affect other similar programs (VMware Player, or VMware Workstation, or Hyper-V for Windows; VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop, for Mac), which allowed me to successfully create the virtual machine by using a smaller virtual drive.

For the installation process to continue, you'll have to point your virtual machine to the location where you downloaded Kali Linux ISO.

In my case, it was in Downloads.

Then, click Start and begin the actual Kali installation.

From the following menu, choose Graphical Install and follow all subsequent steps (check the embedded video tutorial for guidance on this stage).

Wrap up

If you followed along correctly, you'll have a working Kali installation.

Happy pentesting!!