Kali Linux 2018.2 Released with Fixes for Spectre, Meltdown and Easier Metasploit Script Access

Kali Linux 2018.2 released with all updated packages and bug fixes since the last version of the Kali Linux that released last February.

It is the first distribution to include the Linux 4.15 kernel, which contains the most expected patches for Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.

With the hardware part, it includes better support for AMD GPUs and support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization, that allows encrypting the encrypting virtual machine memory and even hypervisor can’t access it.

New Kali Linux 2018.2 release, hot out of the oven! https://t.co/2B1p6uLNHU

— Kali Linux (@kalilinux) May 1, 2018

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Easier Metasploit Script Access – Kali Linux 2018.2

If you are an exploit writer, here is a good news for you. Starting form Metasploit-framework_4.16.34-0kali2 the scripts such as pattern_create, pattern_offset, nasm_shell, etc can be called directly as they included links to all of them in the PATH and they are prepended with msf-.

With the previous version, it was hidden under /usr/share/metasploit-framework/tools/exploit/ and cannot be called directly using 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:~#

Kali Linux 2018.2 includes updates for a number of applications including Bloodhound, OWASP JoomScan, burp suite 1.7.32, reaver v1.6.4 and pixiewps v1.4.2. You can see the complete list under changelog.

Must Read Complete Kali Tools tutorials from Information gathering to Forensics

How to update – Kali Linux 2018.2

apt update
&& apt full-upgrade
apt dist-upgrade
reboot

Recommended reviewing our Kali Linux Tutorials page which covers dozens of Kali Linux Tools. if you are First Time Kali user you can download it from here.

Like Kali Linux, there are some top Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking Linux Distributions you can see them here.