linuxserver/kali-linux¶
Kali-linux - is an Advanced Penetration Testing Linux distribution used for Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking and network security assessments. KALI LINUX ™ is a trademark of OffSec.
Supported Architectures¶
We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.
Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/kali-linux:latest
should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.
The architectures supported by this image are:
Architecture | Available | Tag |
---|---|---|
x86-64 | ✅ | amd64-<version tag> |
arm64 | ✅ | arm64v8-<version tag> |
armhf | ❌ |
Application Setup¶
The application can be accessed at:
- https://yourhost:3001/
Security¶
[!WARNING] Do not put this on the Internet if you do not know what you are doing.
By default this container has no authentication and the optional environment variables CUSTOM_USER
and PASSWORD
to enable basic http auth via the embedded NGINX server should only be used to locally secure the container from unwanted access on a local network. If exposing this to the Internet we recommend putting it behind a reverse proxy, such as SWAG, and ensuring a secure authentication solution is in place. From the web interface a terminal can be launched and it is configured for passwordless sudo, so anyone with access to it can install and run whatever they want along with probing your local network.
Nvidia GPU Support¶
Nvidia support is not compatible with Alpine based images as Alpine lacks Nvidia drivers
Nvidia support is available by leveraging Zink for OpenGL support. This can be enabled with the following run flags:
Variable | Description |
---|---|
--gpus all | This can be filtered down but for most setups this will pass the one Nvidia GPU on the system |
--runtime nvidia | Specify the Nvidia runtime which mounts drivers and tools in from the host |
The compose syntax is slightly different for this as you will need to set nvidia as the default runtime:
And to assign the GPU in compose:
services:
webtop:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/suyu:latest
deploy:
resources:
reservations:
devices:
- driver: nvidia
count: 1
capabilities: [compute,video,graphics,utility]
Strict reverse proxies¶
This image uses a self-signed certificate by default. This naturally means the scheme is https
. If you are using a reverse proxy which validates certificates, you need to disable this check for the container.
Usage¶
To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.
Info
Unless a parameter is flaged as 'optional', it is mandatory and a value must be provided.
docker-compose (recommended, click here for more info)¶
---
services:
kali-linux:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/kali-linux:latest
container_name: kali-linux
security_opt:
- seccomp:unconfined #optional
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=Etc/UTC
- SUBFOLDER=/ #optional
- "TITLE=Kali Linux" #optional
volumes:
- /path/to/data:/config
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock #optional
ports:
- 3000:3000
- 3001:3001
shm_size: "1gb" #optional
restart: unless-stopped
docker cli (click here for more info)¶
docker run -d \
--name=kali-linux \
--security-opt seccomp=unconfined `#optional` \
-e PUID=1000 \
-e PGID=1000 \
-e TZ=Etc/UTC \
-e SUBFOLDER=/ `#optional` \
-e TITLE="Kali Linux" `#optional` \
-p 3000:3000 \
-p 3001:3001 \
-v /path/to/data:/config \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock `#optional` \
--shm-size="1gb" `#optional` \
--restart unless-stopped \
lscr.io/linuxserver/kali-linux:latest
Parameters¶
Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal>
respectively. For example, -p 8080:80
would expose port 80
from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080
outside the container.
Ports (-p
)¶
Parameter | Function |
---|---|
3000:3000 | Web Desktop GUI |
3001:3001 | Web Desktop GUI HTTPS |
Environment Variables (-e
)¶
Env | Function |
---|---|
PUID=1000 | for UserID - see below for explanation |
PGID=1000 | for GroupID - see below for explanation |
TZ=Etc/UTC | specify a timezone to use, see this list. |
SUBFOLDER=/ | Specify a subfolder to use with reverse proxies, IE /subfolder/ |
TITLE=Kali Linux | String which will be used as page/tab title in the web browser. |
Volume Mappings (-v
)¶
Volume | Function |
---|---|
/config | abc users home directory |
/var/run/docker.sock | Docker Socket on the system, if you want to use Docker in the container |
Miscellaneous Options¶
Parameter | Function |
---|---|
--shm-size= | We set this to 1 gig to prevent modern web browsers from crashing |
--security-opt seccomp=unconfined | For Docker Engine only, many modern gui apps need this to function on older hosts as syscalls are unknown to Docker. |
Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)¶
You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__
.
As an example:
Will set the environment variable MYVAR
based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable
file.
Umask for running applications¶
For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022
setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.
User / Group Identifiers¶
When using volumes (-v
flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID
and group PGID
.
Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.
In this instance PUID=1000
and PGID=1000
, to find yours use id your_user
as below:
Example output:
Docker Mods¶
We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.
Support Info¶
-
Shell access whilst the container is running:
-
To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:
-
Container version number:
-
Image version number:
Updating Info¶
Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup section above to see if it is recommended for the image.
Below are the instructions for updating containers:
Via Docker Compose¶
-
Update images:
-
All images:
-
Single image:
-
-
Update containers:
-
All containers:
-
Single container:
-
-
You can also remove the old dangling images:
Via Docker Run¶
-
Update the image:
-
Stop the running container:
-
Delete the container:
-
Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your
/config
folder and settings will be preserved) -
You can also remove the old dangling images:
Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)¶
Tip
We recommend Diun for update notifications. Other tools that automatically update containers unattended are not recommended or supported.
Building locally¶
If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:
git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-kali-linux.git
cd docker-kali-linux
docker build \
--no-cache \
--pull \
-t lscr.io/linuxserver/kali-linux:latest .
The ARM variants can be built on x86_64 hardware and vice versa using lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static
Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64
.
To help with development, we generate this dependency graph.
Init dependency graph
Versions¶
- 19.06.25: - Rebase to Selkies baseimage.
- 24.01.25: - Fix SVG icons not rendering.
- 18.07.24: - Initial release.