In this guide we will create a Live USB Kali Linux 2021 from Windows and we will configure a persistent partition (with optional encryption) so you can preserve files and settings between reboots. With Rufus and Kali Linux 2021, this process is now much easier than before.
What is and How to Install Kali Linux Live USB with persistence
As you know Kali Linux is one of the popular operating systems for hacking and penetration testing. It has a feature to on a flash drivethis feature is amazing that has kali os in your pocket.
Run Kali Linux on any system with the help of this pendrive. But the problem is when the OS is rebooted, your saved data, and any changes/settings in Kali Linux will be deleted.
The Kali Linux live USB persistence It is a solution. Now your Kali Linux will run from USB on any system without losing saved data, settings, installed programs and any changes.
1. Download Kali Linux 2021 (Live)
In this guide we are using the image Kali Linux Intel/AMD 64-Bit (Live)which most modern Pécs support.
If you have a client Torrent, use the Kali Torrent download link to speed up the download (10 minutes) as sometimes it slows down web downloads a lot.
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2. Write the Kali Linux 2021 ISO to a USB
Write the ISO to your USB drive using a tool like Rufus, Universal USB Installer or UNetbootin. In this guide we are going to use Rufus.
- Download Rufus and run it.
- Select your USB device.
- Click SELECT and look for the live ISO of Kali Linux 2021 that you have downloaded.
- Set a persistent partition size, in this example, 4GB, although it can be as large as you want depending on the size of your USB.
- Click START.
If you see a warning about Syslinuxclick Yeah.
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Click Accept if you see this warning.
It may take 10 to 30 minutes to write Kali Linux 2021 live ISO to USBdepending on your hardware and the size of the USB.
3. Boot to the Kali Linux 2021 Live USB
On some PCs, you can simply reboot the machine, and if the USB is connected, it should boot into Kali Linux 2021 Live automatically.
If this doesn’t work and the PC boots directly into Windows, press and hold the key SHIFT while you click Restart in the Windows Start menu and select Boot from USB.
Note: If this doesn’t work either, you may need to look into how to boot from USB on your particular machine. Repeatedly press one of the function keys (F12, F2, etc.) or the keys ESC or Del booting will invoke the boot or BIOS menus on some machines, where you can select USB as the boot device.
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When the PC restarts, you should see the Kali boot menu Linux 2021 Live.
In the Kali boot menu, select Live USB Persistence and press ENTER. The menu may be slightly different depending on your version of Kali.
Note: Kali should boot directly to the desktop. However, if you are prompted for a password, the default username and password in Kali Linux 2021 and 2020 is “kali.” For Kali Linux 2019 and below, the default user is “root” and the password is “toor”.
To test if persistence is working correctly in Kali Linux 2021, try creating an empty test folder on the Desktop and reboot. Choose Live USB Persistence and if the test folder is still there, persistence is working correctly.
Note: From now on, every time you boot from USB, you must select USB persistence live for persistence to work properly.
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4. Kali Linux Live Encryption 2021 (Optional)
If you want to protect your persistence partition with a password, you can do so with luksEncryption.
Please note that this process will overwrite your current persistence partition. If you currently have files and settings stored on the persistence partition, you should make a backup before continuing with this process.
Restart your PC and select Live USB Encrypted Persistence and press ENTER.
Open Terminal and use the root account with:
$sudo his
Identify your persistence partition by listing the partitions (lowercase L, not the number 1).
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$fdisk -l
Exit:
Device Boot Size Id Type /dev/sdb1 * 111.7G c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sdb2 4G 83 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
You may see several device and partition entries listed here. It is very important that you identify your persistence partition correctly since we are going to overwrite it.
Find your USB drive. You should have two partitions: One that stores the Kali Linux 2021 operating system, and another persistence partition, which you created earlier.
In the example above, I can see my 4GB persistence partition that I created in Rufus in step 2.
My partitions appear here as sbd1 and sdb2however, depending on your hardware configuration, they may appear as sdc1, sdc3, etc.
These will be different for everyone, so make sure you correctly identify the persistence partition for your particular hardware configuration and update the commands below to match.
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If you’re not sure where your persistence partition is, paste the results from fdisk -l in the comments below and I’ll try to help you (lowercase L, not number 1).
5. Cryptsetup / LUKS Encryption
cryptsetup is a utility used to conveniently configure disk encryption using LUKS Encryption.
As my persistence partition is sdb2, the commands below will reflect that. Make sure you replace sbd2 with your own persistence partition, otherwise you might accidentally overwrite data. You have been warned!
$ cryptsetup –verbose –verify-passphrase luksFormat /dev/sdb2
Exit:
WARNING: Device /dev/sdb2 already contains a ‘ext3’ superblock signature. WARNING! ======== This will overwrite data on /dev/sdb2 irrevocably. Are you sure? (Type ‘yes’ in capital letters):
Writes FORKS and press ENTER to delete the partition.
Exit:
Enter passphrase for /dev/sdb2:Verify passphrase:
Enter a password twice. You can generate a strong password here. Make sure you keep it safe. Once the partition is encrypted, you will not be able to recover it without your password.
Exit:
Existing ‘ext3’ superblock signature (offset: 1080 bytes) on device /dev/sdb2 will be wiped. Key slot 0 created. Command successful.
LUKS encryption has been applied to your persistence partition.
Now open your encrypted persistence partition.
$ cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb2 my_usb
Exit:
Enter passphrase for /dev/sdb2:
Enter your password.
6. Create and tag an encrypted file system
Create a file system ext3 and label it as “persistence”. Make sure you write correctly “persistence”.
mkfs.ext3 -L persistence /dev/mapper/my_usb
Exit:
mke2fs () Creating filesystem with 4k blocks and inodes Filesystem UUID: Superblock backups stored on blocks: Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal ( blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
I tag it:
$ e2label /dev/mapper/my_usb persistence
7. Mount, unmount and close the encrypted partition
Mount:
$mkdir -p /mnt/my_usb/
$mount /dev/mapper/my_usb /mnt/my_usb
$echo “/ Union” > /mnt/my_usb/persistence.conf
:
$umount /dev/mapper/my_usb
Close:
$ cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/my_usb
It’s all done!
8. Reboot
Now, restart the machine and choose Live USB Encrypted Persistence in the Kali Linux 2021 boot menu.
At startup, you will be asked to enter your password.
Please unlock disk /dev/sdb2:
From now on, every time you start Kali, you must select Live USB Encrypted Persistence in the menu to use your encrypted partition.
If you want to know other articles similar to How to Install Kali Linux Live USB with Persistence and Optional Encryption (Windows) you can visit the category.
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