Building Custom Kali ISOs

Kali Dojo 02 - Building Custom Kali ISOs using Live Build from Offensive Security on Vimeo.

Building Custom Kali ISOs One of the most powerful features of Kali Linux is the ability to create your own flavors of the distribution containing customized tools, desktop managers, and services. This workshop will show you how to create your own personalized Kali Linux ISO, customizing virtually every aspect using the live-build utility and making efficient use of the various meta-packages available in Kali. The Awesomeness of Live Build 0x00 – Begin by updating the repos, installing the prerequisites, and checking out a fresh version of live-build-config from the Kali Git repositories:
1. apt-get update
2. apt-get install git live-build cdebootstrap devscripts -y
3. git clone git://git.kali.org/live-build-config.git
4. cd live-build-config


0x01 – Overwrite the default Kali package list, including only the packages you want. In the video, we simply edited the list and changed a few package names.

cat > config/package-lists/kali.list.chroot << EOF
kali-root-login
kali-defaults
kali-menu
kali-debtags
kali-archive-keyring
debian-installer-launcher
alsa-tools
locales-all
dconf-tools
openssh-server
EOF

---

0x02 – Add a customised syslinux boot entry which includes a boot parameter for a custom preseed file.

cat << EOF > config/includes.binary/isolinux/install.cfg
label install
menu label ^Install Automated
linux /install/vmlinuz
initrd /install/initrd.gz
append vga=788 -- quiet file=/cdrom/install/preseed.cfg locale=en_US keymap=us hostname=kali domain=local.lan
EOF

---

0x03 – Customise the ISO build. In this example, we’ll have the SSH service start by default. To do this, we can use a chroot hook script which is placed in the “hooks” directory:

echo 'update-rc.d -f ssh enable' >> config/hooks/01-start-ssh.chroot
chmod +x config/hooks/01-start-ssh.chroot

---

0x04 – Next, we download a wallpaper and overlay it. Notoce how chroot overlayed files are placed in the includes.chroot directory.

mkdir -p config/includes.chroot/usr/share/wallpapers/kali/contents/images
wget http://1hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers/kali_linux.jpg
mv kali_linux.jpg config/includes.chroot/usr/share/wallpapers/kali/contents/images

---

0x05 – Add a preseed file that will run through a default Kali installation with no input (unattended). We can include a ready made preseed configuration and alter it as needed:

mkdir -p config/debian-installer
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/offensive-security/kali-linux-preseed/master/kali-linux-full-unattended.preseed -O config/debian-installer/preseed.cfg

---

0x06 – Let’s include a Nessus Debian package into the packages directory for inclusion into our final build. Since we used a 64 bit build, we’re including a 64 bit Nessus Debian package.Download the Nessus .deb file and place it in the packages.chroot directory:

mkdir config/packages
mv Nessus-*amd64.deb config/packages/

---

0x07 – Now you can proceed to build your ISO, this process may take a while depending on your hardware and internet speeds. Once completed, your ISO can be found in the live-build root directory.

lb build

For more live-build implementations, refer to the following:

http://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux/kali-linux-recipes/
https://github.com/offensive-security/kali-linux-recipes
http://live.debian.net/manual/4.x/html/live-manual/toc.en.html