As the number of data breaches continues to skyrocket, companies all over the globe are realizing the need of making ethical hacking a priority in their investment strategies. Operating systems like Parrot Security OS and Kali Linux have become an important component of any ethical hacker’s toolkit as a direct result of the importance of mastering the art of penetration testing. By the end of this guide, you will have a better understanding of the hotly contested issue of Kali Linux vs Parrot OS and will have a better idea of which operating system is more likely to be a good fit for your workflow.
Now, let’s begin this session on Parrot OS vs. Kali by first being familiar with Kali Linux from the ground up.
What is Kali Linux?
Kali Linux, which was formerly known as BackTrack Linux, is an operating system that is built on Linux and is both open source and free to use. It is developed specifically for doing advanced penetration testing and security audits. The penetration testing, security research, digital forensics, and reverse engineering are just some of the information security activities that may be accomplished using the hundreds of tools that are included with Kali Linux.
It is a solution that works across several platforms, is easy to use, and is available for free to information security experts and amateurs. Since its inception many years ago, Debian has shown to be a trustworthy and reliable distribution, making it an ideal starting point for the Kali Linux desktop.
Now, let’s have a look at some of the most important and notable features that Kali Linux offers to its clients.
Features of Kali Linux
1. Pre-installed Tools: The most up-to-date version of Kali Linux has more than 600 hacking tools already built in. After doing in-depth research on all of the tools that are accessible in BackTrack, the developers removed a large number of scripts that did not perform properly or copied other services that provided the same or comparable functionality.
2. Secure Development: The Kali Linux team is made up of a small number of people, and these individuals are the only ones who are trusted to interact with the repository and submit packages while also applying a variety of security procedures. A considerable reduction in the likelihood of source contamination is brought about by limiting access to essential codebases to external resources.
3. Multilingual Operating System: Despite the fact that most penetration tools are developed in English, the creators of Kali have ensured that it has robust support for multiple languages. This enables more users to work in their native language and locate the tools they require for their journey into penetration testing.
4. Compatibility with ARM Devices: Kali Linux can run on a broad range of ARM-based computers. Because the ARM libraries are integrated with the mainstream version, you can be certain that the tools outlined above will be updated together with the rest of the installation at the same time.
After going through the fundamentals of Kali Linux, you will now investigate Parrot Security OS, which is a more recent operating system available on the market and serves as a direct competitor to Kali Linux.
What is Parrot Security?
Ethical hackers and penetration testers were the target audience for the initial version of the Parrot Security OS in 2013. The operating system is built on Linux, in particular Debian. It is possible to think of Parrot OS as a portable lab for a broad variety of cyber security management tasks, including pen testing, reverse programming, and digital forensics. These
tasks are covered by Parrot OS. In addition to this, it provides everything you need to keep your data secure and to develop software.
The Parrot Operating System receives frequent updates and gives users access to a broad variety of tools for sandboxing and hardening their environment. The utilities that are included in the package are designed to be compatible with the vast majority of devices that use containerization technologies such as Docker or Podman. Because it is so very lightweight and runs so incredibly quickly on all PCs, Parrot OS is a good solution for computer systems that have dated hardware or limited resources.
It features a distinct mode called “Forensics Mode,” which, unlike its regular mode, does not mount any of the platform’s hard discs or volumes and has no impact on the system that it is running on. This makes it far more covert. On the host system, forensic operations are carried out when the system is in this mode.
Features of Parrot Security
1. Custom Kernel: In addition to the extensive collection of scripts, Parrot Security has its very own customized Linux kernel. This kernel has been modified in such a way as to provide the greatest amount of protection and resistance to attackers as is humanly feasible.
2. A Wide Range of Applications: Parrot Security contains all of the tools that are accessible in Kali Linux, which is a well-known operating system for penetration testing, in addition to a few extra applications just for good measure. This was done with both operating systems having almost the same size of their respective operating systems despite the compression used.
3. Personalized Desktop: In addition to the standard pre-installed version of MATE, the company also offers the alternative desktop environment known as KDE. For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology associated with Linux, desktop environments may be thought of as the principal user interface (UI) for a Linux distribution.
4. Less cumbersome: In comparison to Kali Linux, Parrot OS has a smaller footprint, which is one of the most significant benefits of using this operating system. This indicates that a much lower amount of disc space and computer power is required for it to function successfully; the amount of RAM required is as low as 320 megabytes.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned what makes Kali Linux stand out from the crowd, and then you checked out its main rival, parrot security os. New ethical hackers and penetration testers have a lot of options with Kali Linux and parrot security OS at the helm. It may be argued that understanding the ins and outs of such software and tools is more important for a comprehensive preparation program than the choice of operating system itself.