Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing - Third Edition

Accessing the secure shell

To minimize detection by a target network during testing, Kali does not enable any externally listening network services. Some services, such as Secure Shell (SSH), are already installed. However, they must be enabled prior to use.

Kali comes preconfigured with default SSH keys. Before starting the SSH service, it's a good idea to disable the default keys and generate a unique keyset for use.

Move the default SSH keys to a backup folder, and then generate a new SSH keyset using the following command:

dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

To confirm the SSH service is running, you can verify using the following command (service ssh status) as shown in the following screenshot:

Note that, with the default configuration ...