Kali NetHunter is an open source mobile distribution for Nexus mobile devices developed by a well known IT penetration testing company called Offensive Security, the same developers of Debian based Kali Linux for desktop computers. Kali NetHunter turns your Nexus mobile phone or tablet into a pocket penetration testing suite able launch attacks on wireless networks and unattended computers.
One of the attacks demonstrated in video by the distribution developers it is called HID keyboard and it shows how a mobile phone running Kali NetHunter plugged into a computer USB port can automatically type in pre-programmed commands without touching the PC physical keyboard. With this technique, that also works with the lockscreen switched on, it would be possible to install a trojan horse or copying hard drive content in the target computer.
Kali NetHunter hacking for Nexus mobile
Another poweful attack is using Kali NetHunter dnsmasq to provide DNS and DHCP services to a small network, this allows for all kind of middle man attacks. From displaying a fake phishing page that captures credentials every time somebody requests the URL for Paypal or Facebook, up to blocking Internet access to the whole network blocking DNS look ups. Other possible attacks are sniffing, spoofing, vulnerability scan, gathering information on a target computer, breaking into a wireless network and dozens more, all of the Kali Linux tools are included in NetHunter.
After installing Kali NetHunter in your mobile device it is easy to launch any of the included penetration tests, you don’t have to use the command line if you don’t want to, many exploits can be launched with a webpanel and a VPN can be set up to cover your tracks, securing your connection from packet sniffers on the network.
At the moment Kali NetHunter is only available for Google Nexus mobile phones and tablets, Nexus comes rooted with an unlocked bootloader, this makes it simple for end users to modify factory Android operating system settings. Other Android builds could become available in the future, NetHunter is open to community contributions.
There has been reports of various antivirus software flagging Kali NetHunter official download as a virus, make sure to get it from the official site and compare the supplied file hashes so that you know it has not been tampered with, you should also change the default “toor” password to something else.