Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. Kali Linux is based on the Debian Testing branch: most packages Kali uses are imported from the Debian repositories.
Kali Linux has approximately 600 penetration-testing programs (tools), including Armitage (a graphical cyber attack management tool), Nmap (a port scanner), Wireshark (a packet analyzer), metasploit (penetration testing framework), John the Ripper (a password cracker), sqlmap (automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool), Aircrack-ng (a software suite for penetration-testing wireless LANs), Burp suite and OWASP ZAP web application security scanners, etc.
It was developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of Offensive Security through the rewrite of BackTrack, their previous information security testing Linux distribution based on Knoppix.[citation needed] The tagline of Kali Linux and BackTrack is "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear", which is displayed on some backgrounds, see this example.
