Kali Linux Commands List – Basic to Advanced Terminal Commands

Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution made for penetration testing, security auditing, digital forensics, and other security-related tasks. It includes many useful command-line tools for managing files, installing packages, checking system information, working with networks, and performing security testing.

The Kali Linux terminal allows you to control your system using simple commands. In this guide, you will learn useful Kali Linux terminal commands from basic to advanced levels.

Here’s what you can learn with these Kali Linux commands:

Navigate through files and folders.
Create, copy, move, and delete files.
Install and update packages.
Check system information.
Manage files and permissions.
Monitor running processes.
Work with networks.
Manage users and groups.
Compress and extract files.
Search files and text.
Work with SSH and Git.
Use Python from the terminal.
Manage disks and storage.
Learn useful security and troubleshooting commands.

Basic Kali Linux Commands

Below are some of the most common Kali Linux terminal commands for beginners. You can use these commands to work with files and folders, install software, check system details, and manage your Linux system easily.

Check the current directory.

pwd

List files and folders.

ls

List files with detailed information.

ls -l

Show hidden files.

ls -la

Change to another directory.

cd /home

Go to your home directory.

cd ~

Go back to the previous directory.

cd ..

Clear the terminal screen.

clear

Show the current username.

whoami

Show the current date and time.

date

Display the calendar.

cal

Show the hostname.

hostname

Show the command history.

history

Close the terminal session.

exit

These commands are useful for basic navigation and checking information about your current terminal session.

File and Directory Commands

These commands are used to manage files and directories in Kali Linux. You can use them to create, open, copy, move, rename, and delete files and folders from the terminal.

Create a new directory.

mkdir myfolder

Create multiple directories.

mkdir folder1 folder2 folder3

Create a file.

touch file.txt

Display the contents of a file.

cat file.txt

Open a file using Nano.

nano file.txt

Copy a file.

cp file.txt backup.txt

Copy a directory.

cp -r folder1 folder2

Move a file.

mv file.txt /home/

Rename a file.

mv old.txt new.txt

Rename a directory.

mv oldfolder newfolder

Remove a file.

rm file.txt

Remove an empty directory.

rmdir myfolder

Remove a directory and its contents.

rm -r myfolder

List the size of files and directories.

du -sh *

Check available disk space.

df -h

File Permissions Commands

Linux uses permissions to control who can read, write, or execute files. You can check and change permissions using the following commands.

Show file permissions.

ls -l

Give the owner execute permission.

chmod u+x script.sh

Make a file executable.

chmod +x script.sh

Set read, write, and execute permissions for the owner.

chmod 700 script.sh

Set common read and execute permissions.

chmod 755 script.sh

Change the owner of a file.

sudo chown username file.txt

Change the group of a file.

sudo chgrp groupname file.txt

Package Management Commands

Kali Linux uses package management commands to install, update, remove, and manage software from the terminal. You can use these commands to quickly install the tools and packages you need.

Update the package list.

sudo apt update

Upgrade installed packages.

sudo apt upgrade

Update and upgrade the system.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install a package.

sudo apt install package-name

Remove a package.

sudo apt remove package-name

Remove a package and its configuration files.

sudo apt purge package-name

Search for a package.

apt search package-name

Show package information.

apt show package-name

List installed packages.

apt list --installed

Remove unused packages.

sudo apt autoremove

Clean downloaded package files.

sudo apt clean

You can replace package-name with the package you want to install or manage.

System Information Commands

You can use system information commands to check the kernel version, CPU, memory, disk space, running processes, and other important system details.

Show the Linux kernel version.

uname -r

Show detailed kernel information.

uname -a

Show operating system information.

cat /etc/os-release

Display CPU information.

lscpu

Display memory information.

free -h

Display PCI devices.

lspci

Display USB devices.

lsusb

Show system uptime.

uptime

Show logged-in users.

who

Show detailed information about logged-in users.

Show the hostname and related information.

hostnamectl

These commands are useful when you want to understand your hardware, operating system, and current system status.

Process Management Commands

Process management commands help you view and control programs running on your Kali Linux system. You can check active processes, find specific processes, monitor system activity, and stop processes from the terminal.

Show running processes.

ps

Show all running processes.

ps aux

Display processes in real time.

top

A more advanced process viewer.

htop

Find a running process.

pgrep firefox

Stop a process using its process ID.

kill PID

Forcefully stop a process.

kill -9 PID

Find the process ID of a program.

pidof firefox

List background jobs.

jobs

Bring a background job to the foreground.

fg

Send the current process to the background.

bg

These commands are useful for controlling programs and checking which processes are running on your system.

Text Searching and Processing Commands

Text searching and processing commands help you find, read, filter, and work with text in the terminal. You can search inside files, find specific words, count lines, and process text using simple commands.

Search for text inside a file.

grep "hello" file.txt

Search without considering uppercase and lowercase letters.

grep -i "hello" file.txt

Search recursively inside a directory.

grep -r "hello" folder/

Find a file by name.

find . -name "file.txt"

Find all .txt files.

find . -name "*.txt"

Show the first lines of a file.

head file.txt

Show the last lines of a file.

tail file.txt

Follow a file as it changes.

tail -f logfile.txt

Count lines, words, and characters.

wc file.txt

Sort text.

sort file.txt

Remove duplicate lines.

uniq file.txt

Display a file one screen at a time.

less file.txt

Networking Commands

Networking commands help you check and manage network connections in Kali Linux. You can use them to view IP addresses, test connections, check open ports, find network information, and troubleshoot common network problems.

Show network interfaces.

ip addr

Show network links.

ip link

Show the routing table.

ip route

Check connectivity to a host.

ping example.com

Trace the route to a host.

traceroute example.com

Show DNS information.

dig example.com

Perform a simple DNS lookup.

nslookup example.com

Show active network connections.

ss -tuln

Show the ARP/neighbor table.

ip neigh

Download a file from a URL.

wget https://example.com/file.zip

Make an HTTP request.

curl https://example.com

Show HTTP response headers.

curl -I https://example.com

Archive and Compression Commands

You can use these commands to create and extract common archive formats.

Create a ZIP archive.

zip archive.zip file.txt

Create a ZIP archive containing a directory.

zip -r archive.zip folder/

Extract a ZIP archive.

unzip archive.zip

Create a TAR archive.

tar -cvf archive.tar folder/

Extract a TAR archive.

tar -xvf archive.tar

Create a compressed TAR archive.

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz folder/

Extract a .tar.gz archive.

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

List the contents of a TAR archive.

tar -tf archive.tar

User and Group Commands

User and group commands are used to manage users and groups in Kali Linux. You can check user information, create or remove users, change passwords, and manage group memberships from the terminal.

Show your username.

whoami

Show user ID information.

id

List users.

cat /etc/passwd

List groups.

cat /etc/group

Create a new user.

sudo adduser username

Change a user’s password.

sudo passwd username

Add a user to a group.

sudo usermod -aG groupname username

Switch to another user.

su username

Run a command with administrator privileges.

sudo command

Disk and Storage Commands

Disk and storage commands help you check and manage storage space in Kali Linux. You can view available disk space, check folder sizes, list mounted drives, and manage storage in the terminal.

Show mounted filesystems.

mount

Show disk usage.

df -h

Show directory size.

du -sh folder/

List block devices.

lsblk

Show disk information.

sudo fdisk -l

Check disk space for the current directory.

du -sh .

Environment and Shell Commands

Environment and shell commands help you work with the Kali Linux terminal and control your shell environment. You can check environment variables, view your current shell, change settings, and manage your terminal session.

Display all environment variables.

env

Display the PATH variable.

echo $PATH

Show the current shell.

echo $SHELL

Set a temporary environment variable.

export NAME="Kali"

Display a variable.

echo $NAME

Show the command used to locate a program.

which python3

Find all matching commands.

whereis python3

Check whether a command is available.

command -v python3

Python Commands

Kali Linux comes with Python support, and it is easy to run Python programs from the terminal. You can use Python commands to check the installed version, run scripts, install packages, and test Python code.

Check the Python version.

python3 --version

Start Python.

python3

Run a Python script.

python3 script.py

Install a Python package.

python3 -m pip install package-name

Show installed Python packages.

python3 -m pip list

Create a virtual environment.

python3 -m venv myenv

Activate a virtual environment.

source myenv/bin/activate

Deactivate the virtual environment.

deactivate

Git Commands

Git is a popular tool for managing source code and working with online repositories. In Kali Linux, you can use Git commands to download projects, update repositories, view changes, and manage your own code.

Check the Git version.

git --version

Clone a repository.

git clone https://github.com/user/project.git

Go to a repository.

cd project

Show repository status.

git status

Download the latest changes.

git pull

Show Git branches.

git branch

Create a new branch.

git branch new-branch

Switch to a branch.

git switch new-branch

Show commit history.

git log

Git is commonly used when installing open-source tools from source repositories.

SSH Commands

SSH commands allow you to connect to remote computers and servers securely from the Kali Linux terminal. You can use SSH to log in to a remote system, transfer files, and manage a server using command-line tools.

Connect to an SSH server.

ssh username@server-ip

Connect using a specific port.

ssh -p 2222 username@server-ip

Generate an SSH key.

ssh-keygen

Copy an SSH key to a server.

ssh-copy-id username@server-ip

Copy a file to a remote system.

scp file.txt username@server-ip:/home/username/

Download a file from a remote system.

scp username@server-ip:/home/username/file.txt .

Services and System Commands

Services and system commands help you manage important parts of your Kali Linux system from the terminal. You can start or stop services, check their status, restart system services, and control other system operations.

Check the status of a service.

sudo systemctl status service-name

Start a service.

sudo systemctl start service-name

Stop a service.

sudo systemctl stop service-name

Restart a service.

sudo systemctl restart service-name

Enable a service at boot.

sudo systemctl enable service-name

Disable a service at boot.

sudo systemctl disable service-name

List running services.

systemctl --type=service --state=running

These commands are useful for managing services such as SSH, web servers, databases, and other applications.

Advanced Kali Linux Commands

Kali Linux also includes many advanced terminal commands for system administration, networking, troubleshooting, and security testing. You can use them to perform more detailed tasks and work with different tools from the command line.

Find information about a command.

man ls

Show command help.

ls --help

Show the location of a command.

which ls

Display the type of a command.

type ls

Create a symbolic link.

ln -s /path/to/file linkname

Create a hard link.

ln file.txt hardlink.txt

Compare two files.

diff file1.txt file2.txt

Compare files side by side.

diff -y file1.txt file2.txt

Calculate a SHA-256 checksum.

sha256sum file.iso

Calculate an MD5 checksum.

md5sum file.iso

Search the command history.

history | grep ssh

Run the previous command.

!!

Run a command without displaying its output.

command > /dev/null

Redirect output to a file.

ls > files.txt

Append output to a file.

ls >> files.txt

Use the output of one command as input for another.

cat file.txt | grep hello

Run two commands one after another.

command1 && command2

Run a command in the background.

command &

Kali Linux Security Tools

Kali Linux comes with a wide range of security tools for testing and learning. You can use them to explore networks, check websites, analyze vulnerabilities, and practice security skills in a safe and authorized environment.

Some of its most popular tools and their commands are:

Start Nmap.

nmap --help

Open the Metasploit console.

msfconsole

Start Wireshark.

wireshark

Open Burp Suite.

burpsuite

Run John the Ripper.

john --help

Run Hashcat.

hashcat --help

Run Gobuster.

gobuster --help

Run Nikto.

nikto -Help

Show Nmap help.

nmap -h

Useful Terminal Shortcuts

Terminal shortcuts can make your work in Kali Linux faster and easier. You can use simple keyboard shortcuts to clear the screen, stop running commands, move through command history, and manage the terminal without typing extra commands.

Clear the current command line.

Ctrl + U

Move to the beginning of the command.

Ctrl + A

Move to the end of the command.

Ctrl + E

Cancel the current command.

Ctrl + C

Search command history.

Ctrl + R

Suspend the current process.

Ctrl + Z

Clear the terminal.

Ctrl + L

Exit the terminal.

Ctrl + D

Final Kali Linux Command List

Here is a final list of useful Kali Linux commands that you can keep as a quick reference. You can use these commands for everyday terminal tasks, system management, networking, files, packages, and security testing.

pwd – Show the current directory.
ls – List files and folders.
cd – Change directory.
mkdir – Create a new directory.
touch – Create a new file.
cp – Copy files or folders.
mv – Move or rename files.
rm – Remove files.
rmdir – Remove empty directories.
cat – Display file contents.
nano – Edit a file in the terminal.
clear – Clear the terminal screen.
history – Show previously used commands.
man – Open a command manual.
sudo – Run a command with administrator privileges.
apt update – Update package information.
apt upgrade – Upgrade installed packages.
apt install – Install a package.
apt remove – Remove a package.
apt search – Search for a package.
apt list --installed – List installed packages.
uname -a – Show system and kernel information.
whoami – Show the current username.
hostname – Show the system hostname.
free -h – Show memory usage.
df -h – Show disk space usage.
du -sh – Show directory size.
uptime – Show system uptime.
lscpu – Show CPU information.
lsblk – Show storage devices.
ip addr – Show network interfaces and IP addresses.
ip route – Show routing information.
ping – Test network connectivity.
ps – Show running processes.
top – Monitor running processes.
htop – Interactive process monitor.
kill – Stop a process using its PID.
killall – Stop processes by name.
jobs – Show background jobs.
fg – Bring a background job to the foreground.
bg – Resume a stopped job in the background.
git clone – Clone a Git repository.
git status – Check repository status.
git pull – Download the latest changes.
git add – Add changes to the staging area.
git commit – Save changes to the repository.
git push – Upload changes to a remote repository.
git branch – Manage Git branches.
git checkout – Switch branches or restore files.
git log – View commit history.
git diff – Show changes between files or commits.
chmod – Change file permissions.
chown – Change file ownership.
find – Search for files and directories.
grep – Search for text inside files.
sort – Sort text.
uniq – Remove repeated lines.
head – Show the beginning of a file.
tail – Show the end of a file.
wc – Count lines, words, and characters.
cut – Extract parts of text.
echo – Display text or variables.
export – Set environment variables.
env – Show environment variables.
tar – Create and extract archives.
zip – Create ZIP archives.
unzip – Extract ZIP archives.
curl – Transfer data from URLs.
wget – Download files from the web.
ssh – Connect to a remote system.
scp – Copy files between systems.
screen – Manage terminal sessions.
tmux – Create and manage terminal sessions.
crontab – Manage scheduled tasks.
systemctl – Manage system services.
reboot – Restart the system.
shutdown – Shut down the system.

You do not need to learn all Kali Linux commands in one day. Start with the basic commands and practice them regularly, then move on to package management, networking, processes, permissions, and advanced commands as you become more comfortable with the terminal.

Download Kali Linux Commands List PDF

You can download the Kali Linux commands list PDF to keep the most useful terminal commands in one place. It is useful for beginners who want to learn Kali Linux commands and quickly check a command when needed.

Kali-Linux-Commands-List-PDF-Download

Download and save the PDF file on your device so you can easily open it and check Kali Linux commands anytime.

End Note

Kali Linux terminal commands can help you perform many tasks directly from the command line. You can manage files, install software, check system information, control processes, use Git, and work with different tools. Learn each command step by step and try them in your own terminal to understand Kali Linux better.