Install Kali Linux using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Server 2019

How to install Kali Linux using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Server 2019. Enable WSL feature using PowerShell. Install Kali Linux using an Appx Package

Table of Contents

1. Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature using PowerShell

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux  

2. Install Kali Linux on WSL using an Appx Package

Download Kali Linux Appx Package using PowerShell

# create folders
mkdir C:\Install\KaliLinux
cd C:\Install\KaliLinux

# Download Kali Linux Appx Bundle
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://aka.ms/wsl-kali-linux" -OutFile "Kali.appx" -UseBasicParsing 

Rename appx to zip and extract using PowerShell

# rename appx to zip and extract
Rename-Item Kali.Appx Kali.zip
Expand-Archive Kali.zip .\Temp

# rename DistroLauncher to zip and extract
Rename-Item .\Temp\DistroLauncher-Appx_1.1.4.0_x64.appx DistroLauncher.zip
Expand-Archive .\Temp\DistroLauncher.zip C:\Install\KaliLinux\Live 

The Live folder contains the extracted Kali linux executable

3. Launch Kali Linux using PowerShell

Start-Process -FilePath C:\Install\KaliLinux\Live\kali.exe 

Kali Linux will start, you'll be asked to enter a username and password

Create a desktop shortcut "Kali WSL"
C:\Install\KaliLinux\Live\kali.exe 

4. Install Kali Linux updates

The first thing you will do with a new Linux machine is install updates. In this case, we get the following errors when running sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used.

W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://kali.download/kali kali-rolling InRelease: The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG ED444FF07D8D0BF6 Kali Linux Repository
W: Failed to fetch http://http.kali.org/kali/dists/kali-rolling/InRelease The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG ED444FF07D8D0BF6 Kali Linux Repository
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Install Kali archive keys from Debian package

This error can be fixed by installing the Kali archive keys manually using the Debian .deb package file

cd ~

# download keyring
wget http://http.kali.org/kali/pool/main/k/kali-archive-keyring/kali-archive-keyring_2022.1_all.deb

# install keyring
sudo dpkg -i kali-archive-keyring_2022.1_all.deb

# remove file
rm kali-archive-keyring_2022.1_all.deb 

Run apt update and apt upgrade

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade 

5. Troubleshooting sudo issues on WSL

If you're having problems running sudo with Kali running on WSL, take a look at this troubleshooting article..
SOLVED: sudo: account validation failure, is your account locked? sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts

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Reference:

WSL - Windows Server Installation Guide
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-on-server

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