When should you update Kali?

If you have a default installation of Kali, you should be checking for updates every few weeks. If you need a new version of a tool, or hear about a security update, that may speed up the timetable. However, a good practice is that you ensure all tools work before an engagement and during that engagement you should not update. As Kali is a rolling release, once in a while issues will sneak into rolling and may break a tool that is needed.

If you are using last-snapshot, you will not receive updates until we release the next version of Kali for that year. For this reason, it is a good idea to follow the Kali Twitter, or check the Kali website every few months. Kali has a release four times a year, and follows a loose quarterly schedule.

How to update Kali?

To update Kali, first ensure that /etc/apt/sources.list is properly populated:

kali@kali:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# See https://www.kali.org/docs/general-use/kali-linux-sources-list-repositories/
deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# Additional line for source packages
# deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
kali@kali:~$

After that we can run the following commands which will upgrade us to the latest Kali version:

kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update
kali@kali:~$
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y
kali@kali:~$