Kali Linux 2025.4 brings GNOME 49, KDE Plasma 6.5, Wayland enhancements, and 3 new tools

Kali Linux 2025.4 has launched as the latest version of the Debian-based distribution tailored for penetration testing, digital forensics, and security research. This release introduces updates across major desktop environments, featuring GNOME 49, KDE Plasma 6.5, and Xfce with full color theme support, providing a refreshed and customizable user experience.

Building on prior advancements, Kali Linux completes its migration to the Wayland display server for GNOME and maintains it as the default for KDE. Users running Kali in VirtualBox, VMware, or QEMU will now benefit from fully supported clipboard sharing and dynamic window scaling under Wayland, bringing these capabilities in line with what was previously available on X11 setups.

For this release, Kali Live images are no longer distributed by direct HTTP download and are instead available exclusively via BitTorrent. Alongside distribution changes, three new tools are introduced: bpf-linker, a Berkeley Packet Filter static linker; evil-winrm-py, a Python tool for remote Windows command execution; and hexstrike-ai, enabling automated AI agent tasks on an MCP server.

In addition to the core updates, Kali NetHunter receives several enhancements, including Android 16 support, a new terminal, and Wifipumpkin3 tab preview. Rounding out the release, users can activate a Halloween mode that adds seasonal flair to the desktop.