[Eng: Tutorial] Kali NetHunter - Linux on Android

[Saint-loup]

For anyone who's only interested on only using PGP on Android without GUI, Termux is enough to install GnuPG.
So only the first few steps and a very little amount of storage is required in this use-case.

Simply install Termux, and follow Steps 1 to 4 in the instructions to update and set the necessary permissions.
Then install GnuPG via: apt install gnupg (current version 2.4.3)

After that, it's a matter of using GnuPG in the command line which has an abundant number of tutorials like: /index.php?topic=5240594.0#post_CmdInstruct
Example final result of the tutorial above in Termux:

Yes that's what I did on my tablet few years ago in order to check the Electrum APKs signature because I didn't find any UI Android app able to do it. As far as I remember I downloaded Termux from the Playstore and not from Github or F-droid and it worked well. But I would be surprised if there is still no user-friendly app able to do it. On a small smartphone using Termux is not really convenient. Does anyone know an Android app able to check files PGP signatures?

[PrivacyG]

That's common for you to think and you are right. They pose security threat. But the thing is most to the ROMs are open source. So you get to view their code directly. If you had the knowledge, you would know if there were any vulnerabilities.

You are correct.  If you had the knowledge, you would know.  But do you have the knowledge?  And if you do, you do not spend time auditing by yourself EVERY single ROM you flash, do you.  Every body does the same.  They trust by believing some body else must have audited it before them.

Almost all ROMs go unaudited and this is a serious concern for me.  It is your choice of course.  But I think it is worth noting the danger of this.  I would not trust a Custom ROM built by some random developer with my Hot Wallet.

If I wanted privacy and security I would have used Ubuntu Touch. But I don't. I am a tester. I won't be using same Rom forever. I keep on changing, flashing and testing. 

If you are ever interested in security and Privacy, Ubuntu Touch is not a great choice for Privacy.  Better than what other Operating Systems offer but not great.  I would put Kali over Ubuntu Touch any time of the day.

[tech30338]

DVlog, I haven't personally used any crypto related software on my Kali NetHunter. So I don't know if it'll work or if it has a compatibility issue or not. To be honest, I don't know if our smartphones have that kind of capacity to run massive level software. The OS itself took up 20GB of my space. Imagine what would happen. But, again, yes, technically, it should work. Give it a try.

Cheers  

Then what is the point of using Linux on our smart phones if we can not use mobile applications? Though I think you are right a smart phone won't be able to install such a large file. I am not sure about this either but using a heavy application can make things slow and the capacity to run an application like this can be limited. I do understand that even if we can manage to install one it won't be as convenient as using an android application.

The point of the tutorial is not for normal usage or anything for Android, like installing apps for normal usage, its mostly use for testing and penetration purpose for android correct me if I'm wrong.
I still remember when ubuntu plans to create a mobile phone and can be turn into desktop wonder what happen to that project, its been 9-10 years still have not heard of it, those who will donate will have a mobile phone to test.
see the link below :
https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/cyber-security-tutorial/what-is-kali-nethunter
https://kali.org/docs/nethunter/

[Shishir99]

Don't dare to run heavy-weight software like Bitcoin core. But I don't think trying electrum will be a bad idea as it's not heavy software. What other crypto software do you guys want to use?  

Bitcoin Core can run on very weak devices.  It has to be a possibility to run it on the latest mid range Smart phones at least.

I don't think it will be wise to run Bitcoin core on mobile device Linux as it takes a lot of time to synchronize with the network and consume a lot of internet. Do you think a mid-range device can handle this pressure? It needs at least 50 GB of free space even if anyone tries to run the pruned node. Forget about downloading the whole blockchain. Most mobile device comes with 64 GB storage if its RAM is 4 or 6 GB. Even a device with 128 GB storage won't be sufficient for this because most of the time the system takes up a lot of space. if you are an Android user, you should know this already. Even if anyone runs Bitcoin core, it will take ages to get syncronized.

[DYING_S0UL]

Don't dare to run heavy-weight software like Bitcoin core. But I don't think trying electrum will be a bad idea as it's not heavy software. What other crypto software do you guys want to use?  

Bitcoin Core can run on very weak devices.  It has to be a possibility to run it on the latest mid range Smart phones at least.

I don't think it will be wise to run Bitcoin core on mobile device Linux as it takes a lot of time to synchronize with the network and consume a lot of internet. Do you think a mid-range device can handle this pressure? It needs at least 50 GB of free space even if anyone tries to run the pruned node. Forget about downloading the whole blockchain. Most mobile device comes with 64 GB storage if its RAM is 4 or 6 GB. Even a device with 128 GB storage won't be sufficient for this because most of the time the system takes up a lot of space. if you are an Android user, you should know this already. Even if anyone runs Bitcoin core, it will take ages to get syncronized.

You are right, Shishir99. Even if it were technically possible, I don't think we should run something we are unsure of. I could have installed the Bitcoin core and given you (PrivacyG) feedback, but just as Shishir99 said, you will run out of storage before you know it. I had to free up 20 GB of storage before the installation. And after the installations, I only had 5GB of storage left. But yes, if you have an 8/256 GB variant phone, then if you want to, you can give it a go. I don't know how to install Bitcoin Core, so I didn't. But again, I think that's unreliable. Using Kali Nethunter on an Android device for a long time can be unreliable. There can be app crashes, low memory kills, lags, hitting issues, etc. Nethunter can be quite handy in the hacking sector, to be honest. You run some tools, test, expoloit, etc. Or you could use PGP encryption (if it supports it). How much time would it take? Max 10 minutes, I guess.

Kali Nethunter is the perfect solution, for those who wanna, at least have a taste of Linux operating system on Android. 

[Lucius]

This is definitely something interesting that I will put on my list when I have more time now that winter is coming and I will spend more time indoors. I have a solid smartphone with 6/128 which unfortunately hasn't received a security update for some time, so when I buy a new one I thought about trying to put an OS that would give me more privacy on the one I'm using now.

Is there any OS that is secure (open source) and easy to use - I'm primarily interested in using hot wallets like Electrum or BlueWallet on it?

[DYING_S0UL]

This is definitely something interesting that I will put on my list when I have more time now that winter is coming and I will spend more time indoors. I have a solid smartphone with 6/128 which unfortunately hasn't received a security update for some time, so when I buy a new one I thought about trying to put an OS that would give me more privacy on the one I'm using now.

Is there any OS that is secure (open source) and easy to use - I'm primarily interested in using hot wallets like Electrum or BlueWallet on it?

Technically speaking, if you have a smartphone with an unlocked bootloader and enough support from independent developers, you can upgrade it anytime you want. For example, I own a Xiaomi smartphone that stopped receiving it's official updates in around 2021, including the security updates. It was only updatable to Android 10* up until now. But currently, I'm now using Android 14 with the latest security update (September 5, 2024) and a custom kernel, all thanks to a custom ROM. It runs as smooth as butter. So yes, it's possible.

I'm not sure whether your phone have support or not, but you can give these a try:

• https://grapheneos.org/
• https://ubuntu-touch.io/
• https://lineageos.org/

[Lucius]

@DYING_S0UL, unfortunately, as far as I can see, my smartphone (Huawei) is not on the list of supported phones from any of the mentioned OS. Is it theoretically possible to install security/critical updates for Android in any way, in the event that unfortunately I cannot install any of the alternative OS?

[DYING_S0UL]

@DYING_S0UL, unfortunately, as far as I can see, my smartphone (Huawei) is not on the list of supported phones from any of the mentioned OS. Is it theoretically possible to install security/critical updates for Android in any way, in the event that unfortunately I cannot install any of the alternative OS?

As far as I know, NO! You cannot manually install security/critical updates without having an unlocked bootloader. The only way to do this the official way. Phone manufacturers typically provide official updates for a certain period, like 4-7 years, after which support is discontinued. When that period ends, we unlock the device and try to keep it up to date along with various modifications, such as gaining Root user access. That's what I did with mine.

BTW, did you know it is impossible to unlock your bootloader (Huawei). They stopped providing the bootloader unlock code in 2018. So Huawei devices are unable to unlock the bootloader officially. You might find some 3rd party to buy the codes, but I have no idea where to look or whether they still provide those.

Brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, even Google are more flexible when it comes to, allowing their users to unlock their bootloaders relatively easily. Recently Xiaomi announced they are shutting down their bootloader unlock server. Sad news for us custom ROM users.

My suggestion would be to keep the current one as it is. Next time you buy a device, keep these factors in mind: "Does my manufacturer allow unlocking the bootloader? Does my device have sufficient support!"

-DS

[Shishir99]

My suggestion would be to keep the current one as it is. Next time you buy a device, keep these factors in mind: "Does my manufacturer allow unlocking the bootloader? Does my device have sufficient support!"

Who checks these things, bro?
I don't know how many mobile phones I bought for myself and my friends. All they want to know is, how is the battery and the camera. Most of them use Smartphones to play PUBG or Free Fire. Some of them want to become TikTok stars. LOL. I don't think everyone cares if the manufacturer allows unlocking the bootloader. But people who use their device to do some modification and love to try custom ROMs will probably be interested to know more specifically about the device they are going to buy.

[DYING_S0UL]

My suggestion would be to keep the current one as it is. Next time you buy a device, keep these factors in mind: "Does my manufacturer allow unlocking the bootloader? Does my device have sufficient support!"

Who checks these things, bro?
I don't know how many mobile phones I bought for myself and my friends. All they want to know is, how is the battery and the camera. Most of them use Smartphones to play PUBG or Free Fire. Some of them want to become TikTok stars. LOL. I don't think everyone cares if the manufacturer allows unlocking the bootloader. But people who use their device to do some modification and love to try custom ROMs will probably be interested to know more specifically about the device they are going to buy.

Apparently a lot of people do, people like me. If you are a normal user who wants a hassle free life, then you can stick to your official ROM. But for people like me, I like to try new things, tweak my system, and do modifications. Although there are some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that you get full control over your device and unlock it's full potential. You can do just whatever you want. I don't know if you ever noticed this, sometimes your phone will show ads that you cannot remove, or sometimes you will notice that there are some apps (bloatware) that you rarely use. They cannot be removed from the system, and most of the time it takes unnecessary storage. Now with the power of custom ROMs, you can change that. You can also overclock your CPU (not recommend, only for competive gamers), or underclock your CPU (basically turning off some of your CPU core to save battery), or modify the Linux kernel (only expert users), flash modules (root users), hack WIFI (don't tell anyone), or get unlimited Google photo storage (even though my device is Xiomie - Google thinks it's Pixel, so they give me their unlimited photo storage), the use cases are infinite. The only disadvantage is that you void your warranty, which I consider useless after 1-2 years. So yes..

Those who tasted the power of custom ROMs will never go back to stock. What I did was,

Day 1 : Buy the device
Day 2 : Unlock bootloader
Day 3 : Flash custom recovery and a custom ROM

And all set, knock me if you wanna know more!

[Shishir99]

And all set, knock me if you wanna know more!

I am afraid, I will break my device. I am not an expert in this field, so whatever you said just went ahead of my head. I used to read custom ROM setup guides in trickbd back in 2018,-19. But I never tried to do it because I always felt like I may break my device. But knowing all the benefits of using a custom ROM, I also wanted to give a try. But since I am not an advanced user, I don't think I will be able to do that. I needed an expert friend in real life who understand these things and fix any issues. Since I don't know anyone who may help me in real life, I am not going to take a risk.

[DYING_S0UL]

I am afraid, I will break my device. I am not an expert in this field, so whatever you said just went ahead of my head. I used to read custom ROM setup guides in trickbd back in 2018,-19. But I never tried to do it because I always felt like I may break my device. But knowing all the benefits of using a custom ROM, I also wanted to give a try. But since I am not an advanced user, I don't think I will be able to do that. I needed an expert friend in real life who understand these things and fix any issues. Since I don't know anyone who may help me in real life, I am not going to take a risk.

Yes, there is a possibility that you might brick your device (either soft or hard). But it is also possible to unbrick it if you know how. You don't have to be an expert, you just have to be curious. For you, it's better to stick to stock ROM. To be honest, I never had any friends who could help me with this, everything I know, I learned on my own. I'm not sure which part went over your head. I think I wrote everything in English. 

Anyway, back to the original topic, you can try this guide to experience Kali NetHunter. But I'm guessing you own a PC or laptop and don't need this. And again, who would take all that hassle?!..You don't look like you would.

[Lucius]

~snip~
Brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, even Google are more flexible when it comes to, allowing their users to unlock their bootloaders relatively easily. Recently Xiaomi announced they are shutting down their bootloader unlock server. Sad news for us custom ROM users.

My suggestion would be to keep the current one as it is. Next time you buy a device, keep these factors in mind: "Does my manufacturer allow unlocking the bootloader? Does my device have sufficient support!"

-DS

I will definitely keep such things in mind when buying a new smartphone, and I was thinking of catching a discount for Black Friday or maybe for the Christmas-New Year holidays and treating myself to something more expensive, considering that I buy a smartphone once every 4-5 years anyway. The Honor V3 Magic caught my eye because it's really impressive from a phone considering how thin it is, and it belongs to the category of foldable phones - the only thing is that I would still like something that is not Chinese for a change, and then the choice is much narrower.

[Shishir99]

Anyway, back to the original topic, you can try this guide to experience Kali NetHunter. But I'm guessing you own a PC or laptop and don't need this. And again, who would take all that hassle?!..You don't look like you would.

Yeah, I have a laptop and I use a samsung device which has only four GB of Ram. Pretty much old phone and I have a lot of memories in it which I do not want to lose. To be honest, yes, I never tried to flash a custom ROM and I don't know the method because I was never curious enough which can make me learn how to do it. But I do not deny the fact that I am very cautious with my devices and do not want to try something that may brick my device. But if I ever feel I need to flash a custom ROM and I may need some assistance, I will reach you.

[DYING_S0UL]

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