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Redazione RHC : 12 December 2025 21:50
The recent 2025.4 release of Kali Linux has been made available to the public, introducing significant improvements to the GNOME, KDE, and Xfce desktop environments . From now on, Wayland will be the default window management system, representing a significant improvement over previous versions.
The latest update builds on the previous 2025.3 release from September and boasts refined desktop experiences, enhanced VM guest support on Wayland, and a range of new offensive security tools.
It’s important to note that GNOME has completely dropped support for X11, prompting Kali to adopt Wayland as its only Windows server. Kali developers describe the transition as a smooth operation, thanks to extensive testing and additional configuration for virtual machine environments.
All three supported desktop environments— GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce— have received significant attention. GNOME 49 introduces a more consistent and responsive interface. Among the most significant changes is a new categorization of tools in the app grid, aligned with the traditional Kali menu structure. The Totem video player has been replaced with the more lightweight Showtime app, and the long-required keyboard shortcuts for launching terminals (Ctrl+Alt+T / Win+T) are now enabled across all GNOME desktops.
Xfce, which remains the default Kali desktop, has received a new color management system, finally bringing it into line with the visual customization found in GNOME and KDE . Users can now change icon themes, GTK/Qt colors, and window decorations using Xfce’s Appearance tool and the qt5ct/qt6ct utilities.
Three new tools have been introduced into the Kali repositories:
In addition to the toolchain updates, Kali Linux has updated its kernel to version 6.16, ensuring compatibility with new hardware and features.
Kali 2025.4 marks a milestone in the transition to Wayland, which has replaced X11 across the distribution . While GNOME now officially mandates Wayland-only sessions, Kali has shipped Wayland by default for KDE since version 2023.1.
One of the main obstacles to wider adoption of Wayland has been incomplete support for guest VM utilities, particularly clipboard sharing and dynamic window resizing. Kali developers report addressing these issues in this release. Virtualized Kali installations on VirtualBox, VMware, and QEMU now offer full support for adding guest VMs on Wayland, aligning with the X11 experience.
The NetHunter platform for Android has received several updates, including early support for Android 16 for the Samsung Galaxy S10, OnePlus Nord, and Xiaomi Mi 9 devices. The NetHunter terminal is now functional again, with support for Magisk interactive mode, which ensures improved session stability.
The Wifipumpkin3 phishing tool has been updated with new templates for popular platforms like Instagram, iCloud, and Snapchat, and a new in-app terminal (alpha build) is being tested.
Anyone interested in trying Kali Linux 2025.4 can download it here . Due to Cloudflare CDN file size limitations (~5 GB) and the ever-increasing size and complexity of packages, the Live ISO image is currently only available via BitTorrent.
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