kali

Lean headless Kali Linux rolling toolkit for Apple's native Containerization framework.

Prerequisites

• macOS 26+ (Tahoe)
• Apple Silicon
• container CLI installed
• container-cast (for standalone binaries)

Usage

Run as container

make build # Build the image
make run # Spawn ephemeral shell at kali.box

Cast as standalone binary

make cast # Build and cast the standalone binary
make install # Install .build/kali to /usr/local/bin
kali # Launch interactive zsh shell
kali <command># Run a single command

All targets

make status Show builder, DNS, images, and containers
make build Build the container image
make cast Cast into a standalone binary
make install Cast and install to /usr/local/bin
make uninstall Remove from /usr/local/bin
make run Run the container
make clean Remove image and prune unused resources
make nuke Kill and restart the builder (fixes hangs)
make help Show all targets

What's Inside

• Kali Linux rolling
• kali-linux-core metapackage
• zsh shell with a small runtime entrypoint for hostname/hosts setup
• Compact CLI toolkit: nmap, DNS utilities, whois, traceroute, fping, tcpdump, netcat, curl, wget, git, jq, Python/pipx, ffuf, gobuster, whatweb, wafw00f, nikto, sqlmap, hydra, SMB/NetBIOS helpers, SNMP tools, dnsrecon, dnsenum, and masscan
• Apt configured to skip large Contents indexes
• Standalone casts use a sparse 2 GB root filesystem with 1 GB RAM by default

This intentionally avoids the kali-linux-headless metapackage because it pulls in a much larger default toolset including Metasploit, hashcat, Wireshark, database services, and other heavy dependencies.

License

MIT