Ubuntu is a distribution mainly used by a very wide audience of users around the world, but we will not talk about Ubuntu, but its cousin focused on cybersecurity, BlackBuntu, this distribution, as you can guess, is based on Ubuntu and comes with resources and tools for cybersecurity work, mainly offensive security, and in this article we will explain more about it.
What is BlackBuntu
As we mentioned, it is a Linux distribution mainly oriented to offensive security tasks such as pentesting, it is an open source and community project, unlike, for example, Kali Linux which is maintained by a company, in this case OffSec.
This distribution is nothing new as you might think, in fact, has more than 10 years, what happens is that the project was “abandoned” years later to start and it was not until late 2022 when it was resumed, thus giving rise to one of the best computer security distributions is alive.
I have to clarify, it is not as well known in part as Kali Linux or Parrot Security Edition because of the little or no maintenance it received, as we mentioned before, but, that does not rule out in the future it may even surpass them because it really is a very well done distribution.
BlackBuntu Requirements
Now, if you want to install it on metal (please don’t) or virtualize it on a type 2 hypervisor such as VirtualBox or VMWare, it is important that you know if you meet the hardware requirements to be able to use this operating system, these would be the following for the most recent version to date, BlackBuntu V22.04.02.
- Processor: Dual core 2 GHz or higher.
- RAM: 4GB recommended.
- Storage: Recommended 80GB free.
You should also know that this system weighs a total of 7.41GB and the architecture, as usual in recent operating systems, is 64-bit.
What tools does BlackBuntu come with?
We have already mentioned that most of the tools included in this distribution are oriented to offensive security, but, specifically, it comes with tools compatible with the following categories.
- Hardening
- Networking
- Sniffing
- Vulnerability scanning
- Reconnaissance
- Testing (Stress)
- Wireless security auditsWeb security audits
Actually most of its tools are the ones we can find in other Linux distros oriented to cybersecurity, you can take a look at the complete and exact list of the tools it comes with by viewing the BlackBuntu documentation.
Differences between BlackBuntu and Kali Linux
Well, this point may be what most people think about when they want to choose an operating system to start in cybersecurity, we chose Kali Linux because it is by far the best known in the discipline but, this can apply to most similar systems, the differences between all these distros are usually almost nil, more than all the performance they can offer you based on your hardware resources if you will install them locally, but, as we said above, they usually come with almost the same tools and resources to work with, which are usually many and, as you know, the more code in the system, the more likely it is that it will crash.
So, you can really choose the distribution you want to use for your work in cybersecurity, BlackBuntu is interesting because it starts directly from Ubuntu, although if we see it that way, Kali Linux also does, here what will really determine which one you will use, is which one you feel more comfortable with and that goes more hand in hand with the marketing that each distro has than the features it offers, or do you think the dragon in Kali Linux is there because they like Dragon Ball?
Either way, both distros are very good for getting started in cybersecurity, but remember that it is always best to set up your own system with the tools you are going to use and not depend on systems managed by third parties.
