Hi. I would like to use armitage in kali-core.
Is it possible?
And if yes, is it ok?
ChatGPT tells me that this could be an installation way:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y
armitage
metasploit-framework
openjdk-17-jre
postgresql
postgresql-contrib
sudo msfdb init
sudo systemctl start postgresql
Would this work?
In case that it’s possible and OK, is there a guide for installing armitage?
It is a standard kali tool, and so you can install it with just apt install armitage - dependencies will be pulled in automatically.
Yes it is possible. Is it OK? Probably - weigh the risks of using a
testing base for the template and qubes
Thank you very much for explaining this.
What do you exactly mean with “weigh the risks of using a
testing base for the template and qubes”?
Do you mean “testing base” == “target” ?
In that case, yes, I can handle that risk.
No, it won’t install that way under kali-core.
I get:
Unable to locate package armitage
There should be plenty of guides already when using a search engine. So I just wanted to note that this not Qubes specific and you may find information elsewhere. If that fails, there is the slim chance it could be a Qubes template misconfiguration.
Works for me.
How did you get kali-core template?
In /etc/apt/sources.list do you have main contrib non-free in the kali
sources list?
No, I mean that kali is based on debian testing: things are probably
going to break, and the packages are less tested.
I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.
Understood, thank you for explaining it to me.
My kali-core template came with Qubes OS or I added it later using some standard tool, cannot remember as it was sometime ago.
I am running Qubes OS 4.2.4
In kali-core:
cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb Index of /debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware
#deb-src Index of /debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware
deb Index of /debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free-firmware
#deb-src Index of /debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free-firmware
deb Index of /debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free-firmware
#deb-src Index of /debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free-firmware
Thank you very much for your kind help.
You must have installed it using qvm-template. This template is based on
bookworm.
The sources.list should show kali repositories not debian. It’s possible
that you have kali repositories defined under /etc/apt/sources.list.d ;
check this.
(The fact that you arent able to install suggest to me that your kali
repositories are not properly defined.)
I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.
(ctrl-f main contrib non-free does not find anything)
user@kali-core:~$ ls -alh /etc/apt/sources.list.d
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4.0K Feb 12 23:45 .
drwxr-xr-x. 8 root root 4.0K Nov 22 2024 …
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 2.9K Nov 5 2024 qubes-r4.list
user@kali-core:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qubes-r4.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-testing main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-testing main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-securitytesting main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-securitytesting main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-unstable main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm-unstable main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-testing main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-testing main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-securitytesting main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-securitytesting main
#deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-unstable main
#deb-src [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qubes-archive-keyring-4.2.gpg ] tor+http://deb.qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/r4.2/vm bookworm-unstable main
You have no Kali repository defined. That’s why you are unable to
install kali tools. The template is fundamentally broken.
If you were on 4.3 I would suggest installing my build of kali-core.
I havent built this for 4.2.4
The best I can suggest is that you run a full apt update and apt upgrade
Then delete your copy of /etc/apt/sources.list and replace it with the
one specified here -
You will also need to install the kali signing key if it is not already
present: read this post.
You can download the key in a disposable which is network connected,
validate the key and then copy it in to your kali template.
As this has the potential to bork your template I suggest that you clone
the template first, and run through these steps. If it all goes
downhill, at leasy you will have a clone to start from again.
I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.
Thank you very much for your support. I will try this solution and tell you how it went.
There were 3 Debian repos already there, I did not took them out, but added the Kali repo.
There were no wget, no thunar and no mousepad, so I added them to better work on it.
Then:
┌──(user㉿kali-blackops)-[~]
└─$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb Index of /debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free-f
deb Index of /debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib no
deb Index of / kali-last-snapshot main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
┌──(user㉿kali-blackops)-[~]
└─$ sudo wget https://archive.kali.org/archive-keyring.gpg -O /usr/share/key
–2026-02-19 21:21:07-- https://archive.kali.org/archive-keyring.gpg
Resolving archive.kali.org (archive.kali.org)… 148.113.211.220, 2607:5300:214:dc00::
Connecting to archive.kali.org (archive.kali.org)|148.113.211.220|:443… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 3464 (3.4K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘/usr/share/key’
/usr/share/key 100%[=====================================================>] 3.38K
2026-02-19 21:21:14 (35.8 MB/s) - ‘/usr/share/key’ saved [3464/3464]
┌──(user㉿kali-blackops)-[~]
└─$ sudo apt update
Get:2 Index of /debian bookworm-backports InRelease [59.4 kB]
Hit:3 Index of /r4.2/vm/ bookworm InRelease
Get:1 Index of /kali/ kali-last-snapshot InRelease [34.0 kB]
Err:1 Index of /kali/ kali-last-snapshot InRelease
The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY ED6
Hit:4 Index of /debian bookworm InRelease
Get:5 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease [48.0 kB]
Get:6 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security/main amd64 Packages [297 kB]
Get:7 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security/main Translation-en [182 kB]
Reading package lists… Done
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘non-free-f/binary-amd64/Packages’ as repository ‘https://deb.d
m-backports InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘non-free-f’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘non-free-f/i18n/Translation-en_US’ as repository ‘https://deb.
rm-backports InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘non-free-f’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘non-free-f/i18n/Translation-en’ as repository ‘https://deb.deb
backports InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘non-free-f’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
W: GPG error: Index of /kali/ kali-last-snapshot InRelease: The following signatures couldn’
e public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY ED65462EC8D5E4C5
E: The repository ‘Index of / kali-last-snapshot InRelease’ is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can’t be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘no/binary-amd64/Packages’ as repository ‘https://deb.debian.or
rm-security InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘no’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘no/i18n/Translation-en_US’ as repository ‘https://deb.debian.o
orm-security InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘no’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
W: Skipping acquire of configured file ‘no/i18n/Translation-en’ as repository ‘https://deb.debian.org/
-security InRelease’ doesn’t have the component ‘no’ (component misspelt in sources.list?)
Still showing errors, which I do not reqally understand that well.
If you are so kind as to (again) explain, I will greatly appreciate it.