Linux

The linux based machines in the cloud runs an SSH daemon. After allowing port 22 incoming trough the security group in the virtual machine it is possible to log in trough ssh using the private part of the keypair used when creating the machine:

loginansatt01:~$ ssh debian@10.212.137.12 -i .ssh/id_rsa
The authenticity of host '10.212.137.12 (10.212.137.12)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:PIR85mFU0TiOZ0mXHz1ExMvds1D1YO1eF+/TTniAYfo.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '10.212.137.12' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
debian@mysecondserver:~$

Usernames:

The various images uses different user-names. After login all images has sudo which allows the default user to become root. Refer to this list to see which username the default user uses:

Installing a GUI and accessing it on the Kali Linux Minimal images

Since 2025, Kali has started to publish cloud-ready images, which means that we no longer have to build Kali images ourselves. These official images is the minimal install, and you probably want to install a few things to make it useful. In general this landing page is a good starting point on how to proceed, but we'll give a summary on common use-cases here.

Installing a GUI and xrdp for remoting at VM creation

If you want to have everything ready at the get go, the following cloud-init example will (after you add the required data):

• Add a user account
• Install all the "default" tools and software
• Install the xfce4 desktop environment and xrdp for remoting
• Enable and start xrdp - it will listen to tcp/3389
• Run software updates

#cloud-config
package_upgrade: true
timezone: "Europe/Oslo"
users:
  - default
  - name: <A USERNAME OF CHOICE>
    gecos: <YOUR NAME HERE>
    groups: sudo
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    shell: /bin/bash
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-ed25519 AAAAAlaladidad bruker@host
      - ssh-rsa AAAAAldadaidaid bruker@enannenhost
packages:
  - kali-linux-headless
  - kali-desktop-xfce
  - xorg
  - xrdp
  - xorgxrdp
runcmd:
  - systemctl enable xrdp
  - systemctl start xrdp

power_state:
  mode: reboot
  message: Reboot after upgrades
  timeout: 30
  condition: True

You will need to set a password for your user to be able to login through RDP. You have two choices:

1. Login over ssh, and run sudo passwd <your-username>
2. Or, you can pre-create a password hash and send it with the cloud-init data:
   1. On a linux machine (i.e login.[stud|ansatt].ntnu.no, run openssl passwd -6, enter a password and make a copy of the output
   2. Add it to the cloud-init section with your user
      

      users:
        - default
        - name: <A USERNAME OF CHOICE>
          passwd: $6$gTdBx7RFQRhADc2f$Xg2euZ6Bp7MIXO60ZzFPwrD8w3lJ8j7Kp12XH7k8IupOm/7vb.OXt4wvh9kMCj1Q7Lzm5KVFFW266cLWF3kjN/
          lock_passwd: false
          gecos: <YOUR NAME HERE>
          groups: sudo
          sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
          shell: /bin/bash
          ssh_authorized_keys:
            - ssh-ed25519 AAAAAlaladidad bruker@host
            - ssh-rsa AAAAAldadaidaid bruker@enannenhost

Now you can use your favorite RDP client and connect to the desktop of your new kali machine. Remember to add a security group that allows incoming traffic to tcp/3389. Please note that it will take some minutes before everything is ready. Be patient :-)

Installing a GUI and xrdp after the VM has been created

If you just start a VM from the Kali Minimal image without installing the GUI and xrdp with cloud-init, this can of course be done afterwards as well.

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade
sudo apt -y install kali-linux-headless kali-desktop-xfce xorg xrdp xorgxrdp
sudo systemctl start xrdp
sudo systemctl enable xrdp

# In this case you also need to set a password on your user
sudo passwd <YOURUSERNAME>
# Or if you're running with the default user "kali"
sudo passwd kali

Now you can use your favorite RDP client and connect to the desktop of your new kali machine. Remember to add a security group that allows incoming traffic to tcp/3389.

Accessing the GUI of the Kali Linux image

The Kali Linux image provided in SkyHiGh comes vith VNC-server enabled for root by default. It listens on TCP 5901. To access it just point the VNC client of your choice to <kali-floating-ip>:5901, and you should be good to go.

Remember to allow incoming traffic on TCP 5901 in a security group attached to your Kali machine.

The password is "kaliVNC" (feel free to change it to your own liking. In fact, you should really do that.)

To change the password, login to the kali VM via SSH, and run the command vncpasswd

┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ vncpasswd       
Using password file /home/kali/.vnc/passwd
Password: 
Verify:   
Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n