Setup Maltego on Kali Linux for Information Gathering

🔸 Introduction

Setup Maltego on Kali Linux is a crucial step for anyone interested in open-source intelligence (OSINT) and cybersecurity investigations, it is really popular with people who work in ethical hacking and those who investigate computer crimes.

Kali Linux is a special computer system that has lots of tools for testing computer security, so it is a great place to use Maltego because Kali Linux already has many of the things you need, and it makes Maltego even more powerful for hidden connections and patterns.

🔸 What is Maltego?

If you need to search for information online, like website details, domain records, or email addresses, Maltego is a great tool that shows this information easily. This tool is an open-source tool that helps you collect data from the internet and display it in a visual way, With just a few clicks, Maltego can show how all these pieces of information, like domain names, IP addresses, or where emails are sent.

Overview of Maltego’s features:

• • Link Analysis: Maltego shows how different pieces of information are connected by using visual graphs, so users can easily spot relationships between data points.
• • Data Mining: As you read in the title, it automatically gathers data from various sources across the internet, saving you time and effort.
• • Transforms: You can run “Transforms” to look up domains, find email addresses, trace IP blocks, and more with just a few clicks.

Use Cases:

• • Cyber Investigations: Uncover hidden connections in cybercrime cases, identify links between online assets, and trace digital footprints.
• • Recon: This is the first step in security testing, where you can collect basic information about the target’s online setup, like their websites.
• • Threat Intelligence: It helps study cyber threats by showing how hackers and their targets are connected.

Versions Available:

• • Community Edition (Free): It is limited to 75 transformations per day, and you can’t apply changes to multiple items at once, you can’t save or gather data, but it is still useful for small-scale info gathering.
• • Commercial (Paid) Version: It doesn’t have any transform limits, and you also have full access to saving, exporting, and advanced features; it is recommended for professional investigations.

🔸 Why Use Maltego on Kali Linux?

Using Maltego on Kali Linux offers several benefits, especially if you are a cybersecurity professional; we will provide some of its benefits for you.

• •  Some Kali Linux versions come with Maltego already installed, so you can open it and start working right away.
• •  Kali Linux itself is made for security and hacking tasks, so it doesn’t crash easily, and it also only runs the tools you need, so it’s fast and more secure.
• •  Maltego also works well with other tools in Kali Linux; you can also move important information from these tools into Maltego to see connections and patterns.

🔸 System Requirements

• • Minimum 4 GB RAM
• • Intel i3 or similar processor
• • Basic Internet Connection
• • Java 8, 11, or 17
• • .deb package
• • Graphical Interface

🔸 How to Set Up Maltego on Kali Linux

1- For the first step, we should check if Maltego is there or not, click on applications, and search “Maltego” to see if we already have it installed or not.

2- If you don’t have Maltego installed on your computer, open the Terminal and update the apt-get package by entering the command below.

sudo apt-get update

3- Next, open your favorite browser; we will use Firefox in this tutorial, next go to the Maltego official website and on the “Product” section, click on “Download Maltego”.

4- We will select Maltego for Linux and change the file type to “.deb,” then click on download.

5- Now open the terminal and go to the downloads directory by typing Downloads in the Terminal, then write the following command, remember to specify your Maltgo version.

sudo dpkg -i Maltego.v?.?.?.db

6- After installing Maltego, go to the applications, then search for Maltego; you will have Maltego installed on your device.

7- Click on the application, and you will see different Maltego versions; you can choose any of the provided versions, but in this article, we will install Maltego Community Edition for information gathering.

8- Click on download and accept the terms and conditions, then click on browser login to log in using the default browser.

9- Enter the registered login email and password, after logging in, finish the “Configure Maltego” tab by selecting the default system browser in the web browser options.

10- Set privacy type to normal, then click on finish, then in the Privacy and Policy tab, click on acknowledge, your Maltego installation will be done successfully.

Example:

On the left side, you will see different entry pallets, if you want to see the domain information,click on Domain on the left bar.

Then drag it to the main page and enter the website address you want to look up for its domain, after entering, click on it, and you will have different transforms, if you want to see DNS information of this domain, select the specific option you want.

You will be able to see the desired DNS information in the bottom window of the page, be patient because it can take some minutes.

🔸 Troubleshooting Common Issues

Login Problems

• • Check Internet Connection: Ensure that your internet connection is stable; a weak connection might cause you problems.
• • Correct Credentials: Make sure you are using the correct email and password to avoid any errors.
• • Update Maltego:  It is better to use the latest version of Maltego, because outdated versions might cause problems.

Graph Not Loading

• • Restart Maltego: Close the program and reopen it to reset the graph view.
• • Update Java: Ensure you have the correct version of Java installed on your system.
• • Run as Administrator: Try running Maltego with administrative rights to make sure you have the rights to load the graph.

License Key Issues

• • Re-enter License Key: Confirm whether you’re using the correct license key and make sure the license matches the version you’re trying to activate.
• • Internet Connection:  A stable internet connection is necessary for activating the license.

🔸 Tips & Best Practice

• • Save graphs frequently to help prevent data loss.
• • Use with VPN/Proxy for privacy and to keep your identity hidden.
• • Combine with other tools like Shodan, Censys, etc to help you have access to more detailed information.

🔸 Conclusion

In this article, we went through the steps of Setup Maltego on Kali Linux for Information Gathering, Maltego is exterimally useful tool for connecting pieces of information across the internet, when combined with Kali Linux, it becomes so powerful and helpful for cybersecurity professionals who are trying to uncover patterns, if you are interested about the technologie articles, check out our website.