The Complete Guide to Resetting Root Password in Kali Linux

Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. Kali contains a number of security-related applications, such as cracking tools and vulnerability assessment tools. In order to login, you will need to change the password if it was changed from the default password.

This tutorial will show you how to enable root log-in or reset root password in Kali Linux with step-by-step instructions.

Kali Linux Default Root Password

Every Linux distribution has a default account called root that has the appropriate permissions to perform any level of actions, including user account management.

In previous Kali Linux live images, the Kali Linux default root password was toor and in Kali Linux 2020.x, the default password for the kali user is kali.

Here is a list of the default Kali Linux root password.

Default Username	Default Password
kali	kali
root	toor

In the latest versions of Kali, root login is disabled, forcing you to login to the GUI as your normal user account. We will enable root login with the below method.

Enable root login and set Kali root password

In earlier versions of Kali Linux the root account was set by default now you need to set the root password manually.

Open a terminal and follow the steps below to enable root login in your GUI.

Step 1:

 sudo apt update

Step 2: Install the kali-root-login package with apt command

 sudo apt install kali-root-login

Step3: you need to set the root password with the passwd command. To run the sudo command you can use your normal account password .

 sudo passwd

Once executed, your new root password has been set to your desired paraphrase.

Change Kali Linux Default root password

The steps below will help you change the password on Kali Linux:

Step 1: Open up a terminal.

Step 2: Type “sudo passwd” or “sudo passwd root” without quotes and hit enter on your keyboard.

Step 3: You’ll be prompted to enter your old password and the new one twice each – make sure you type them in correctly!

Step 4: Now you can login as a root with new password.