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I mean that I don't want to dual boot kali along with Windows, so due to curiousity, almost everyday, I simply boot into live mode.But I am worried about that booting my laptop almost everyday from a usb flash drive doesn't affect my system in any way?

PS: It may seem off-topic, but please answer because I googled it but couldn't find anything..

daya
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  • I'm not sure that I understand the question or the relation to information security. Why do you think that it might do harm to boot from USB every day (as opposed to every other day? )? – tim Nov 12 '17 at 16:45
  • @tim i know that it is off-topic,but I am asking this question because In a normal scenario,anybody install a os one day and use it until it's failure but what I am doing is booting everyday so it will never do harm my existing Windows installation?please guide me.I couldn't ask it on Superuser since I am blocked from that site. – daya Nov 12 '17 at 16:57
  • @SmokeDispenser True, but is that really the question? I guess an answer here might be "Yes, it's insecure, because the kali system will be unpatched, thus can possibly be taken over, and if your windows partition isn't encrypted that can then also be taken over". As-is, the question is very unclear to me (what is OP doing with kali? Using it for everyday tasks? Sensitive tasks? pentests? Is the windows partition encrypted? etc.), but you may be right, so I'm not voting to close for now. – tim Nov 12 '17 at 17:03
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because OP stated that this has only been posted here because Superuser has OP banned and the on-topic interpretation seems to be not the question OP is trying to ask. – Tobi Nary Nov 12 '17 at 17:11

1 Answers1

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Whether booting from a USB thumb drive might hurt your system is off topic here - (and no).

You should not use Kali as your day to day operating system. That is not what is meant to be. From a security standpoint, it is a horrible idea to use Kali (which on the live version has only a root user and outdated software that has no security fixes applied unless you are willing to update before every use). Such a machine in day to day use can be used as a pivot point into your network and/or your windows on the same machine.

For a further reference on this, see this answer on unix.SE and read literally the first chapter of the documentation, especially

The fact of the matter is, however, that Kali is a Linux distribution specifically geared towards professional penetration testers and security specialists, and given its unique nature, it is NOT a recommended distribution if you’re unfamiliar with Linux or are looking for a general-purpose Linux desktop distribution[.]

As well as

If you are unfamiliar with Linux generally, if you do not have at least a basic level of competence in administering a system, if you are looking for a Linux distribution to use as a learning tool to get to know your way around Linux, or if you want a distro that you can use as a general purpose desktop installation, Kali Linux is probably not what you are looking for.

In addition, misuse of security and penetration testing tools within a network, particularly without specific authorization, may cause irreparable damage and result in significant consequences, personal and/or legal. “Not understanding what you were doing” is not going to work as an excuse.

To mitigate the problem of dual boot, use virtual machines. And while you’re only training, you can manage virtual networks with vulnerabilities (cf. „boot2root) with that as well.

Tobi Nary
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