After configuring the official Kali Linux image you can connect to the instance by using the kali user. After connecting, a password change through sudo passwd kali is possible if needed.

After connection a user may realize that the image is quite sparse. This is to allow for customization and reduced image size. To get the default Kali tool set we can utilize Kali’s metapackages. Alternatively, we can install specific tools as they are needed. The following command will utilize the kali-linux-headless metapackage and get us a nice and quick setup:

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y kali-linux-headless

If someone would like to use a GUI, they can do this through SSH forwarding. We have two options, the first is to use ssh -X to forward X11 and use GUI applications one at a time, or we can use RDP and forward the traffic over SSH. To set up RDP, we will run the RDP with Xfce script used for WSL. After this, we can tunnel with ssh -N -L 3390:127.0.0.1:3390 and connect using any remote desktop client to 127.0.0.1:3390.

Another common utility is to use GPUs for cracking. This can be done as well through the AWS instance, however we must be careful to install the NVIDIA packages after everything is up-to-date and the proper Linux headers are installed:

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt update
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y linux-headers-5.7.0-kali3-cloud-amd64
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ sudo reboot -f

Reconnect to the session.

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver nvidia-cuda-toolkit
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ sudo reboot -f

Reconnect again.

For more information on NVIDIA drivers, check here.