Guide: Installing Go on Kali Linux 2024.4

After a bit of troubleshooting, we figured we would share these steps to quickly get Go up and running properly on a fresh Kali 2024.4 VMWare installation.

Here's a quick way to configure it so that Go-based tools are part of your PATH, making tool chains work with less hassle:

✅ In Firefox, navigate to: https://go.dev/dl/

✅ Under Featured Downloads, use the Linux link (currently go1.23.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz)

✅ Open a console and navigate to your Downloads folder:

✅ Enter the following command:

rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.23.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

Don’t add the path per the Go install instructions. Kali is using zsh! This is what worked for us instead:

✅ Enter the following command:

sudo mousepad ~/.profile

✅ Add this text to the very bottom of the file:

# set PATH so it includes user's go bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/go/bin" ] ; then
   PATH="$HOME/go/bin:$PATH"
fi

✅ Save and quit mousepad

✅ Reboot

✅ Enjoy! 🤠

Stefan Dorn