Kali Linux

It was developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of Offensive Security through the rewrite of BackTrack, their previous information security testing Linux distribution based on Knoppix. Originally, it was designed with a focus on kernel auditing, from which it got its name Kernel Auditing Linux. The name is sometimes incorrectly assumed to come from Kali the Hindu goddess.[8][9] The third core developer, Raphaël Hertzog, joined them as a Debian expert.[10][11]

Kali Linux is based on the Debian Testing branch. Most packages Kali uses are imported from the Debian repositories.[12]