Changing Kali Linux Hostname

1. Change hostname permanently and make it sticky – with reboot
2. Change hostname permanently and make it sticky  – without rebooting
3. Change hostname randomly in each boot time.

Change hostname permanently – with reboot

As always, I’ve divided the options into multiple dot points.

Step 1: edit hostname file

Open hostname file from /etc directory and modify the name in there.

leafpad /etc/hostname

Let’s say we change the name from kali to aiur

Save the file.

Step 2: edit hosts file

Open hosts file from /etc directory and modify the name in there.

leafpad /etc/hosts

Change kali to aiur.

Save the file.

Step 3: reboot

Now reboot to reflect your changes

reboot

And you should see the new hostname coming up in terminal (i.e. root@aiur)

Change hostname permanently – without reboot

Don’t want to reboot?  Here’s how

Follow step 1 and 2 from above

i.e.

1. Update /etc/hostname
2. Update /etc/hosts, so local address (es) resolves with the new system name.

Reload configuration files

Type in following 3 commands one at a time.

service hostname.sh start
service networking force-reload
service network-manager force-reload

Now force-reload networking service.

This will temporarily disconnect your system from the network (ssh usually resists short disconnection)
This might definitively disconnect your system from the network because networking might not restore connections; please reboot, which is not lazy, but ensures that your setup is really correct


So we need to reload network-manager service as well.

This should reconnect networking again.

Depending on what other services you’re running, i.e. avahi, metasploit, postgresql, cups, openSSH server, ssmtp etc. you might have to restart them all.
Now you must close your existing terminals to have the new hostname coming up at the top. See following screenshot with highlighting.
First screenshot is after re-loading all the required services. Note that it’s still showing root@kali in the top. uname -a or hostname shows correct info though.

If I close this terminal and open a new one, root@kali becomes root@aiur which is what we want.

Change hostname randomly in each boot time

Following procedure will allow you to change your hostname randomly in each boot. That hostname will stick until you reboot again.

Create a bash script

Create a script which will automate the procedure
In this terminal create a file.

touch newhostname
leafpad newhostname

Now, add the following lines to your newly created file:

#!/bin/bash
cp -n /etc/hosts{,.old}
idomainname=$(domainname -i)
fdomainname=$(domainname -f)
newhn=$(cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'A-Z' | head -c8)
echo $newhn > /etc/hostname
mv /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.old
echo "127.0.0.1 localhost" > /etc/hosts
echo "$idomainname  $fdomainname    $newhn" >> /etc/hosts
echo "# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts" >> /etc/hosts
echo "::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback" >> /etc/hosts
echo "ff02::1 ip6-allnodes" >> /etc/hosts
echo "ff02::2 ip6-allrouters" >> /etc/hosts
service hostname.sh stop
sleep 1
service hostname.sh start
service networking stop
sleep 1
service networking start
service network-manager stop
sleep 1
service network-manager start
xhost +$newhn
exit

Save it and exit leafpad.
Note: I’ve used only CAPS here for new hostname, 'A-Z'. You can also choose a mixure of uppercase and lowercase ('A-Za-z') or numbers etc.
Also I’ve chosen 8 characters long hostname head -c8, you can change it to any length you like.

Move script to /usr/bin/ folder

We need to move this file to /usr/bin.

mv newhostname /usr/bin/newhostname

Make it executable

Use the following command to make newhostname file executable.

chmod +x /usr/bin/newhostname

Make it run at Startup:

Now that we have the script in right place and it’s executable, we need to add it your Startup applications. This will allow your system to run it every time you reboot your machine and generate a new hostname for you.
Follow the steps below:

1. Click on “Applications” –> “System Tools” –> “Preferences” –> “Startup Applications”
2. Click “Add”
3. Fill in:
   1. Name: Random Host Name
   2. Command: /usr/bin/newhostname
   3. Comment: Start Kali with a random hostname each boot
4. Click Save
5. Close Windows

Reboot

Finally reboot your machine to load the script at start-up.

reboot

Enjoy your new hostnames. Here’s mine

Credits and sources:

Similar procedures were posted in different places:

1. Telecomix Wiki
2. Ubuntu Forums by rocksockdoc
3. Kali forums by testingresults, ,
4. Notesbit by Jiltin

Copied for future reference from https://www.blackmoreops.com/2013/12/12/change-hostname-kali-linux/.