Installing NetHunter Rootless — Complete Setup Guide

NetHunter Rootless turns any Android phone into a pocket Kali Linux machine — no root required

Kali NetHunter is Offensive Security's mobile penetration testing platform. The Rootless edition runs entirely inside Termux on any unmodified Android device — no root, no custom recovery, no unlocked bootloader required.

Download Termux from GitHub Releases or F-Droid — both are the official, actively maintained sources

NetHunter Rootless runs inside Termux. You need to install Termux first. There are three places to get it — pick one and stick with it. Do not mix APKs from different sources — each source signs with a different key and mixing them will break updates.

Open Termux after installing it. Before doing anything else, update the package manager and all base packages. This ensures the installer has access to the latest dependencies.

$ pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

If prompted to replace any config files, press N to keep the existing version. The upgrade may take a few minutes depending on your connection.

The NetHunter installer needs a few tools to download, extract, and set up the Kali chroot environment. Install them now.

$ pkg install wget curl proot tar -y

With dependencies in place, download the official NetHunter installer, make it executable, and run it. The installer will pull down the Kali rootfs — this can take several minutes depending on your internet speed.

Step 1 — Download the installer:

$ wget -O install-nethunter-termux https://offs.ec/2MceZWr

Step 2 — Make it executable:

$ chmod +x install-nethunter-termux

Step 3 — Run the installer:

$ ./install-nethunter-termux
  _  __     _ _   _   _             _
 | |/ /__ _| (_) | \ | | ___| |_ | |__  _   _ _ __  | |_ ___ _ __
 | ' // _` | | | |  \| |/ _ \ __|| '_ \| | | | '_ \ | __/ _ \ '__|
 | . \ (_| | | | | |\  |  __/ |_ | | | | |_| | | | || ||  __/ |
 |_|\_\__,_|_|_| |_| \_|\___|\__||_| |_|\__,_|_| |_| \__\___|_|

[*] Checking architecture …
[*] Downloading Kali NetHunter rootfs …

Once the installer finishes you're ready to launch. Two commands work — try the short one first.

$ nh
┌──(kali㉿nethunter)-[~]
└─# _

If nh doesn't work, use the full command:

$ nethunter

You'll drop into a Kali shell prompt. From here you have access to the full Kali toolset. Update Kali's own packages on first launch:

┌──(kali㉿nethunter)-[~]
└─# apt update && apt upgrade -y

Common issues and how to fix them.