2019-05-01_Linux_Format

MMMay 2019391a2Dist1Dsrowhg May 2019 LXF249 23

Linux distribution Reviews

ThisXubuntu

18.04-based

distrohasthe

rathergrandiose

aimtobe

secure,anti-

forensicand

anonymous,

andemploys

several

mechanismsto

thisend.Ituses

acustomised

Xfcedesktop

inordertobe

resource-

efficient,and

providesaccess

toawidevariety

ofsecurityand

privacytools

whilestillbeing

intuitive.

inbrief

VerDiCT

includingtheabilitytocreateanukepasswordtodestroy

yourinstallationincaseyouareforcedtologintoit

againstyourwill(damnmanagement–Ed)foranyreason.

InadditiontoTorandVPN,thedistroincludeswell-

knowncryptographicandprivacytoolstoencryptall

yourofflinefiles,emailsandinstantmessaging.There’s

anentiresuiteofprivacy-protectiontoolsincluding

VeraCrypt,zuluCrypt,KeePassXCandmore.Italso

includesFirejail,whichenablesyoutorunseveraldesktop

appsinsidesandboxedenvironments.Thedistrocaters

toallsortsofusersandincludesmanymainstreamopen

sourceappsforeverythingfromhandlingoffice

documentstoplayingallkindsofmedia.There’salso

theSynapticpackagemanagerforaddingapps.

Kodachimightappearinundatingtofirst-timers

becauseofitsverybusydesktop.Itswebsiteisn’t

completelybereftofdocumentation,butlackspointers

tohelpnewandinexperiencedusersgetstartedwiththe

distro.Onceyougetthehangofit,though,you’llbe

amazedatthelevelofprivacyitensuresstraightoutof

thebox,andtheamountofcustomisationitprovidesfor

advancedusers.

eighinginat2.4GB,Kodachi

isoneoftheheaviestXfce-

wieldingdistroswe’vecome

across.Butbootitupandyou’ll

realiseitschoiceofthelightweight

desktopismeanttokeepresources

freefortheotherintensivetasksthat

runinthebackground.

Forasmoothexperienceit’sbest

torunKodachionamulti-core

machinewithatleast4GBofRAM.

Whileyoucaninstallitviathe

cosmeticallymodifiedUbiquity

installer,it’sbesttorunthedistro

fromarewritablemediumsuchas

aUSBdisk.Thedistro’sbootmenu

listsanoptiontobootwitha

persistentpartition,butgettingitto

workrequiressomefiddlingaround.There’salsoan

optiontobootwithanencryptedpersistentpartition,but

thereleasenotescastashadowofdoubtonthe

functionality,andwecouldn’tgetittoworkeither.

ThedistrobootsintoaheavilymodifiedXfcedesktop

environmentthatdisplaystonsofusefulinformation

aboutthesystemdirectlyonthedesktopviaConky

applets,includingthestatusandIPaddressoftheVPN,

TorIP,CPUusage,memoryandtrafficdata.Wefoundit

wasbesttouseawiredconnectiontogetonlinewith

Kodachi.WiththeEthernetpluggedin,Kodachi

automaticallytakesthenecessarystepstoensureyour

accesstotheinternetiscompletelymasked.Ifyou

connectviaaWi-Fiadapteryou’llfirsthavetoconfigureit

toconnecttotheinternet,whichisn’tveryintuitive.

Kodachihasseveralmodelsforonlineanonymity.Go

throughtheappsinthedocktoaskKodachitorouteall

trafficthroughaVPN,andthenpassitthroughtheTor

network.Foraddedsecurityyoucanalsoaskittoencrypt

allDNSqueries,andevensetupaTor-rifiedsystemto

passallinternettrafficviatheTornetwork.Thedockalso

hostsacollectionoftoolstoeasilychangeidentifying

informationsuchastheTorexitcountry,aswellasto

resetyourDNSserversandmore,allwithasingleclick.

Thedistroincludesahandfulofbrowsers,suchasthe

Torbrowser,theKodachibrowserandavanillaFirefox.

UsingtheKodachibrowserisrecommended,butyoucan

makeuseoftheothersaswellaccordingtoyourpurpose

forbeingonline.Allbrowsersareequippedwithabouta

dozenprivacy-andsecurity-enhancingextensions.

Kodachiscoresyoursetupdependingonhowyou

haveconfiguredittorouteinternettraffic.Youcanfollow

therecommendationsoftheevaluationapptoincrease

thescoreandmakeyoursystemmoresecureinthe

process.Oneofthemostinterestingcollectionsinthe

dockis‘PanicRoom’,whichgivesaccesstosomeof

Kodachi’s unique privacy-enhancing techniques,

Linux Kodachi 6.0

Distros with grandiose claims don’t really impress Mayank Sharma,

but he’s in for a surprise with this one...

W

Perhapsthebestbetforprivacy-conscioususerswhowant

tocompletelymasktheironlinepresence.

feaTures 9/10

PerformanCe 8/10

easeofuse 5/10

DoCumenTaTion 6/10

Rating 7/10

DevelopeR:WarithAlMaawali

Web:www.digi77.com/linux-kodachi

licence: Apache v2.0

Kodachi is flexible enough to allow for modifications to the default security mechanisms

including the ability to switch to a different VPN provider.