Deploy and Host Kali Linux on Railway

Kali Linux is the industry-standard penetration-testing distribution. This template gives you an always-on Kali (rolling) box in your browser: a password-protected web terminal with the most-used recon and web-testing tools already installed — nmap, sqlmap, nikto, whatweb, gobuster, ffuf, hydra, dnsutils, whois, netcat and the standard wordlists — plus Python 3, git and tmux. Perfect for CTFs, bug-bounty recon, security courses and lab work from any device.

About Hosting Kali Linux

The template deploys the official kalilinux/kali-rolling image. On boot it installs ttyd and the tool set (first deploy takes ~2–4 minutes), then serves a terminal on your Railway public domain protected by HTTP basic auth (USERNAME and a generated PASSWORD). /root is mounted on a Railway volume, so your scripts, wordlists, notes and shell history persist across restarts. Add any Kali metapackage or extra tools via EXTRA_PACKAGES (e.g. kali-tools-web or metasploit-framework) — they're installed on every boot. 1–2 GB RAM is plenty for recon tooling. Only test systems you are authorised to test; Railway's terms apply.

Common Use Cases

CTF and HackTheBox / TryHackMe practice without a local VM
Bug-bounty recon (subdomain, port, directory and tech-stack enumeration)
Teaching and security workshops — one URL per student
Quick vulnerability checks with sqlmap, nikto and hydra from a cloud IP

Dependencies for Kali Linux Hosting

Docker image kalilinux/kali-rolling (tools installed on boot via apt)
A Railway volume mounted at /root
USERNAME + PASSWORD for the web terminal (password is generated — copy it from Variables)

Implementation Details

nmap -sV -T4 target.example.com
gobuster dir -u https://target.example.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt
sqlmap -u "https://target.example.com/item?id=1" --batch

Install a full toolset with EXTRA_PACKAGES=kali-linux-headless (large; expect a longer boot). Use tmux to keep long scans running after closing the tab.

Why Deploy Kali Linux on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Kali Linux on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.