Kali Linux comes with Autopsy 2.24 pre-installed, but if you want the latest version, you have to install it yourself. It turned out to be a bit of a hassle, so I’m writing down the steps I took for future reference. Maybe you’ll find it useful too.
I also tried a Docker image but Autopsy wasn’t able to start.
In this guide I’m working with Kali 2025.3 and Autopsy 4.22.1.
Step 1: Update apt sources
Kali had removed Java 17 from their repos back in May 2025, so you need to add the Debian Bullseye repo to your apt sources.
echo "deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt updateStep 2: Install dependencies
Here you can just use Sleuth Kit’s dependency installation script from their instructions.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/refs/heads/develop/linux_macos_install_scripts/install_prereqs_ubuntu.sh | bash
sudo apt --fix-broken install --yesStep 3: Install Sleuth Kit
curl -OL https://github.com/sleuthkit/sleuthkit/releases/download/sleuthkit-4.14.0/sleuthkit-java_4.14.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i sleuthkit-java_4.14.0-1_amd64.debStep 4: Install Autopsy
As of writing, the latest version of Autopsy is 4.23.0, which requires Sleuth Kit 4.15.0. However, the latest version of Sleuth Kit available as a deb package is 4.14.0, so you have to install Autopsy 4.22.1 instead.
curl -OL https://github.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/releases/download/autopsy-4.22.1/autopsy-4.22.1_v2.zip
curl -OL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/refs/heads/develop/linux_macos_install_scripts/install_application.sh
chmod +x install_application.sh
./install_application.sh -z autopsy-4.22.1_v2.zip -i ~/autopsy -j /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.17.0-openjdk-amd64The last argument should match the Java path that was printed in step 2.
Step 5: Run it
Now you should be able to start Autopsy. Just make sure you gave your Kali VM at least 4 GB of RAM.
~/autopsy/autopsy-4.22.1/bin/autopsy