How to share files from your macOS host to Kali in VMware Fusion

Understanding the steps on mounting the file share from macOS to Kali

In this story, we will cover the steps required to enable the share and mount it to the Kali Linux machine running inside the VMware Fusion. I am running the following versions of the software (in case if something is incompatible).

VMware Fusion Professional Version: 12.2.3
macOS (Host machine): macOS Monterey version 12.3.1
Kali Linux: version 2022.1 (x86-64)

Step-1) Create a folder on your macOS (host machine). Let’s say the folder name is “sharing-with-kali” and the path is — ~/Documents/sharing-with-kali.

Create the Folder

Step-2) Shut down the live Kali Linux running inside the VMware Fusion.

Step-3) Turn the machine back ON. And Go to Virtual Machine >VMware Tools Installations.

VMware Tools Installation

I have noticed that with the latest version of Kali, you don’t need to modify any settings or install VMware tools. The first time when the machine turns ON it does install the open-vm-tools.

Step-4) Enable Shared Folders: Go to Settings > Sharing> Click on + to add the folder.

Step-5) If you check the File System> mnt folder, you still don’t see the shared folder from your host machine. So, go to terminal and type the following command to mount the share.

sudo mount -t fuse.vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/ -o allow_other