## How do you check for an update?

The answer is straightforward `sudo apt update`. It’s the default used in the Debian documentation (technically apt is different from apt-get and aptitude but the method is similar):

[https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/uptodate.en.html](https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/uptodate.en.html)

## So, how does it work ?
The user must open a terminal, type "sudo apt update", press enter, enter the user password then press enter again.
In the previous versions of Parrot, we had an “update reminder” that launches `sudo apt update` from the menu, so the user just needed to click and type the password.

![1](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/1.png)

We are going to the point where “apt update” runs:

1. The tool parses the repository addresses from “source lists” (we’ll go into more depth later)
2. “apt” connects to the repository and downloads index files (screenshot below)

![2](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/2.png)

The downloaded data from the central repository is quite large (18.9 MB). For Debian, it should be more than 12MB. If you have a low-speed internet connection or limited bandwidth, this is not a nice thing.

It can also add repositories for other architectures (i386 for example), which cause more files to be downloaded, even going so far as to download over 30 MB. The more repositories you have, and the more architecture you have, the more data you have to spend. 30 MB is not very nice, huh?

Luckily, if you downloaded the latest index files, you don’t have to download them again.

![3](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/3.png)

So why and how? (We’ll into this later. For now, I would like to point out some problems :)

1. The downloaded data is too big if you just want to know about available updates
2. It’s slow (well, not really, but can we make it faster?)
3. sudo password everytime. Can we just check for updates without it but at the same time not compromise security policies?

## APT and repository address behind the scene

[https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository/Format#Overview](https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository/Format#Overview)

![4](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/4.png)

From reading the documentation and screenshot above, it’s a little hard to understand. So let’s try with Parrot’s repository.

![5](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/5.png)

Let’s try with URL, I’m using [https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot](https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot)

![6](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/6.png)

Where is the value “parrot” as “distribution”? Isn’t it a URL mapping? Well… yes, it’s in dist.
![7](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/7.png)

Now you can see “parrot”. But hold on, let me show you the “pool” first:

What’s in “pool”? Only branches. What does it contain? It has everything about a package:
compiled deb files, source code, etc.

![8](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/8.png)

![9](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/9.png)

Looks like “pool” is the most important thing on the repository. But why is there a “dists”?

Inside “dist” of distribution “parrot” (we’d like to call it a branch instead of distribution), there are component folders and 3 files:

1. InRelease
2. Release
3. Release.gpg, which should be the GPG key

![10](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/10.png)

Let's see what it contains. First with *Release*:

![11](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/11.png)

And then *InRelease*:

![12](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/12.png)

These 2 files look similar. The difference is as follows. *InRelease* also contains a GPG key-value, whereas *Release* has only regular metadata. So why do we have to read all of this? Either Release or InRelease has section Date.

![13](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/13.png)

By assuming all files are generated every time the repository has a new update, we can use it to do checks for update.

Let’s check the components in "dists". We have architectures, and in each architecture directory, we have files that look like this:

![14](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/14.png)

The file Release doesn’t have much info.

![15](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/15.png)

Meanwhile, Packages contain everything about packages. It’s like you are using `apt show`:

![16](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/16.png)

What are these used for?

1. Folder pool contains packages (compiled .deb, source code, debianize, etc).
2. Folder "dists" contains metadata of packages.
3. Release and InRelease contains core information: release date, architecture, etc. and a checksum of all Package files.
4. All Package files in components contain information of packages: name,version, depends, etc. Basically it’s a database of `apt show`.

We need a method to use either Release or InRelease, which costs only 14KB to check for a new update.

## A hidden apt spot in your system and the way to use it

Now we know Packages files are basically a “database” of apt. So where is it in the system?

It’s at `/var/lib/apt/lists/`.

![17](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/17.png)

Again, we have to reuse the source list:

![18](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/18.png)

File names in this directory are like this (notice that <address> is converted to <domain>_<path>)<address>_<dists>_<distribution>_
In the screenshot, we can see many things:

- InRelease: The metadata file.
- The _Packages, which is the actual database, contains components in the name. By the keyword binary, we can assume it’s about compiled packages (.deb file), and we have source for “apt source” which should have a different name.
- Each repository and each branch has a different InRelease file.

Now we can fully understand the workflow of `sudo apt update`.

1. Read the source list, parse addresses.
2. Convert address to actual repository address, download InRelease (which contains a GPG key), and then all Packages files (which are much larger than only InRelease).
3. Convert the actual URL to file name, save in `/var/lib/apt/lists/`.
4. DO NOT download everything if the local file is the latest. I haven’t checked the source code of apt, but I assume it’s sort of checking “Date” in the InRelease file. Well, it’s easy and simple to understand.

So we are having everything we need. So, the scope of the update-reminder is:

1. Only check if a new update is available. We do not compare packages to know what can be upgraded, what will be removed, etc…
2. Save A LOT of network data (about 14KB for a branch/distribution, seriously?).
3. Save A LOT of time by very small data to download (About 70 KB).
4. In the update-reminder, I do parse the section Date and compare date, which should make the code do less comparison.

![19](/assets/blog/a_hidden_gem/19.png)

A hidden gem from a technical POV


We are proud to announce the release of Parrot OS 5.0.
This new version represents a huge milestone for the project, and introduces several changes and new products to meet the always changing needs of cyber security specialists.

# What’s New with Parrot 5.0

Parrot’s main focus on the latest release was on making the system extremely stable and flexible.
The system now follows a Long Term Support release model, but provides the latest version of all its tools via extensive backporting, and is never out of date.
Parrot 5.0 was designed with cloud and customizability in mind, and provides several container options to leverage powerful orchestration tools during complex pentest scenarios.
The Parrot offering has been simplified, and a new architect edition has been introduced to allow maximum customizability of the system.


## Parrot Versions

Parrot 5.0 keeps the former Home and Security editions, and introduces a new special HTB edition inspired by the popular PwnBox by HackTheBox.
The KDE and XFCE alternatives are no longer available, and are replaced by the Architect edition, which supports also x86 32bit and ARMv8 64bit.
A first experimental Raspberry pi edition is released, and will be followed by further enhancements and more boards support during the year.
Further options are available for containers, chroots and embedded environments.



### Parrot Home Edition

Parrot Home Edition is a general purpose operating system with the typical Parrot look and feel. It is designed for **developers and everyday users** with an emphasis on privacy and software development. Parrot Tools can be manually installed to assemble a custom and lightweight pentesting environment.

Parrot 5.0 enhances the pre-installed development tools, making it the perfect system for software developers and students. Vscodium, the open source binary release of the popular VSCode advanced editor, is shipped by default along with all the compilers and interpreters to work with **gcc, go, java, nodejs or python**, with several other options available through the official software repository.


### Parrot Security Edition

Parrot Security Edition is a special purpose operating system designed for **Penetration Test and Red Team operations**. It contains a full arsenal of ready to use pentest tools.

Parrot 5.0 ships with the latest version of the best selection of security tools, while others are available through the official software repository.
Many new tools were included since the last release, following our attempt to **fill the gap between emerging technologies and the tools to test their security.**


### Parrot Architect, IoT and Cloud

One of the main goals of Parrot 5.0 is to make the Parrot system available on as many platforms as possible. **ARM support is finally back**, and the new LTS release model makes parrot the perfect framework to build advanced security products on top of.

Parrot 5.0 offers **4 IoT tarballs**, each for every architecture supported by parrot (amd64, i386, arm64 and armhf). They can be used to build new products, like **WSL and WSL2** containers, **Android** chroot containers, or using the system with popular cloud providers.

The **Architect Edition** is a minimal iso file of Parrot that provides the installer only. It is available for x86 and arm, and can be used to customize the system installation, like picking a different desktop environment, doing a minimal installation or installing a custom set of tools at install time. It needs an internet connection or a local mirror to install a full desktop system, but it is capable of doing a core installation of the system completely offline.
It can be used to install **Parrot on a server**, to configure a custom set of packages or to install the system on a **Mac M1 ARM computer** inside a native virtual machine without intel translation, which boosts the VM performance significantly.

In addition to this, **Parrot for Docker** enables users to take advantage of the Parrot tools on top of other operating systems or in cloud environments. The Docker offering is especially useful when integrating security checks in a CI pipeline, or when running pentest operations with the help of advanced cloud tools like kubernetes. An emerging trend is also to use these Docker containers to **use the Parrot tools on top of other operating systems**, like Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora or Mac OS, without the performance disadvantage of a full virtual machine.

Also, in cooperation with **Hack The Box**, Parrot created **PwnBox** a way to use Parrot OS directly in your browser while studying or playing on the Hack The Box platform. And with Parrot 5.0, a custom edition of Parrot with the PwnBox look and feel is available for download too.





## Features

### LTS and Backports

Parrot 5.0 introduces a new **Long Term Support** release model. All the packages composing the core system are now tracking the latest **Debian Stable** instead of Debian Testing, and will guarantee no significant changes for at least 2 years. This approach makes Parrot more reliable, and system updates will no longer break the system as it happens with other Rolling Release systems.

**Our approach to the LTS release model differs from the one adopted by Debian**. We recognize that no major feature updates and feature deprecations should occur during the lifecycle of the system, but there are some programs that don't follow our same release cycle: many programs, especially desktop ones, don't have a release every 2 years, like Debian does, and when new versions are out, older ones are deprecated and left with no support and security updates. Other times a new software gets a major release just after a new Debian version, and users are forced to stay on the previous version for the next 2 years.
For this reason we have decided to **maintain a special backport channel** where not only the debian backports are replicated, but where we work to expand the offering of backported software as much as possible. Users using Parrot will have immediate access to the latest version of most of the programs they use daily. Along with that, users will be able to choose whether to install the backported version or stay with the older and more stable one.
The team has also decided to **keep a Rolling Release model for all the security tools**, which will continue to receive rolling updates as soon as they are out.

Last, but not least, the new LTS approach brings **extremely fast security updates**. This makes Parrot 5.0 and future versions, the perfect system for critical environments, like servers, where security is important.

### Linux 5.16 and enhanced hardware support

Parrot 5.0 features the latest Linux 5.16 kernel version, which offers the best performance and hardware compatibility.
In addition to that, it also offers an extensive collection of pre-installed drivers to make the system compatible with most of the hardware, including most of the wifi dongles, making Parrot the most hardware friendly GNU/Linux distro available.

## Tools

We have added a plethora of new tools to reveal the full potential of our users and guarantee an immersive experience. 

You can find them below: 

**Pocsuite3**

pocsuite3 is an open-source remote vulnerability testing and proof-of-concept development framework developed by the Knownsec 404 Team. It comes with a powerful proof-of-concept engine, many nice features for the ultimate penetration testers and security researchers.

**Ivy-optiv**

Ivy is a payload creation framework for the execution of arbitrary VBA (macro) source code in memory. Ivy’s loader does this by abusing programmatical access in the VBA object environment to load, decrypt, and execute shellcode. 
Jwtxploiter 
A tool to test security of JSON Web Tokens. Jwtxploiter gives the ability to test a JWT against all known CVEs.

**Python3-pcodedmp**

Pcodedmp is a very powerful VBA P-Code disassembler that can be used to inspect and work with VBA documents.

**Mimipenguin**

Mimipenguin is a free and open source, simple yet powerful Shell/Python script used to dump the login credentials (usernames and passwords) from the current desktop user.

**Ffuf**

ffuf is a fest web fuzzer written in Go that allows typical directory discovery, virtual host discovery (without DNS records) and GET and POST parameter fuzzing.

**Oletools**

oletools is a package of python tools to analyze Microsoft OLE2 files (also called Structured Storage, Compound File Binary Format or Compound Document File Format), such as Microsoft Office documents or Outlook messages, mainly for malware analysis, forensics and debugging. It is based on the olefile parser.

**findmyhash 2.0**

findmyhash.py tries to crack different types of hashes using free online services.

**Dirsearch**

An advanced command-line tool designed to brute force directories and files in webservers, AKA web path scanner.

**Pyinstxtractor**

PyInstaller Extractor is a Python script to extract the contents of a PyInstaller generated Windows executable file. The contents of the pyz file (usually pyc files) present inside the executable are also extracted.


and several new tools are available in our repository ready to be explored.



# Where to get it

You can download Parrot OS from our [official download page](https://www.parrotsec.org/download), and we invite you to never trust third party and unofficial sources, as they may be counterfeit and pre-packed with malware.

We also provide official torrent files that can bypass most of the firewalls by leveraging https trackers and using the parrot mirrors as webseeds.

# How to upgrade from a previous version

**We strongly recommend to download the latest version and perform a fresh install**. It makes the system cleaner and more reliable.

The system is capable of updating every single program provided by the Parrot repository, but the desktop configuration stored in the user home folder can't be altered by system updates (and for a good reason), hence updating the system would not update the latest user settings.

**You can still perform a full system upgrade** from 4.11 to 5.x by running the following command
```
sudo parrot-upgrade
```
Then reboot the system and perform the upgrade again once over.

the first upgrade will prepare the system and install the new repositories, and the second upgrade would perform the complete version jump, with the only exception of the user configs stored in the home folder.




We are proud to announce the release of Parrot OS 5.0.

Parrot 5.0 Press Release


We are proud to announce the release of Parrot OS 4.11.
This new version includes many important updates to make the distribution more reliable and more secure.

# Where to get it

You can download Parrot OS from our [official download page](https://parrotsec.org/download), and we invite you to never trust third party and unofficial sources.

We also provide official torrent files in case direct downloads don't work for you.

# How to upgrade from a previous version

Parrot OS is a rolling release distribution, and updates flow in the repo as soon as they prove to be stable and reliable.

Version numbers (like 4.10 or 4.11) are just tags that we assign to the current state of the project every time we think there are enough updates accumulated in the repo to justify a refresh of the ISO files. In fact every Parrot version represents exactly a refresh of our ISO files to collect all the updates together into something ready to install and properly tested.

You can upgrade an existing system via APT using one of the following commands:

`sudo parrot-upgrade`

or

`sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`

but we recommend to do a backup and re-install the latest version to have a cleaner and more reliable user experience, especially if you come from a very old version of parrot that were not updated for a long while.e

# What's new

## Debian freezing and LTS plans

Debian is in “feature freeze” state to prepare for the new stable release.
Parrot 4.11 will benefit from this, and all the updates from now on will be subject to more tests.

We will catch the opportunity of a new Debian release to convert the current branch into a Long Term Support branch with fewer updates for a very reliable user experience.
The Long Term Support conversion plan will also re-introduce ARM support and init freedom.

We are evaluating the idea of continuing to provide a Rolling Release branch along side the LTS one.

## Important updates

Linux 5.10 is the default kernel of this new Parrot version, with better hardware support for very recent hardware.
We plan to release Linux 5.11 as soon as possible as a later update.

We have finally purged many old, broken and unmaintained tools, and revisited many of the existing ones. Our tool metapackages were revisited as well to reflect this little revolution.
Parrot 4.11 provides cleaner metapackages, updated tools and a more consistent repository.

Previous Parrot versions used to have un-needed services shut down by default, but such services happened to re-enable randomly after system updates. We have enforced some systemd rules to prevent this happening.

Certain tools used for Linux local privilege escalation represented a security hazard for parrot, so we have disabled and unarmed them (i.e. xspy is no longer an executable file in /usr/bin).


## Alternate Editions

Kde Plasma now works again as expected, and it was updated to provide a better look and feel.

XFCE has been updated with several improvements and fixes.

## Noticeable updates for pentesters

Metasploit framework was updated to 6.0.36, and we keep updating it weekly.

Bettercap has finally been updated to 2.29, and 2.30 is coming very soon.

Pompem was patched from Parrot team to properly handle down services and use the new wpvulndb server.

Routersploit was updated to make it work with python 3.9.

Xspy was patched to not be executable on host system.

Fish and Zsh support is now available in our skel, including the latest zsh-autocomplete version.


We can't report all the updates done to our tools here. If you are interested in a particular package, please read its specific changelog in /usr/share/doc/packagename to know more.


## Noticeable updates for developers

VSCodium, the open-source binary distribution of VSCode with telemetry removed at source level, is still our default development tool, and it was updated to its latest version (1.54). Geany (with some Parrot customizations) is also pre-installed for those running on less powerful hardware.

Parrot now ships with Python 3.9. Python 2 is finally deprecated, and /usr/bin/python now points to /usr/bin/python3 by default.

Parrot also includes Go 1.15, and Go 1.16 will come very soon.

The default Gcc version is  10.2.1.

Open a terminal window, type sudo apt show parrot-devel- and press TAB a couple of times to get the list of available packages from the bash autocompletion.

Complete the command with the package of your choice to know more about the features delivered (i.e. apt show parrot-devel-golang).

Additional metapackages for developers will come soon.



## Other updates from upstream providers

As always, this version ships with all the latest updates from our upstream sources (mostly Debian), and every new fix, improvement (or bug) is now included in Parrot 4.11 as well.

From the firefox browser to the mate desktop environment, all the awesome upates and security fixes from upstream sources since the previous release are now part of the Parrot repository and hence part of this new release.






Happy hacking


Parrot 4.11 is now available for download, read the release notes

Parrot 4.11 Release Notes


We are proud to announce the release of Parrot OS 4.10.
This new version includes many important updates to make the distribution more reliable and more secure.

# Where to get it

You can download Parrot OS from our [official download page](https://parrotsec.org/download), and we invite you to never trust third party and unofficial sources.

We also provide official torrent files and ready to use OVA images for virtual machines.

# How to upgrade from a previous version

Parrot OS is a rolling release distribution, and updates flow in the repo as soon as they prove to be stable and reliable.

Version numbers (like 4.8 or 4.9) are just tags we assign to the current state of the project every time we think there are enough updates accumulated in the repo to need a refresh of the ISO file. In fact every Parrot version represents exactly a refresh of our ISO files to collect all the accumulated pieces together into something tested and reliable.

You can upgrade an existing system via APT using one of the following commands:

`sudo parrot-upgrade`

or

`sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`

# What's new

## AnonSurf 3.0

AnonSurf 3.0 is ready, and it ha many important features.

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/anonsurf-3.0.jpg)

It is now subdivided into 3 modules: GUI, Daemon and Utilities.

The GUI is written in [NIM](https://nim-lang.org), a blazing fast programming language very easy to write and read that compiles in native C code.
It uses [Gintro GTK](https://nest.parrotsec.org/packages/debian/gintro) for the interface and it has several features to let the user control the anonsurf behavior.

You can start, stop and reload anonsurf, you can easily configure anonsurf to automatically start at boot, and it is easy to monitor the status of tor and see the traffic, the logs and some usage statistics thanks to its integration with [NYX](https://nyx.torproject.org/).

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/anonsurf-screenshot.jpg)

The new AnonSurf Daemon takes care of shutting down the service automatically at shutdown in case the user powered off the computer with anonsurf enabled, which was a known cause of later connectivity issues in previous versions, and of corurse allows the user to tell the init system to automatically start anonsurf at boot for those who need it.

Anonsurf also ships with some utilities, like a CLI interface: the old famous anonsurf command, which is now an interface for the daemon instead of a standalone tool.

We also delivered (and updated) dnstool, a software to easily control the behavior of DNS resolution across the system, that allows the user to choose between static and dynamic configurations and to use the servers provided by dhcp, the servers of choice of the user or the servers of the [OpenNIC project](https://www.opennic.org).

AnonSurf is overall more reliable and more stable, and it is an important step forward for the whole project since we deeply believe in privacy and the role it covers in the fight for freedom.

## Linux 5.7

Parrot OS now comes with Linux 5.7.

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/linux-5.7.jpg)

Few important changes of this new kernel version:

* Improved scheduler.
* new ExFAT filesystem module.
* Spli Lock detection.
* userfaultfd() write protection support.
* A BPF-based Linux Security Module called bpf-lsm.
* Allow clone3() to spawn processes into cgroups.
* Improved perf cgroup profiling.
* Improved btrfs filesystem support.

Read [This changelog](https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_5.7) for more detailed information.

## Metasploit 6.0

The development of Metasploit 6 has finally started, and it ships a lot of awesome features that were missing from the previous versions.

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/metasploit.jpg)

It is important to know that this version will break retro-compatibility with previous versions, so it is important for our users to understand what has changed in this version.

One of the most wanted features is finally here: **end-to-end encryption** in **meterpreter backdoors**, which of course breaks retro-compatibility with older meterpreter payloads.

Other awesome news include the implementation of SMBv3 client support, imprved evasive capabilities via polimorphic payload generation routines.

if you want to read more about Metasploit 6, please read [This article](https://blog.rapid7.com/2020/08/06/metasploit-6-now-under-active-development/).

## Parrot XFCE Edition

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/xfce.jpg)

We now officially support the XFCE Desktop Environment. We will improve it in later months using the feedback from our users, and we want to provide it as a valid alternative to MATE and KDE.

you can download the XFCE image from here [https://download.parrot.sh/parrot/iso/4.10](https://download.parrot.sh/parrot/iso/4.10)

## Greenbone Vulnerability Manager 11.

Parrot 4.10 now includes the Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM) 11 framework which was formerly known as OpenVAS.
The GVM package now follows the new Debian packaging style.

[Read the Greenbone 11 changelog](https://community.greenbone.net/t/gvm-11-release/3676)

## KDE Konsole bug

There was a bug in KDE that prevented console tools to be launched from the menu. This bug was finally fxed upstream in the KDE repos, but debian has not yet delivered the updated version, so Parrot 4.10 is still affected by that.

![](../..//assets/blog/4.10/kde-bug.jpg)

A special page will alert people trying to download the KDE edition and explain the issue, and updated images will be released as soon as the fix is included in Debian.

The system is still usable and the affected tools can still be launched from the console, and it will be automatically fixed with later system updates.

## Noticeable updates for developers

VSCodium, the open-source binary distribution of VSCode with telemetry removed at source level, is still our default development tool, and it was updated to its latest version (1.47.3). Geany (with some Parrot customizations) is also pre-installed for those running on less powerful hardware.

Parrot now ships with Python 3.8, go 1.14 and gcc 10.1 and 9.3 by default, and we have improved our development metapackages by adding nim support.

Open a terminal window, type sudo apt show parrot-devel- and press TAB a couple of times to get the list of available packages from the bash autocompletion.

Complete the command with the package of your choice to know more about the features delivered (i.e. apt show parrot-devel-golang).

Additional metapackages for developers will come soon.



## Other updates from upstream providers

As always this version ships with all the latest updates from our upstream sources (mostly Debian), so every new fix, improvement (or bug) is now included in Parrot 4.10 as well.

From the firefox browser to the mate desktop environment, all the awesome upates and security fixes from upstream sources since the previous release are now part of the Parrot repository and hence part of this new release.


# Follow the stream


You can follow our development progress [here](https://nest.parrotsec.org/org/parrot/-/blob/master/README.md).






Happy hacking


Parrot 4.10 is now available for download, read the release notes

Parrot 4.10 Release Notes


After one year, we are proud to announce our partnership with HackTheBox, and our joint mission to innovate the cyber security industry.

Back in early 2019 we got in touch with HackTheBox, a cyber security training platform that started as a community exactly like us and proved to share our same vision of the future of our quickly evolving field.

Since then, we have worked together to figure out a way to help eachother, and their help will be crucial for our future development plans.

Want to know more? Read the [HackTheBox Press Release](https://www.hackthebox.eu/press/supporting-parrot-os)


The partnership between Parrot OS and HackTheBox is now official. Read the press release

Parrot OS + HackTheBox


# Parrot 4.9 is here

Parrot 4.9 is now available for download, and it ships some important updates we are particularly proud of.

Some new features introduced in Parrot 4.8 has also introduced some weird bugs that required some extra time to be spotted and fixed.

We originally wanted to release Parrot 4.8.1 to address them, but then a huge amount of updates from debian, like the removal of many python2 libraries and tools, and the introduction of a new linux kernel version made the 4.9 release a more appealing idea.

We have also introduced a new, more friendly installer and a new look and feel to the login screen, to make the system more appealing to newcomers and more comfortable for those users already aboard.

# Where to get it

You can download Parrot OS from our [official download page](https://parrotsec.org/download), and we invite you to never trust third party and unofficial sources.

We also provide official torrent files and ready to use OVA images for virtual machines.

# How to upgrade from a previous version

Parrot OS is a rolling release distribution, and updates flow in the repo as soon as they prove to be stable and reliable.

Version numbers (like 4.8 or 4.9) are just tags we assign to the current state of the project every time we think there are enough updates accumulated in the repo to need a refresh of the ISO file. In fact every Parrot version represents exactly a refresh of our ISO files to collect all the accumulated pieces together into something tested and reliable.

You can upgrade an existing system via APT using one of the following commands:

`sudo parrot-upgrade`

or

`sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`


# What's new

## Linux 5.5

We are proud to announce the jump from linux 5.4 to the new 5.5 branch, which introduces a more reliable hardware support, **fixes a lot of WIFI and intel GPU bugs** and introduces support to new hardware that wasn't supported before.

## Parrot Menu

We have improved our menu structure removing some redundant launchers and making the overall organization easier to navigate.

* Fix icon missing in brisk menu
* Remove duplicate launchers in other categories or from Debian packages
* Fix icons for some security tools
* Fix airgeddon execution path
* Update-launchers improvement

## Anonsurf

Anonsurf received a significant update that fixes some bad behaviors and improve its overall design.

We are working on a major upgrade on anonsurf, which will introduce a graphic user interface and a complete new design.

The new anonsurf version included in Parrot 4.9 is a cherrypick selection of new updates from our development branch that we decided to include ahead of time to close some bugs caused by the previous design of the software.

No GUI available at the moment, but you will notice the improvements to this iconic piece of software.

* it now runs as a daemon
* the DNS bugs are fixed
* it is possible to automatically start it at boot
* it closes automatically when the system shuts off
* it can't be started more than once like before, preventing weird bugs
* status command now uses nyx
* support for bash-completion of commands
* support for dnstool


## New installer

We are proud to announce the new Parrot installer based on Calamares, the same installer used by Manjaro and other GNU/Linux distributions.

Calamares is a distro-agnostic installer that is easy to use and offers not only an improved user experience, but also all the relevant advanced features expected by a quality installer, like full disk encryption complex partitioning etc.

Parrot still ships the Debian installer for those who need it, but now users have a new user friendly option available straight from the desktop of their live environment.

Calamares makes the whole installation process not only better but also faster, by asking for partitioning first, and then configuring the user later while the installation runs in the background.


## Python 2 removal

On one hand we are more than happy to announce that at the beginning of this year, python 2 was finally deprecated, and its lifecycle ended; on the ohter hand, we are sorry to announce you that we were forced to remove many pentest tools that were abandoned for years and never upgraded to python 3, so we were forced to deprecate them as well.

We are not alone in this choice, and other pentest distributions like Kali were forced to take the same move.

We are now searching for new tools (quality ones) to replace some of the missing ones, and we would love to write some of them in the near future.

## Other updates from upstream providers

As always this version ships with all the latest updates from our upstream sources (mostly Debian), so every new fix, improvement (or bug) is now included in Parrot 4.9 as well.

From the firefox browser to the mate desktop environment, from the introduction of GCC 10 ang golang 1.14 to the important upgrades of vscodium and virtualbox, all the awesome upates from upstream sources are now part of the Parrot repository as well.







Happy hacking


Parrot 4.9 is now available for download, read the release notes

Parrot 4.9 Release Notes


# Parrot 4.8 is here

Parrot is based on Debian Testing, meaning that Parrot 4.8 includes all the updates that landed in the Debian testing repository between september 2019 and march 2020

Some noticeable updates include:

* linux 5.4
* mate 1.24
* revision of the sandbox
* updated anonsurf
* aircrack 1.6
* airgeddon 10.01
* beef 0.5.0
* burpsuote 2020.1
* vscodium 1.43
* libreoffice 6.4 (base was removed)
* metasploit 5.0.74 (updates will be released soon)
* nodejs 10.17
* postgresql 11
* radare2 4.2
* radare-cutter 1.10 (ghidra support coming soon)
* weevely 4.0
* wine 5.0

and many many other updates.

# Docker updates

We wanted to stress the importance of containers and Parrot as a Service, since we want anyone to be able to use the Parrot tools on their favorite desktop OS or in the cloud.

now we offer the following docker containrs that can be run on any docker-supported operating system:

* parrotsec/core
* parrosec/security
* parrotsec/tools-nmap
* parrotsec/tools-metasploit
* parrotsec/tools-metasploit
* parrotsec/tools-beef
* parrotsec/tools-bettercap
* parrotsec/tools-sqlmap


A detailed description of the whole Parrot for docker project, the available containers, their usage and a quick reference is available [here](https://nest.parrot.sh/build/docker-images/-/blob/master/README.md)


# New Team Workflow

Parrot 4.8 is an important release after months since the last major update.

The Parrot team wanted to spend a lot of time re-organizing its internal structure, from the operations and workflow of developers, up to the infrastructure.

After such a huge work, we have finally moved to the new workflow, and Parrot 4.8 is the proof of how hard we wanted such changes to take place in the project and how smooth development and cooperation became after achieving this goal.




Parrot 4.8 is now available for download, read the release notes

Parrot 4.8 Release Notes


## The Parrot Project needs your help! 

We need your help to going through our work. Giving such a complex service to millions of people all around the world requires a huge infrastructure; and, as you can imagine, ours cannot be self-hosted on a cheap VPS. 
We do not track you in any way, and we do not exploit your data to make money, and we never will do. 
We need your support to assure you the service at its best. 
Donate today and be part of the change! 

## More about our infrastructure… 

To grant the highest level of privacy to our users, the entire insfrastructure is hosted on dedicated servers.  Although we have a vast network of mirrors, the central network needs significant resources to be able to correctly redirect to the correct mirror, avoid any censorship in countries with limitations and guarantee security updates in a very short time. Over the years we have even developed our own CDN service (have a look here: https://docs.parrotlinux.org/weathermap/), to have more control over the infrastructure and not allow third parties to read and tamper with traffic.

The archive only requires multiple nodes of at least 1 TB of storage each, the overall infrastructure receives more than 500 requests per second, the Redis service requires at least 24GB of RAM per node for the correct redirection of resources, and, despite everything, we can keep the costs of this infrastructure lower than impossible.

We are lucky to be a huge community, but from this community the number of donors is very low, at the moment it amounts to 33 in total, for a system that is used by hundreds of thousands of people in the world.

Currently, with the donations we receive, developers (who contribute purely on a voluntary basis, without any kind of remuneration) are forced to self tax themselves to keep the machines that are the foundations of our structure standing.

## How to contribute

If you want to give your contribution to the project, head on our donations page and feel free to become a stable sponsor via Patreon, or send your one-shot contribution via PayPal.

We also love Cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Stellar Lumens and other cryptocurrencies are more than welcome.

[Donations Page](https://docs.parrotlinux.org/donate)


Keep Pwning!


The Parrot Project needs your help


# Parrot 4.7 development notes

We are proud to announce the release of Parrot 4.7, which represents an important step forward for our project.

# How to update

Download the latest release from our [official download page](https://www.parrotlinux.org/download.php)

Update your existing Parrot system with the following command

```bash
sudo parrot-upgrade
```

Or use the raw apt command

```bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
```

Don't forget to use this command regularly (at least once a week) to receive the latest security updates and bugfixes from the Parrot repository.

---

# Domain changes

To reflect the neutrality of a distro that started as a pentest-only system and became more general purpose later with Parro Home, the community voted through a democratic process to switch to parrotlinux.org as the new default domain of the project.

We will still use parrotsec.org for other things (included the old email addresses), and we introduced other project domains to handle specific parts of the infrastructure.

# Repository changes

We are preparing to integrate a future LTS branch, so we decided to rename the current repository from stable to rolling.
Nothing changes for the end user, and the current Parrot branch will continue to behave the same as before, but now with a different name to better reflect the rolling release nature of the system, waiting for the LTS edition to join the Parrot OS family along side the rolling branch in a similar way OpenSUSE does.

# New menu structure and tools improvements

The pentesting menu structure was refactored and re-designed to make tools easier to access in a more logical hierarchical structure.
New tools were also added to the project, and we plan to add even more in the future. Not all of them are going to be pre-installed, but a good set of tools in our repository enables pentesters to build up the perfect pentest system for their specific needs, regardless the default package selection picked by our team.

# New sandbox behavior (opt-in rather than opt-out)

Sandboxing is a great thing, and we were in the first line when we introduced our custom firejail+apparmor solution for the first time many years ago.
We still want to improve such feature and we have a whole team dedicated to improve sandboxing and hardening of the Parrot system, but we had to face the many users with issues caused by the restrictions of our sandbox.

In Parrot 4.7 the sandbox is disabled by default, and users can decide wether to start an application sandboxed or not. You can easily start the sandboxed version of an installed program from the /sandbox/ folder or from a dedicated menu that we plan to improve in the future (meanwhile the search feature of the bottom menu will fit all your needs), or you can re-enable it by default by using the `firecfg` tool.

# Latest Linux 5.2

The new ISO files of Parrot 4.7 are being released only now, but we were the first Debian derivative distribution to introduce Linux 5.1 and 5.2 to all our users, and now we are ready to offer it also with our ISO files rebild cycle to support more devices and integrate all the latest linux features from the beginning.

# New MATE 1.22 release

Parrot 4.7 ships with the latest MATE 1.22 desktop environment.

# Miscellaneous

New firefox 69, the latest radare2 and cutter versions and many other important upgrades are all aboard as expected in a properly developed rolling release distro.


Parrot 4.7 release notes


Hey some of you may have noticed your source list URIs went from deb.parrotsec.org to deb.parrot.sh :slight_smile: this is part of the [migration from parrotsec.org to parrot.sh](https://community.parrot.sh/t/infrastructure-outage/9212). This change was put into the apt-parrot package (3.0+parrot2 precisely). Your source list `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/parrot.list` at this time should like this:

```text
# this file was automatically generated by parrot-mirror-selector
deb https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/ rolling main contrib non-free
#deb-src https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/ rolling main contrib non-free
deb https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/ rolling-security main contrib non-free
#deb-src https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/ rolling-security main contrib non-free
```

Speaking of domain changes and names please checkout @palinuro's [new discussion](https://community.parrot.sh/t/new-parrot-os-domain/9252) on whether a different domain would fit us better. Let us know what you think, love it, hate it, tell us.

Repository Changes



# Parrot 4.6 development notes

We are proud to announce the release of Parrot 4.6, after 3 months of heavy development. This has been an especially big three months for us as Parrot 4.6 is also our first release completely served by our network without SaaS services like cloudflare. Everything is on our infrastructure.

# How to update

Download the latest release from our [official download page](https://www.parrotsec.org/download.php)

Update your existing Parrot system with the following command

```bash
sudo parrot-upgrade
```

Don't forget to use this command regularly (at least once a week) to receive the latest security updates and bugfixes from the Parrot repository.

---

# Parrot Security KDE Edition

When we first added KDE, it was an experiment. We love Mate but we'd heard great things

about KDE and decided we could try and support two desktop environments. Because of the

work required to change everything from Mate to KDE. We started with KDE Home. The

feedback was immediate, you guys loved it. The recurring request since has been "how do I

add the tools". We heard you and it is finally here! A Security edition featuring the KDE

Plasma desktop environment.

We now offer both MATE and KDE images for the Home and Security editions.

![parrot security kde](../img/parrot-4.6-kde-security.jpg)

---

# System Changes

## Appearance

Our design [team](https://www.parrotsec.org/docs/team/#design-team) developed a new, ultra, awesome visual experience for Parrot 4.6,

feast your eyes on a new boot-splash animation and desktop background!

The desktop-base and parrot-wallpapers also received some love and are updated to reflect

such changes including the new Parrot appearence.

**Note:** The themes and icons are still the same.

---

## APT now enforces https

We have modified our APT implementation to support https-to-http downgrades.

This allowed us to configure our repository as https by default. For visual reference


Parrot 4.6 is now configured to serve signed index files via https by default,
and the mirror redirector is configured to redirect traffic to https mirrors when available.
In case an https mirror is not available, the packages are downloaded by fallback http mirrors, but APT will still verify the signatures.

In other debian-based systems and previous Parrot OS versions, mirrors used http by default, and https is just an exception.

Http downloads don't represent a security risk because gpg signatures are more effective

than ssl downloads in certifying repository integrity, as described on [this website - https://whydoesaptnotusehttps.com/](https://whydoesaptnotusehttps.com/).

Although you can never eliminate risk of bad actors, we hope to increase the cost for

providers attempting to intercept or track user activities (i.e. knowing if a

user is installing specific software).

---

## Improved drivers support

Parrot 4.6 includes the Linux 4.19 kernel which contains several security patches,

performance improvements and a better hardware support.

Moreover Parrot 4.6 features important updates for broadcom and other wireless chipset manufacturers,

and the Nvidia drivers were updated to the latest 410 version with better Quadro support.
[Debian Kernel Changelog](https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/l/linux-signed-arm64/linux-signed-arm64_4.19.28+2_changelog) - [Linux changelog](https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.19)

---

## Anonsurf has OpenNIC support
Anonsurf now integrates a new option to change from the system DNS servers to OpenNIC DNS resolvers.

[OpenNIC](https://www.opennic.org) is a community-driven dns resolver provider that respects

user freedom and allows domain resolution of some special top level domains.

![OpenNIC features](../img/parrot-4.6-opennic.png)

---

# Minor updates

## Better snap support
Now when you install from snap it will show up in the applications menu by default.

## AppArmor and Firejail profiles have been updated
We are constantly trying to rebuild the sandbox :) We love firejail and AppArmor and we

hope to achieve a state of near hassle-free setup and use. Sandboxed applications in

Parrot OS are now more stable and reliable than before, and we are pushing forward with

plans to not only add more profiles but utilize firejail's capabilites to their fullest.

## Better OpenVPN support

Setting up your VPN should be painless and quick. Network-manager now integrates all the

available VPN plugins by default, allowing that experience to be just that.

## Miscellaneous

The MATE desktop environment received some minor stability updates, and Firefox 65 is now included.

# New additions

## Matrix and Riot.IM
We love federated instant messaging protocols! We love [XMPP](https://xmpp.org/about/) and [Matrix](https://matrix.org/blog/index) for what they bring to the table.

Though we like [Dino](https://dino.im/) we realized we wanted something that was sexy, lightweight
and worked with XMPP and MTProto. Using Matrix does all of this and more through bridges.

[Revolt](https://github.com/aperezdc/revolt) is a [Riot.IM](https://about.riot.im/) desktop integration written mostly in Python, and shell fits our needs perfectly.

(Riot.IM is a chat client built on the Matrix protocol.)

There are several Matrix clients to pick from and we're still testing. But as we work to

move our community torward XMPP and Matrix we think it makes sense to have Revolt, you

never know when skynet will be activated :)

## Reverse Engineering
While we evaluate the inclusion of NSA's Ghidra, we decided to include [Cutter](https://github.com/radareorg/cutter), the powerful GUI to radare2, which is one of the most powerful reverse engineering frameworks out there.

Cutter makes it easier to work with the radare2 framework and pushes Parrot's reverse engineering capabilities to a new level.

## Tool updates

Many tools received important updates since the release of Parrot 4.5. From airgeddon to metasploit up to the latest bettercap version. All the tools are now up to date with their latest versions.

## Developer Support

Since the introduction of the `parrot-devel` metapackage family, we worked hard to improve the overall development experience in Parrot.

In that regard we have awesome news! The devel metapackage now includes the latest gcc

and clang versions, an important security update for java (openjdk), and a big jump from

nodejs 8.11 to the latest 10.15 version. And finally the inclusion of dbeaver as the default database manager.

Metapackages were improved to be more modular and lightweight by default. The mono

runtime and development tools were moved to `parrot-devel-extra` and are no longer pre-installed.

---

## The Road ahead

The Parrot Project has gone through some considerably large evolutions. We've added over 20 new members, redesigned our internal structures and processes, upgraded our server infrastructure and deployed our own CDN. As we look at where we want to go we realize that we need to automate things more as well as harden ParrotOS from boot to browsing.



Parrot 4.6 release notes

## Parrot 4.5 development notes

Parrot 4.5 is officially released, and there are some major changes under the hood.


&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.parrotsec.org/download-home.php">
![Parrot 4.5 download](../img/parrot-4.5-download.jpg)
</a>

&nbsp;


## Dropped 32bit architecture images

We are in 2019 now, and computers that are not capable of running 64bit and complex applications operating system are mostly old, legacy computers. To add to that, many programs and frameworks are no longer available for 32bit x86 systems.

![Old crap](../img/parrot-4.5-old-crap-pc.jpg)

We have released 32bit (i386 Architecture) images since the beginning of the project, and we worked hard to provide fresh binary updates for the i386 architecture for a long time; However, 32bit-only computers are no longer capable of running a full pentest campaign or providing hardware-accelerated support to our security protection systems.

Parrot 4.5 no longer provides any live ISO files for the i386 architecture, even if it is still supported by our repository and our netinstall images. We are slowly planning to drop support for it in the future.

NOTE: 32bit deprecation does not affect our ARM support, and armhf architecture is still fully supported.


&nbsp;

&nbsp;


## Virtual Appliances

We released official docker templates for parrot many months ago, and they proved to be a turnkey solution to bring a full parrot pentest stack on top of any operating system supported by docker.

![virtual appliance](../img/parrot-4.5-virtualbox-ova.png)

The next step that comes with Parrot 4.5 is the release of desktop virtual appliances in the OVA format that can be imported in VirtualBox, VMWare and other famous virtualization environments.

These virtual environments are still experimental, and even if they are the perfect solution to give Parrot a try and experiment with it, we still recommend a full custom installation from the ISO files for best chances of being supported and easier configuration and troubleshooting.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Linux 4.19

Linux 4.19 is the default kernel in Parrot 4.5, and this new kernel version was already packaged by following our new kernel distribution policy implemented for Parrot 5.0 LTS.

![linux 4.19](../img/parrot-4.5-linux-4.19.jpg)

We plan to support 2 kernel branches, a stable kernel and a testing kernel, and provide updates for both. Linux 4.19 is part of our testing branch, while the first release of the stable branch will be released with Parrot 5.0 itself.

Read the full PSC [here - https://nest.parrotsec.org/parrot-organization/parrot-standards-codex/issues/2](https://nest.parrotsec.org/parrot-organization/parrot-standards-codex/issues/2). 

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Metasploit 5.0 

![metasploit 5](../img/parrot-4.5-metasploit-5.jpg)
\
Metasploit 5.0 was released with many new important features that we immediately imported and tested for our users.

We absolutely loved the new evasion modules, the opportunity to write shellcode in C, the new search engine, the integrated web services or the json-rpc daemon, and we wanted to offer quick access to this awesome framework through this new Parrot release.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Better Dev Tools

We improved our metapackages for developers, and setting up an advanced development environment for several programming languages and frameworks is now easier than ever:

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

### parrot-devel

It is pre-installed in Parrot 4.5 and provides the following tools:

* vscodium - an advanced and extensible text editor.
* zeal - an offline documentation downloader and browser.
* git-cola - a graphic client to GIT.
* meld - a graphic patch inspector.
* tora - a graphic database frontend compatible with several database backends.

These packages are included in the metapackage by using the "Recommends" apt directive, and they can be removed individually without triggering the removal of the whole parrot-devel metapackage.

The metapackage also recommends the installation of parrot-devel-tools.

```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install parrot-devel
```

&nbsp;


### parrot-devel-tools

It is recommended by parrot-devel and pre-installed in Parrot Security.
It provides some useful compilers and interpreters for the most used languages and provides the following packages:

* GCC/G++ - a compiler collection for C, C++ and other languages.
* python3 - the cpython interpreter for the python 3.6 and 3.7 language.
* ruby - the official ruby lang interpreter and basic toolkit (includes irb and ri as well).

The package also recommends the following packages, that can be safely removed without triggering the removal of the entire parrot-devel-tools metapackage:

* default-jdk - the latest Java OpenJDK distribution for Java 11 (both JDK and JRE).
* cython3 - a compiler for the cython language, a strongly-typed dialect of python for efficient code.
* rust/cargo - the rust compiler and devel tools and its package management system.
* valac - the vala c compiler.
* mono-devel - the development tools for the MONO framework, an open source implementation of .net.
* mono-runtime - the runtime of the MONO framework compatible and interoperable with the latest .net runtime.
* php-cli - the PHP 7.3 language plus its command line interface and some useful core libraries.
* perl6 - the PERL 6 interpreter and core libraries.
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install parrot-devel-tools
```
&nbsp;


### parrot-devel-extra

The parrot-devel-extra metapackage is a quick way to install many additional development utilities like advanced IDEs, additional languages, debuggers and extra tools.

* golang - go language compiler and runtime
* nodejs - node.js framework
* npm - node.js package manager
* atom - advanced and extensible editor by github
* qtcreator - powerful C, C++ and Qt/QML IDE and debugger.
* kdevelop - advanced general purpose IDE by KDE.
* edb-debugger - graphical debugger.
* jad - Java decompiler.
* nasm - powerful general purpose x86 assembler.
* radare2 - advanced command line hexadecimal editor.
* cmake - cross-platform, open-source make system.
* valgrind - nstrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis tools.
* devscripts/build-essential - useful development utilities for debian developers/maintainers.

```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install parrot-devel-extra
```

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Other updates

Many more updates were imported since we are currently based on Debian testing, and we included all the latest updates, security patches and new features as usual.

Parrot 4.5 release notes



# the Parrot CDN
Hello mates, we are proud to announce the release of our dedicated CDN (Content Delivery Network)

It consists of several servers all around the world that host a fully operational caching and delivery system of all the content of our website

This servers network is completely driven by us (no external services involved) and all the data goes directly to servers we own.

Thanks to very powerful technologies like GeoDNS and IP Anycast, if someone hits a parrot website, it is served automatically by the nearest servers according to the ip location of the client.

By having our own CDN we can move away from cloudflare and other third party services, provide fast content delivery, provide failover routes in case of network congestions, downtimes or attacks and offer a better and more private services to all our users.


# how to test the CDN

test how the CDN sees your requests:

    ┌─[palinuro@parrot]─[~]
    └──╼ $ dig -t txt @ns.parrotsec.io director.geo.parrotsec.org | grep country

    director.geo.parrotsec.org. 30	IN	TXT	"ip 185.178.92.254 v4 city gavardo country it ita state eu region 09 name unknown as as206701"


test how the CDN resolves for you:

    ┌─[✗]─[palinuro@parrot]─[~]
    └──╼ $ host director.geo.parrotsec.org

    director.geo.parrotsec.org has address 89.36.210.176
    director.geo.parrotsec.org has address 80.211.238.94
    director.geo.parrotsec.org has IPv6 address 2a03:a140:10:10e6::1
    director.geo.parrotsec.org has IPv6 address 2a03:b0c0:3:e0::105:5001


test how the CDN caches content:

    ┌─[palinuro@parrot]─[~]
    └──╼ $ curl -I https://www.parrotsec.org/img/logo.png 2> /dev/null | grep X-Cache-Status

    X-Cache-Status: HIT

* `MISS` – The response was not found in the cache and so was fetched from an origin server. The response might then have been cached.
* `BYPASS` – The response was fetched from the origin server instead of served from the cache because the request matched a specific cache directive. The response might then have been cached.
* `EXPIRED` – The entry in the cache has expired. The response contains fresh content from the origin server.
* `STALE` – The content is stale because the origin server is not responding correctly, and the edge server is providing cached content instead.
* `UPDATING` – The content is stale because the entry is currently being updated in response to a previous request.
* `REVALIDATED` – The CDN verified that the current cached content was still valid.
* `HIT` – The response contains valid, fresh content direct from the cache.


# The future

We are still working hard to optimize our setup and we will add new edge servers to scale up if needed.

We are still playing with the IP Anycast nodes that are not yet available.

We are also working on a big upgrade to our mirror servers (iso downloads and apt archive).

Stay tuned :)

The Parrot CDN

<div class="public-preview">
 
 It seems like every day now that you receive an email from your favorite startup, notifying you that their product has just been launched, where it will likely be discontinued and disassembled into a thousand pieces, all of which will likely be used for completely different objectives, never to be seen again in their original form and function.
 
 
 
 You had perhaps been tracking its development for years, looking forward to it gaining traction, improving stability, adding new features, and possibly even finding new and diverse funding sources. And yet it often ends like that: either the team behind it sells everything off at peak value, or they end up taking drastic and controversial choices &#8211; whether technical or financial &#8211; to keep the project alive and running in the long term.
 
 
 
 This leaves us with a very tangible and important problem: how do we tackle the expansion and scalability of our ideas, works, products, and creations, especially in our beloved world of free and open source endeavours?
 
 
 
 I don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve heard, but Parrot has recently climbed briefly to the top 15 &#8220;most popular distro&#8221; spot on DistroWatch, reaching more than 300k unique and active users every month, and that is simply amazing, even more so considering its extremely humble origins and small development team.
 
 
 
 And yet, Parrot only runs on about 150€/month of financial support, most of which are coming from our Patreon account from 22 supporters, leaving all the other users clear of any form of contribution, and forcing the core devs the task of taking care of the uncovered fees. This has worked surprisingly well until now, but &#8211; luckily I would say &#8211; we&#8217;ve finally reached the point where such limited support could hinder its future growth if we don&#8217;t take action now to expand our funding sources.
 
 
 
 I know what you might be thinking now, but here&#8217;s where the good news comes in: even now, at this topical time of expansion and increasing development in our history, nothing is changing, nor will ever change, in terms of our how everything runs behind the scenes of our favourite distro, no matter how large the project will grow, or how widely adopted it will become.
 
 
 
 The entire team will keep writing its code with the same passion and commitment as they always have, even with the limited resources we have right now, Lorenzo will still and always be in complete and exclusive control of the private keys required to approve system updates, each and every one of our builds will still have the same level of high quality automation behind it and &#8211; at the same time &#8211; of attention in their thorough and extensive manual review. And beyond this, we&#8217;ll keep experimenting and testing out new and diverse paths to make the distro even more more feature-rich, secure, fun, and effective to use, hopefully even &#8211; one day &#8211; in directions that now are simply out of reach for the current scale of the project.
 
 
 
 At the same time, however, we need to start investing our time and efforts into the search for new ways of doing what we already do, in order to power the next X years of Parrot, all while keeping 100% true to our ideals, and fiercely maintaining our no-compromise approach towards transparency and trustworthiness, which are the building blocks of our identity, and rock solid security, towards which we devote sleepless nights of our lives, taking it to extreme and paranoid levels of care in execution.
 
 
 
 Among the most important objectives we&#8217;ve set ourselves are:
 
 
 <ol>
 <li>
 The construction of a robust and reliable build infrastructure, where our already highly advanced pipelines can run in heavily secured environments.
 </li>
 <li>
 The expanse of our OS in public and private sectors, especially in Italy, where we are located. [public administrations, schools, non-profits, etc&#8230;]
 </li>
 <li>
 The formalization of the actual FrozenBox non-profit here in Italy, to lay the legal groundwork required to set our near-future donations program in motion, and federate with other projects in the area.
 </li>
 <li>
 The search for our very own future datacenter and peering agreements with other network operators, to bring our online presence and its bandwith to a whole new level.
 </li>
 <li>
 To develop a rock-solid LTS edition for better stability and reliability.
 </li>
 <li>
 To make the parrot environment portable to other distributions and environments.
 </li>
 </ol>
 
 
 For now, however, we&#8217;re still in the early stages of all of these aims, and we absolutely need your help to achieve them, let alone to keep running all of the required operations that make Parrot such a thriving and ever-innovating project, mostly thanks to your constant support in helping us fix what needs to work better and research what could work differently.
 
 
 
 To kickstart this process, we&#8217;ve outlined three simple and extremely effective actions you can take right now to shape the future of our work:
 
 
 <ol>
 <li>
 Become a regular contributor on <a href="https://patreon.com/parrot">patreon.com/parrot</a>
 </li>
 <li>
 Become a parrot developer (debian package maintainer skills are required)
 </li>
 <li>
 Help us hosting our infrastructure by sending us servers or housing our currently spare nodes.
 </li>
 </ol>
</div>

&#8211; nikksno

Parrot OS needs your help to scale out!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-235" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621.png" alt="" width="640" height="480" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621.png 640w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621-300x225.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621-230x173.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621-350x263.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_213621-480x360.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />


## Parrot 4.4 Development Goals
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-237" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55.png" alt="" width="730" height="112" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55.png 730w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55-300x46.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55-230x35.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55-350x54.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-39-55-480x74.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px" />

The Parrot 4.4 development process involved the ideas of many people from our community, and the goal of this new update was mainly to target software developers and increase average system stability.

&nbsp;

## Download

[Download Parrot 4.4](https://www.parrotsec.org/download.php)

&nbsp;

## Upgrade from a previous version

> sudo parrot-upgrade

or

> sudo apt update
 
> sudo apt full-upgrade

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Debian Testing stability status

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-238" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55.png" alt="" width="959" height="298" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55.png 959w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-300x93.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-768x239.png 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-830x258.png 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-230x71.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-350x109.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-43-55-480x149.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 959px) 100vw, 959px" />

Parrot is based on Debian Testing, which is now entering an important stabilization stage for new Debian 10 (buster) release, that should arrive around the second quarter of 2019. This means that Parrot is up to see a new golden age of stability and reliability, which this time is going to last very long since [the team announced the Parrot Long Term Support project in the previous release note.](https://blog.parrotsec.org/parrot-4-3-release-notes/)

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## VSCodium

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-239" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40.png" alt="" width="1028" height="799" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40.png 1028w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-300x233.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-768x597.png 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-1024x796.png 1024w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-830x645.png 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-230x179.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-350x272.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-46-40-480x373.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 1028px) 100vw, 1028px" />

Since Github released [atom.io](https://atom.io), an advanced and extensible text editor that is hackable to the core, Microsoft worked hard to create their own atom alternative called Visual Studio Code, also known as VSCode.

Unlike what most of the people think, VSCode and Visual Studio Code are two completely different products:

VSCode is an opensource MIT-licensed editor available ONLY as source code on its github repository, and the only way to use it is to clone the repo and compile it.

Visual Studio Code is a proprietary binary distribution licensed under [this not-FLOSS license](https://code.visualstudio.com/license), and contain telemetry and tracking plugins, as stated by one of their developers in [this comment](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/60#issuecomment-161792005).

> When we [Microsoft] build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license.
> 
> When you clone and build from the vscode repo, none of these endpoints are configured in the default product.json. Therefore, you generate a &#8220;clean&#8221; build, without the Microsoft customizations, which is by default licensed under the MIT license

VSCodium is a community project to distribute a binary release of VSCode without any Microsoft branding, telemetry and tracking feature.

<img class="alignright wp-image-240 " src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20.png" alt="" width="349" height="123" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20.png 742w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20-300x106.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20-230x81.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20-350x124.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-21-49-20-480x169.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px" />

Parrot 4.4 uses VSCodium as its new advanced editor instead of Atom, because the atom binary packages became too bloated and too heavy (up to 850MB of storage space), **without** considering the bare minimum set of plugins that are necessary to make Atom a complete environment. VSCodium in the other hand is very lightweight (less than 200MB) and it is way faster than both Atom and Visual Studio Code, with a smaller memory footprint, and it provides many important features by default and without any need of external plugins (advanced intellisense, code inspector, debugger, git interface, broader languages support etc).

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## New Golang, Rust, Vala and Mono support

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-242" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language.png" alt="" width="700" height="360" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language.png 700w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language-300x154.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language-230x118.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language-350x180.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/how-to-choose-a-programming-language-480x247.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />

There is a big interest in the Parrot team to offer a comfortable environment for software developers and those pentesters who usually write or modify their tools, and even if we already support python, java, c/c++, ruby, perl, bash and php, there is a big interest in the community in other emerging programming languages like golang, rust or vala.

Parrot 4.4 added for the first time full support for golang, rust, vala and mono (a FLOSS and independent .NET implementation). We believe software developers will benefit from this internal choice that required a lot of effort in order to keep the ISO files within their usual sizes.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## New Privacy Metapackage

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-243" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/privacy-3.jpg" alt="" width="979" />

parrot-privacy now provides all the privacy-related applications as anonsurf, torbrowser, ricochet-im, onionshare and more.

People who need stronger privacy have now a dedicated metapackage.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## KDE Plasma Edition

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-244" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2018-11-23_17-58-28.jpg" alt="" width="400px" />

The development of the KDE Plasma edition gave very interesting results, and now Parrot 4.4 provides an awesome KDE flavor with our custom themes and settings for all our users that don&#8217;t like MATE and prefer a more advanced and feature-rich (but heavier) desktop environment.

Parrot KDE includes the latest 5.13 Plasma desktop with custom configurations that proved to be very lightweight and fast with a small memory footprint, and we will continue to improve this flavor in the future.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## BTRFS and XFS are the new default filesystem

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-245" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-11-25-22-08-18.png" alt="" width="400" />

The new Debian-Installer was modified to use **btrfs by default** for root and xfs for the home filesystem. The installer does no longer create a swap partition when automatically partitioning uefi or encrypted systems, and the boot partition is large enough to host multiple kernel revisions without running out of space.

Btrfs and xfs are very powerful advanced filesystems with CoW, subvolumes, snapshots and other features. While xfs is very fast on some specific workloads, btrfs has additional features like live compression and a very efficient checksuming system for file corruption detection.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-246" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot_generic_2018-11-25_220831.png" alt="" width="800" height="600"/>

Btrfs was considered experimental for many years and it is still under heavy development, but its core features are now stable and production ready (but not ready for mission critical scenarios) and many companies already use it and contribute to its development, including facebook, suse, oracle and more. We think it is ready for desktop use and we actively used it on all our personal computers, testing machines, workstations and servers (yes, parrot servers use btrfs almost everywhere), and it proved to be very stable and reliable.

Parrot 4.4 Release Notes

**Parrot 4.3 is now available for download.**

This release provides security and stability updates and is the starting point for our plan to develop an LTS edition of Parrot.

&nbsp;

### Our plans for Parrot LTS

We are working on a Parrot LTS branch, a long term support, release-based distribution to provide long term reliability to our users for all our architectures.
 
Our plans are to release it along side the next Debian stable release, which is planned for the next year.
 
We will continue to provide a rolling release branch for the x86_64 architecture where to include all the major version updates for our tools and test all our new features.

In our vision LTS does not mean outdated. We believe that our LTS branch should follow the native release process of all the tools and system components that we include, and we will not keep outdated and unsupported package versions in the repo, but we are working on new build nodes to provide updated backports for all the supported software.

Of course Parrot 4.3 is not LTS yet, but it was developed as a middle step to our final goal that we plan to reach within the next summer.

### 

### Linux 4.18

Linux was updated to the 4.18.10 version, and linux 4.19 will be released soon.

### Firefox 63

Firefox 63 provides noticeable security and privacy features, but it is no longer available to 32bit systems, so we switched to firefox-esr on all the unsupported architectures.

### Wine menu

We fixed a bug in the parrot menu configuration that prevented several menu categories to show up.
 
This fixed the missing wine menu bug, which is now back again.

### Bashrc updates

The Parrot .bashrc file was updated, now it provides better snap support, the _ll_ alias now shows the size in a human readable format and it does no longer overwrite some global settings as it used to do before.

### Java 11

OpenJDK 11 is now the default java provider.

### Anonsurf

Anonsurf received important stability upgrades and now it does not mess up the dns configuration.

### New Parrot icons

The Parrot edition of the MAIA icon theme was updated.
 
We dropped many old unused icons and replaced them with newer ones.

### Core updates

Parrot 4.3 provides the latest updates of Debian Testing and many improvements to our sandbox system, in fact both firejail and apparmor received significant updates, and now the whole system is smoother, more secure and more reliable.

&nbsp;

## Download

[Download Parrot 4.3](https://www.parrotsec.org/download.php)

&nbsp;

## Upgrade from a previous version

> sudo full-upgrade

or

> sudo apt update
 
> sudo apt full-upgrade

&nbsp;

### Experimental KDE editon

We released an experimental home edition featuring the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

We will include in in our download pages as soon as it becomes reliable enough.

Meanwhile you can manually download it from <https://archive.parrotsec.org/parrot/iso/4.3>

&nbsp;

**The following is a short list of some of the most relevant tool updates we included in this release:**

* aircrack 1.3 -> 1.4
 
* airgeddon 8.11 -> 8.12
 
* anonsurf 2.8.1
 
* armitage 2015-08-13 -> 2016-07-09
 
* bettercap 2.8 -> 2.10
 
* dradis 3.9 -> 3.10
 
* fern-wifi-cracker 2.6 -> 2.7
 
* fping 4.0 -> 4.1
 
* netsniff-ng 0.6.4 -> 0.6.5
 
* faraday ide 3.0.1 -> 3.2
 
* radare2 2.8.0 -> 3.0.1
 
* sqlmap 1.2.8 -> 1.2.10
 
* sslscan 1.11.11 -> 1.11.12
 
* stunnel4 5.48 -> 5.49
 
* t50 5.7.1 -> 5.8.2
 
* theharvester 2.7.2 -> 3.0
 
* tor 0.3.3 -> 0.3.4
 
* tshark 2.6.3 -> 2.6.4
 
* wapiti 2.3.0 -> 3.0.1
 
* weevely 3.6.2 -> 3.7.0
 
* wireshark 2.6.3 -> 2.6.4
 
* wpscan 2.9.4 -> 3.3.2

Parrot 4.3 Release Notes

We are proud to announce the release of Parrot 4.2.

It was a very problematic release for our team because of the many important updates under the hood of a system that looks almost identical to its previous release, except for a new background designed by Federica Marasà and a new graphic theme (ARK-Dark).

[<img class="alignnone wp-image-211 size-large" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-830x467.jpg 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-230x129.jpg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-350x197.jpg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly-480x270.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/macaw-poly.jpg)

&nbsp;

## Updated kernel and core packages

Parrot 4.2 is powered by the latest **Linux 4.18** debianized kernel with all the usual wireless patches.

A new version of the **Debian-Installer** now powers our netinstall images and the standard Parrot images.

**Firmware packages** were updated to add broader hardware support, including **wireless devices and AMD vega graphics**

**AppArmor and Firejail** profiles were adjusted to offer a good compromise of security and usability for most of the desktop and CLI applications and services

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-214" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-17-58-08.png" alt="" width="341" height="211" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-17-58-08.png 341w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-17-58-08-300x186.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-17-58-08-230x142.png 230w" sizes="(max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px" />

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

## Important destkop updates

Parrot 4.2 now provides the latest **libreoffice 6.1** release, **Firefox 62** and many other important updates.

Desktop users will also find useful the inclusion of default **.vimrc and .emacs config** files with syntax highlight and line number columns.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-218" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23.png" alt="" width="618" height="283" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23.png 618w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23-300x137.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23-230x105.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23-350x160.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-18-23-480x220.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" />

&nbsp;

## Important tools updates

**Armitage** was finally updated and fixed, and the &#8220;missing RHOSTS error&#8221; was fixed.

We also imported the latest Metasploit 4.17.11 version. Wireshark 2.6, hashcat 4.2, edb-debugger 1.0 and many many other updated tools.

[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-216" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00.png" alt="" width="962" height="190" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00.png 962w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-300x59.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-768x152.png 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-830x164.png 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-230x45.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-350x69.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-09-10-18-16-00-480x95.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 962px) 100vw, 962px" />](https://dev.parrotsec.org/parrot/armitage/commit/68f584e0064adc31aa42755b3f5c527e5e2687a9)

## 

## New documentation portal

We are working to drop our previous DokuWiki documentation portal and replace it with a full static documentation portal written in markdown which would be easier to maintain through our GIT server.

The new documentation portal can be visited [here https://www.parrotsec.org/docs](https://www.parrotsec.org/docs). feel free to contribute and expand our documentation by sending us a push request on [https://dev.parrotsec.org/parrot/documentation.](https://dev.parrotsec.org/parrot/documentation)

Parrot 4.2.2 release notes

Parrot 4.0 is now available for download.

The development process of this version required a lot of time, and many important updates make this release an important milestone in the history of our project.
 
This release includes all the updated packages and bug fixes released since the last version (3.11), and it marks the end of the development and testing process of many new features experimented in the previous releases since Parrot 3.9.

&nbsp;

### Experimental Netinstall Images

Netinstall images are a powerful tool to install only the bare core of the system or just the software components you really need, you can even use them to install another desktop environment and to build your own system exactly as you want.

On Parrot 4.0 we decided to provide netinstall images too as we would like people to use Parrot not only as a pentest distribution, but also as a framework to build their very own working environment with ease.

We consider this installation method as experimental because sometimes the installer fails when using https mirrors (using http mirrors work fine), and because it is harder to debug issues on uncommon package combinations, but we are going to keep these variables in consideration in the future.

&nbsp;

### Docker images

We are glad to announce the official release of our Docker templates.

Docker is a powerful container technology that allows our users to quickly download a Parrot template and immediately spawn unlimited and completely isolated parrot instances on top of any host OS.

Parrot on Docker gives you access to all the Parrot containers you need on top of Windows, Mac OS, or any other system supported by docker, no matter if it is just your laptop or a whole docker cluster running on an entire datacenter. You will always have access to all the parrot tools in all the isolated environments you need.

We also offer different Docker images: a core container with only the bare system, a more complete environment with a lot of useful tools, and a container dedicated to the metasploit environment. But you are free to download our Dockerfiles, customize them and build your very own Docker templates with just the tools you need, or you can download the core template and install additional tools into it.

&nbsp;

### **Linux Kernel 4.16**

**[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-195" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00.png" alt="" width="631" height="152" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00.png 631w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00-300x72.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00-230x55.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00-350x84.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00-480x116.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 631px) 100vw, 631px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-38-00.png)**

The introduction of the new Linux 4.16 kernel is a very important step forward for the distro, as newer kernels always introduce many important new features, broader hardware support and important bugfixes.
 
The previous Parrot 3.11 release used Linux 4.14, which included basic spectre/meltdown fixes, while the true effective patches are included since Linux 4.15.
 
The 4.16 version includes [other important updates](https://www.linux.com/blog/2018/4/linux-kernel-416-networking-patches-and-more), including AMDGPU multi-display fixes, optimized in-kernel filesystem operations and so on.

&nbsp;

### **Sandbox**

[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-196" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24.png" alt="" width="609" height="155" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24.png 609w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24-300x76.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24-230x59.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24-350x89.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24-480x122.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 609px) 100vw, 609px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-39-24.png)

The Parrot system is known to be secure and sandboxed thanks to its custom firejail profiles with the underlying apparmor support. Parrot 4.0 is the final result of months of testing on this field, and now the sandboxed applications are stable and reliable.

### 

### **MATE 1.20**

[<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-197" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-1024x576.png 1024w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-300x169.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-768x432.png 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-830x467.png 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-230x129.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-350x197.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19-480x270.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-41-19.png)

The MATE Desktop Environment was updated to its 1.20 release, with many graphic bugfixes and new features, like HiDPI support, or the ability to auto-resize windows by dragging them to the corner of the screen and divide them in new layouts.

&nbsp;

### **Nginx**

[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-199" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Nginx-Logo.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Nginx-Logo.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Nginx-Logo-150x150.png 150w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Nginx-Logo-230x230.png 230w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Nginx-Logo.png)

Apache2 is the most famous web server out there, but it is heavy and complex to configure and maintain.
 
Nginx is its most powerful alternative, it is very light weight and easy to use, and it is famous to be not only a fast and secure web server, but also a powerful proxy, cacher, load-balancer and general purpose forwarder. And its configuration syntax is very easy to use.

For this reason we decided to include nginx as our new default web server daemon, while apache2 will be available in the repository, or pre-installed as a dependency of some security tools that rely on it.

&nbsp;

### **Libreoffice 6**

[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-200" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41.png" alt="" width="908" height="232" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41.png 908w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-300x77.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-768x196.png 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-830x212.png 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-230x59.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-350x89.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41-480x123.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 908px) 100vw, 908px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-15-02-41.png)

Libreoffice 6 is now included by default in Parrot 4.0, with better documents support, memory efficiency and stability.

[Read the release notes](https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.0)

&nbsp;

### **Firefox 60**

[<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-198" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47.png" alt="" width="611" height="369" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47.png 611w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47-300x181.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47-230x139.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47-350x211.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47-480x290.png 480w" sizes="(max-width: 611px) 100vw, 611px" />](https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-at-2018-05-21-14-58-47.png)

Firefox, probably the most delicate and critical component of the OS is now updated to the latest 60 release.

&nbsp;

### **MD Raid Support**

Parrot 4.0 now includes md raid support by default.
 
It was a great lack in the previous versions, because parrot is also meant to be used for forensics analysis, and to be able to open software raids can be crucial while reading disks in a server environment.
 
Of course the introduction of mdadm as a pre-installed tool also mean that parrot can be installed in a software raid for better reliability.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

### Full list of updated packages

Want to see the full list of packages that were upgraded between 3.11 and 4.0.1?
 
Follow this link <https://archive1.parrotsec.org/parrot/iso/4.0.1/updated-packages.txt>

&nbsp;

### How to upgrade

If you have a previous version of Parrot and want to upgrade the system, follow these steps:

Open a terminal window and type the following commands

<pre>sudo apt update
sudo apt purge tomoyo-tools
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove</pre>

Parrot 4.0 release notes

Parrot 3.11 is now available for download.

This new release introduces many improvements and security fixes compared to the previous versions. It includes by default all the spectre/meltdown security patches currently available and an updated version of the Linux 4.14 kernel.

A new car hacking menu now contains a collection of useful open source tools in the automotive industry to test real world cars or simulate CANBus networks.

Metasploit and postgresql are now patched to work flawlessly out of the box in live mode.

Other important updates include Firefox 58, increased installer stability, many updated security tools and some important graphic improvements.

Parrot Studio was reintroduced with many improvements, this special derivative of Parrot is designed for multimedia production as an improved version of Parrot Home for workstations, with many useful productivity tools pre-installed.

This release will probably be the last version of the 3.x series (except for eventual security updates), and we wanted to include some of the changes that we planned for parrot 4.x as a gift for our community.

Parrot 3.11 release notes

We are proud to announce the release of Parrot 3.10, the latest version of our security oriented GNU/Linux distribution.

The first big news is the introduction of a full firejail+apparmor sandboxing system to proactively protect the OS by isolating its components with the combination of different tecniques. The first experiments were already introduced in Parrot 3.9 with the inclusion of firejail, but we took almost a month of hard work to make it even better with the improvement of many profiles, the introduction of the apparmor support and enough time to make all the tests.

In Parrot 3.10 we also introduced the new Firefox 57 (Quantum) that landed on Parrot very naturally with a complete browser restyle. The release of Firefox 57 with our favorite plugins and our custom profile was possible thanks to the help of the Italian Mozilla Community, that welcomed us as members of their beautiful family.
  
We are a privacy-respecting GNU/Linux distribution and we will join the Mozilla Community and similar organizations in our common mission of protecting the internet and its users with privacy awareness campaigns and with resilient, free and effective self-defense tools.

The other big news is the introduction of the latest Linux 4.14 kernel, and it is a very important improvement for us because of the awesome features of this new kernel release and its improved hardware support.

All the updates that Debian introduced since the last Parrot release were tested and slowly introduced in our stable branch, and, since then, we have seen many improvements, bug-fixes and security updates that we are proud to ship with our new ISO files. We release very frequent updates to our ISO files because it is important for us to provide the latest security patches and the latest Debian packages to those users who have to use Parrot in Live Mode.

Some of our pentest tools received some important upstream updates, like metasploit-framework, that reached its 4.21 version, or maltegoce and casefile that were merged into a unique launcher provided by the new maltego 4.1.
  
The project encountered some difficulties with the maintenance of some tools that stopped us from working on an effective arsenal restyle and forced us to stay on our current development line, and we will soon require the help of our community to do a full restyle of our tools archive with the introduction of many useful programs that many community members wanted us to introduce.

At last, but not least, we included some lightweight but useful programs for daily tasks for our users who have parrot as their main system. We included a todo list and planner program, a personal finance management suite and a mind map designer.

We have tried to make custom flavors for other desktop environments but they were not working as expected and we decided to postpone their release for the future to take the time to make them better. Our users asked us to work on KDE Plasma, cinnamon and xfce, but we need the help of the community to develop official derivatives without flaws. Future versions of parrot would probably include a new user friendly installer too.

Here is how to upgrade the system

open a terminal window and type the following command

`sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`

&#8211;
  
Lorenzo &#8220;Palinuro&#8221; Faletra

Parrot 3.10 is out

Parrot 3.9 is now ready, and it includes some important new features that were introduced to make the system more secure and reliable.

The most important feature is the new sandbox system, introduced to protect many applications from 0day attacks out of the box. The sandbox is based on firejail, a suid program which is very easy to configure and customize to protect many critical applications in a quick and effective way (if an application does not work as expected, customize the corresponding firejail profile to be more permissive).

The other characteristic of this release is a long list of little details we wanted to fix to make the system look better, and the new debian updates we have introduced to include the latest technologies.

In some cases this release might not work as expected, in these cases our users are invited to check their firejail profiles and their drivers compatibility, and they should contact us immediately as all the new features introduced in Parrot 3.9 will be refined and consolidated for Parrot 4.0 (sorry for the spoiler).

Because of these important (but experimental) new updates, we will release other sub-versions before Parrot 4.0 to make sure everything works as expected, and we are preparing a significant update to our security tools.

Parrot 3.9 release notes

What i personally love about this project is its little but awesome developers community, and this summer was more productive than ever.

I am proud to announce the official release of Parrot 3.8, that introduces many new features and updates.

A quick look at our changelog will immediately spot the most important changes.

First of all, the new parrot 3.8 is now based on Debian 10 buster (current Debian testing release) with Linux 4.12, ZFS support, better wireless drivers support and the introduction of the new MATE 1.18, GCC 6.4 and 7.2, java 9 and so on, and all the parrot flavors now include electrum, a lightweight bitcoin client.

We have not only fixed the previous DNS resolution issues, but also introduced a new round-robin model between both the default DNS servers provided by dhcp and our new OpenNIC DNS nodes hosted on our servers to prevent DNS censorship. Our OpenNIC nodes were not yet added to the OpenNIC server list but we would love to add them in the future.

Parrot 3.7 and 3.8 were also subject to the introduction of apparmor, and selinux will be introduced by default very soon.

Parrot Lite has received some improvements, for example now it includes libreoffice, and some useless packages were dropped to make the system faster and more lightweight. No significant changes were performed on Parrot Studio and Parrot AIR except for all the global changes introduced in this new release.

&nbsp;

The ARM images for various SoC boards will be released in the next days with many interesting features and a broader list of supported boards.

&nbsp;

Parrot 3.8 Release Notes

Take a Debian core and configure it to be lightweight with a classic but complete desktop environment, put a beautiful dark theme on it and modify it to have nice colors and to not stress your eyes even after many hours of work.
  
Next step? integrate a full arsenal of tools to cover most of the aspects of the workflow of pentesters, sysadmins and developers.
  
As a final touch make an accurate selection of daily use applications.

These were our goals when we started to work on Parrot 3.7.

Of course the release of Debian 9 as the new stable branch brought many important changes in Debian, but for those distributions based on Debian testing, the main change was the introduction of many many updated packages that remained locked in the unstable branch because of the pre-release testing freeze.

We decided to not introduce significant changes on our side in this new release, and we just wanted to focus on making existing things better.
  
The most evident change is the introduction of the ARC theme, while also the auto-updater received an important change to show the progress of system upgrades.

The old linux 4.9 kernel was replaced with the new 4.11 branch, and this introduced a better support for many devices.

But the most important change is the core which is now based on Debian 10 (testing).

&nbsp;

Our platform received some revisions too: the recent crash of our server in France gave us the perfect opportunity to review our infrastructure. The most important result is that now the central repository is replicated over 2 servers, and both of them host the geo redirector that redirects every request to one of our mirror servers around the world.

We are still working on our new build infrastructure and more hardware is required to complete everything and have it up and running as expected, if you want to contribute with a donation (both money or hardware) feel free to visit our [Donations Page (https://docs.parrotsec.org/donate)](https://docs.parrotsec.org/donate) or contact palinuro AT parrotsec DOT org (spam it and we will hire a hitman for you).

&nbsp;

Let&#8217;s finish with a little note on what is happening on our ARM side:
  
our repository fully supports both armhf (armv7hf &#8211; 32bit with HF) and arm64 (aarch64/armv8 &#8211; 64bit), and all the ARM packages are perfectly synchronized with their equivalent x86 versions. The only problem woth our ARM support is that our current ARM developer was too busy in these months to finish the ARM builds in time, and our current ARM images are based on Parrot 3.4 and are available only for Raspberry Pi

But on a brighter note a new developer is up to join our ARM team and our current ARM developer will be back on the build platform very soon, and he is already at work to support not only the Raspberry Pi but many other ARM boards like the Pine64 that we would like to adopt as our official embedded board.

Parrot 3.7 Release Notes

We are ready to release new updated system images for Parrot 3.7.

&nbsp;

The release is scheduled for this sunday (09/07/2017)

&nbsp;

This new release is based on Debian 10 testing and includes a wide range of improvements and fixes, but a more detailed changelog will be provided soon in a dedicated release announcement.

Parrot 3.7 release date

<img class="alignnone wp-image-117 size-thumbnail" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/if-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" />

Some days ago we have posted a bizarre proposal on our social channels about a possible migration from Debian to Devuan to get rid of systemd and all the problems that it has brought to our environment since Parrot 2.0, and with this post we will try to explain what is happening in a more official way.

We are not going to deeply explain the technical details of this choice here as it would be useful just to open another systemd flame war which is out of scope, while we prefer to explain what we are actually planning, thinking and doing.

And because we are bad people and we love to have a beer while following Unix wars, we will fill this topic with systemd memes.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-122 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19-300x275.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="275" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19-300x275.jpg 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19-230x211.jpg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19-350x320.jpg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19-480x439.jpg 480w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/photo_2017-06-13_17-25-19.jpg 650w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

&nbsp;

**Is Parrot switching to Devuan?**

Nope, not yet.

We are just testing how our packages behave on top of Devuan instead of Debian, and what should be modified to have everything working without systemd (which seems to be hardcoded almost everywhere).

We are also collecting feedbacks from our community, and this is why we posted a very short announcement on our social channels some days before writing this post, and in a very very short amount of time we were able to collect an exaggerated amount of positive messages.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-115 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge-292x300.jpeg" alt="" width="292" height="300" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge-292x300.jpeg 292w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge-230x236.jpeg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge-350x359.jpeg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge-480x493.jpeg 480w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/CvIYxpJXYAEFXJv.jpglarge.jpeg 490w" sizes="(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px" />

&nbsp;

**How would it happen?** (assumed that the switch will happen)

It would probably happen with the release of Parrot 4.0, but again, only rumors there

<img class="alignnone wp-image-118 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW-300x199.png" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW-300x199.png 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW-230x153.png 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW-350x232.png 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW-480x319.png 480w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2ILhpxW.png 610w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

**Would i notice any differences?**

One of the goals that we want to achieve, in case of a switch to Devuan, is to write some transition wrappers to make commands like **systemctl** continue to work on sysvinit, exactly like the wrappers that make **service**, **update-rc.d** and **/etc/init.d/** launchers work on systemd.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-119 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-300x200.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-830x553.jpeg 830w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-230x153.jpeg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-350x233.jpeg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/C97e9YhWsAE9Npj.jpglarge-480x320.jpeg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

**Sysvinit or openrc?**

Openrc is awesome, and we love how it correctly implements that dependency-based init model that systemd is quite far from being able to represent for the eyes of a _Veteran Unix Admin._

But openrc needs a lot of work to work properly in the debian ecosystem, and the introduction of systemd has slowed down its introduction as a valid alternative in Debian, so we will use the Devuan version of sysvinit and eventually follow the Devuan work, and then switch to openrc when it&#8217;s ready.

But again, these are just suppositions of how we would like to move in case of a migration.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-120 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk-230x173.jpg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk-350x263.jpg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk-480x360.jpg 480w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/u7o1tk.jpg 512w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

**WHY?**

This is not the question, the real question is:

Do we care of what we run at PID 1?

YES, WE FUCKIN&#8217; DO!!

<img class="alignnone wp-image-121 size-medium" src="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-300x217.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="217" srcset="https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-300x217.jpg 300w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-550x400.jpg 550w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-230x166.jpg 230w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-350x253.jpg 350w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT-480x347.jpg 480w, https://blog.parrotsec.org/wp-content/uploads/DB9QiQlXcAEx7VT.jpg 757w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

**Ok, let&#8217;s suppose the migration happens, would i be able to install anyway?**

notabug wontfix.

Seriously, no one gave a fuck of people wanting (or needing) to run other init systems when systemd was introduced in most of the GNU/Linux distributions screwing up years and years of synergy.

We would be happy to see people being able to switch back to systemd on our platform, but we will not waste time and resources to make it easier.

<img class="alignnone size-large" src="http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/925/966/8d2.gif" width="480" height="320" />

**But i want to know what&#8217;s wrong with systemd!**

Again, we are not here to provide technical reasons about hat is wrong with a wrongly implemented init system, because many other people have deeply studied this situation and can explain it way better than us.

Here some useful resources:

[Linus Torvalds and others on systemd &#8211; ZDnet](http://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-and-others-on-linuxs-systemd/) <&#8211; here you can also understand why we don&#8217;t like gnome

[Arguments against systemd &#8211; WithoutSystemd](http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Arguments_against_systemd)

[I still don&#8217;t understand why systemd sucks &#8211; Ycombinator](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12589281)

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

**I am Poettring, i am reading this topic and i dislike the way the web is treating me**

We want to make it clear, we have nothing to do with those morons who started fundraising campaigns to hire a hitman to kill you, and we hate all the people who are bullying up on you.

We just consider systemd an immature init system which works almost perfectly on some standard desktop use cases. But we also believe that your approach is destroying that part of the Unix philosophy that made GNU/Linux one of the most stable and reliable systems out there.

We also dislike the way systemd took us away the sacred graal of choice.

So, again, nothing personal. Everything that may have hurt your person in this topic happened only because we love memes and freedom, and one of your softwares gave us the former but took us the latter.

&nbsp;

 * Palinuro

Debian and Devuan

After some months of hard work we were finally able to release Parrot 3.6.

In this new version we didn&#8217;t wanted to introduce new features and functionalities, we have worked instead in making the existing environment better, more reliable and less memory-hungry by applying many minor fixes to our build platform and packages and by tuning our startup daemons management system (Parrot 3.6 Lite 32bit can use less than 200MB of ram).

Anonsurf was improved too, and now the section dedicated to anonymity and privacy is very reliable and well tested, and some nightmares of the precedent anonsurf versions now belong to the past.

We also wanted to focus more attention to our Lite and Studio editions, because the Parrot Core is not only an awesome security oriented platform, but it is also suitable for more general purpose derivative projects, and workstations and personal computers can only take advantage from a very lightweight debian based system which is ready out of the box with all the customizations and configurations already done by our team.

Also regarding our derivatives, you should have noticed the download link for Parrot AIR, it is very similar to Parrot Full, but it only integrates our subset of tools dedicated to wireless testing. It was developed for the new [AIRBUD](https://www.alftel.com/pages/product-airbud) board, a very powerful mix between a wireless station and an embedded x86 computer developed by Alftel. Parrot AIR is just a proof of concept, of course, but it will be improved in the future to bring a very nice testing platform for this kind of pentesting boards, and yes, it can be used on a standard computer too like any other x86 edition of Parrot.

As we mentioned [here](https://blog.parrotsec.org/welcome-to-our-new-parrot-mirror-director/), also the mirror director was improved, for faster downloads and updates, and many new universities, companies and research centers have joined our servers network. But our collaborations are not only related to our mirror servers, we are in touch with some companies and startups that are working hard in the frontier of the cyber security word, and with our team we are working on some side projects regarding IoT and Automotive security, and many laboratories, experiments and public events about these topics are going to involve our community in the near future.

If your are curious about our work on ARM platforms, feel free to contact us, we have a dedicated team working on it, and even if the development in this field is a bit slower than the x86 one, it is pushing forward and we are going to release updated images for [Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.org/) and [Pine64](https://www.pine64.org/) in the next weeks, while we are already at work to support the new [PineBook](https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707) which is an awesome inexpensive laptop built on the arm64 SoC of the Pine64.

We take education very seriously, and we plan to do many many events with our community dedicated to teaching IT security basics as well as more advanced topics through courses and laboratories provided by our ambassadors, community leaders and developers all around the world!

&nbsp;

And PLEASE, [**support us on Patreon**](https://www.patreon.com/parrot), because your contribution is our only hope to survive and make this dream real!

Parrot 3.6 is here

Hello Parrots, Palinuro here.

I am proud to announce the official release of the new Parrot 3.5 ISO files.

This update took a lot of time (2 months) as we have not only updated and tested many many packages from debian, but we also tried to play with some new features and dropped some old and obsolete ones.

This new release will no longer include all those old packages that did not meet the debian standards, and of course we also removed the old and discontinued gtkdialog, that forced us to remove some other softwares built on top of it.

On a brighter note, native virtualbox and vmware guest support is now included by default.
  
The linux kernel was updated to the latest 4.9.13 release and we are waiting debian to finish the debianization of linux 4.10 to start working on our patches for it.

A virtual machine manager was included by default, but it is neither virtualbox nor the propertary vmware, while we wanted to include virt-manager, which is an awesome manager for KVM and LXC machines that can also control VMs on other computers on your network.

Another interesting feature is the update of firefox which is not firefox-esr 45, as we wanted to import the new firefox 51 by default.

For a full list of all the changes we consider being most relevant, take a look at our release changelog.

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And don&#8217;t forget to download the latest ISO files from our download page!

Parrot 3.5 is here

Parrot 3.4.1 was released.

It was divided into 2 releases, infact we have released parrot 3.4 on january 1, and then the 3.4.1 release to fix a minor bug to the installer as you can see from our changelog.

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We haven&#8217;t done big changes since the previous release (parrot 3.3) but we have improved several things, infact as we announced for the previous version, parrot 3.3 was just a working snapshot (considered as a preview) of the major work we were doing on parrot 3.4, that we were able to finish earlier than expected.

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Feel free to read our [changelog](https://github.com/ParrotSec/changelog/tree/master) to have a better overview of what we have done.

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Of course a big question that many of you may have is: what happened to Parrot Cloud?
  
No, we don&#8217;t have stopped its development, we have just discovered how pointless it was to provide our Cloud edition through a live ISO.
  
Infact we still provide it and you can still get a working parrot cloud environment in 3 ways: with our netboot images (tasksel supports the parrot-cloud metapackages), with our alternate installation script (to install parrot on top of a debian system) and by buying a pre-configured VPS from dasaweb (the official Parrot Cloud VPS provider).

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feel free to [join our community](https://docs.parrotsec.org/community) and give us your feedback as we are up to take a long pause (we will continue to provide system updates through our repositories) to collect new ideas and play with some experimental branches of the IT security universe.

Parrot 3.4 released

We have finished all the work on Parrot 3.2 and we are now proud to announce its official release.

This new version comes after a long while due to some buggy packages in the Debian Testing repository that we were forced to fix by our own (it&#8217;s about the latest GTK updates that broke the MATE interface).

We wanted this release to be just an improved version of the past release, but we were able to introduce some new interesting features, a new Linux 4.7 kernel, a more accurate set of pre-installed softwares and a more comfortable but familiar environment.

We are also happy to welcome the University of Crete as a new mirror provider, KNXSecurity for its parthnership with us and Alftel Systems ltd for having believed in our work, and our words will never be enough to say thank you to all the contributors who have spent their time to make this release as professional and functional as it was in our dreams