Parrot 4.0 is out !

Parrot, a Debian-based platform, announced the release of its latest version, Parrot 4.0. This release puts an end to all the development and testing processes of many new features, which were experimented in the previous releases since the release of Parrot 3.9. It also consists of all the updated packages and bug fixes announced since its previous version, Parrot 3.11.

So, What’s new in Parrot 4.0?

Netinstall Images Introduced

Netinstall images are a powerful tool, which enables one to install just the necessary software components. One can even use them to install other desktop environments and to build a system of choice.

With the provision of netinstall images in Parrot 4.0, one can use Parrot as a pentest distribution, and also as a framework to build their very own working environment with ease.

Docker images

This version includes a release of Parrot’s own Docker templates.

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

Linux Kernel 4.16

The introduction of the new Linux 4.16 kernel is a very important step forward for Linux distributions.

The Linux Kernel 4.16 version includes important updates, such as AMDGPU multi-display fixes, optimized in-kernel filesystem operations and so on.

Sandbox

Parrot system is secure and sandboxed. This is because of its custom firejail profiles with the underlying AppArmor support. This 4.0 version includes sandboxed applications that are stable and reliable.

MATE 1.20

The MATE Desktop Environment is updated to its 1.20 release. This includes many graphic bug fixes and new features, such as HiDPI support, and the ability to auto-resize windows by simply dragging them to the screen corner and can also divide them into new layouts.

Nginx

This version introduces Nginx as Parrot’s new default web server daemon replacing Apache 2.

Apache2 is the most famous web server out there, but it is heavy and complex to configure and maintain. On the other hand, Nginx is very lightweight and easy to use. It is not only a fast and secure web server but also a powerful proxy, cache, load-balancer and general purpose forwarder. And its configuration syntax is very easy to use.

Apache2 will be available in the repository or pre-installed as a dependency of some security tools that rely on it.

LibreOffice 6

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

MD Raid Support

The Parrot 4.0 now includes a default MD raid support, which was absent in the previous versions. This is because parrot is also used for forensic analysis, and to open software, raids can be crucial while reading disks in a server environment.

Mdadm is also introduced, which can be used as a pre-installed tool. This means that parrot can be installed in a software raid for better reliability.

To know more about the new changes in detail, read the release notes.