Parrot OS is a Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution with a focus on computer security.
It was recently announced the launch of the new version of the Linux distribution, «ParrotOS 5.2″ which is based on Debian 11 and includes a collection of tools for system security testing, forensics and reverse engineering.
Parrot's distro positions itself as a portable lab environment for security experts and forensic scientists, focusing on tools for testing cloud systems and IoT devices. It also includes cryptographic tools and programs to provide secure network access, including TOR, I2P, anonsurf, gpg, tccf, zulucrypt, veracrypt, truecrypt, and luks.
Main novelties of Parrot OS 5.2
In this new version of the distribution that is presented, the Linux kernel was updated to version 6.0 which implements new functions to the DAMON subsystem (Data Access Monitor) that They allow not only to monitor the access of processes to RAM from the user space, but also influence memory management. This version also fixes system performance issues on AMD Zen processors caused by code added 20 years ago to fix a hardware problem on some chipsets (an additional WAIT instruction was added to slow down the processor so the chipset had time to enter an idle state). The change resulted in performance degradation across workloads which often alternate between idle and busy states (if you want to know more about this version of Linux, you can check the details this link.)
Another of the improvements that has been made in this new version of Parrot OS 5.2 are the improved builds for Raspberry Pi boards, with performance improvements and sound driver issues.
In addition to that, the installer Calamares received several important updates, in which some installation problems were corrected, as well as that were included various security updates that come to correct vulnerabilities and serious errors in the packages Firefox, Chromium, sudo, dbus, nginx, libssl, openjdk, and xorg.
The Anonymization Toolkit AnonSurf, which redirects all traffic through Tor without separate proxy settings, Support for Tor bridge nodes has been improved.
On the other hand, some drivers were updated, including for some wireless cards based on Broadcom and Realtek chips, as well as drivers for Virtualbox and NVIDIA GPUs.
It is also highlighted that ported the latest version of the Pipewire multimedia framework from Debian backports, They get to fix various stability bugs.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Raspberry Pi images received major updates to improve system performance and fix audio drivers
- The HackTheBox edition received minor graphical updates.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about this new release, you can consult the details In the following link.
Download and update Parrot OS
If you want to get this new version of this Linux distribution You just have to go to its official website and in the download section you can get the link to download this new version. Various iso images with MATE environment are offered for download, designed for daily use, security testing, installation on Raspberry Pi 4 boards and creating specialized installations, for example, for use in cloud environments.
In addition, if you already have a previous version of Parrot OS installed (the 5.x branch) you can get the new version of Parrot 5.1 without having to reinstall the system on your computer. The only thing you have to do is open a terminal and run the following command to update:
sudo parrot-upgrade
It is also recommended to update the packages by:
sudo apt update sudo apt full-upgrade -t parrot-backports
At the end you will only have to restart your computer.