About Parrot 5.0 OS

After a long-awaited time, our favorite hacking OS is back for more! A while ago Parrot team shared great news for both experienced Parrot users and for people who have never used Parrot before but would like to give it a try; Parrot OS 5.0 has been out now for some time and we could not hold back to plug and play with the new version of our favorite OS!

So, here is a quick preview of what Parrot “Electro Ara” comes with.

First of all, this latest version of Parrot OS is a great choice for both hackers and security-minded internet users because, in contrast with previous versions, the last update follows a pattern of an LTS (long-term support) version.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, everyone tends to put off frequent updates because they stall our day-to-day routine and yes, they are boring. That’s not only CyberSecurity un-wise but also unproductive due to the fact that softwares remain out of date… With the new update Parrot guarantees flexibility and stability, the new version will enjoy OS patches through 2027. Moreover, most of the tools that are not directly maintained by the Parrot packaging team will receive updates from Debian οn their own schedules. Two birds with one stone! OS and Tool updates are always in real-time. The Parrot team chooses applications that cybersecurity professionals and hackers enjoy, with useful features and respect for your privacy and control of your computer.

Technical Details

Parrot OS 5.0 can be run from a live USB or a live disc, and it can be installed directly on a virtual machine, also you can install it to an HDD partition under your bootloader. If you want to add applications of your choice to Parrot, running from a VM or directly from your HDD is recommended. Like other common distributions, Parrot is based on Debian, so Debian-based applications can be installed at the command line with apt.

Parrot OS 5.0 works well with x86-64 or amd64-based processors. If you’re configuring a virtual machine, give Parrot at least 2GB of RAM and 40GB of disk storage for the Security Version, while for the Home Version give at least 20GB of disk space.

Release Features

The last stable Parrot release was version 5.16 in March 2021. Here are some cool stuff in version 5.0:

• ARM Support: Did anybody say Hack through Mac? Finally, the long-term wish of both Hack The Box’s and Parrot’s communities becomes a reality; Parrot supports ARM chips including Mac M1 VMs. It also supports the most known ARM boards, e.g Raspberry Pi 3 and 4.

• LTS: Parrot 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 not only more reliable but also extremely secure being always up-to-date in real-time.

• Backports: Parrot decided to maintain a special backport channel where not only the Debian backports are replicated, but where Parrot works 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.

The best hacking tools are available on Parrot OS, some of these are:

• Pocsuite3: a emote vulnerability testing tool equipped with a proof-of-concept engine.

• Ivy-optiv: a payload creation framework for the execution of arbitrary VBA (macro) source code in memory.

• Python3-pcodedmp: Pcodedmp is a very powerful VBA P-Code disassembler that can be used to inspect and work with VBA documents.

• Mimipenguin: A Shell/Python script to dump the login password from the current Linux desktop user. Adapted from the idea behind the popular Windows tool mimikatz.

• Jwtxploiter: A tool to test the security of JSON Web Tokens.

• Findmyhash: A python script to crack hashes using online services.

• Oletools: a composition of python tools used for malware analysis, forensics, and debugging.

• Dirsearch: a web path scanner.

• PyInstaller Extractor: is a Python script to extract the contents of a PyInstaller generated Windows executable file.

Dozens of other open-source hacking tools are available through Parrot’s repository, moreover, popular tools like; Metasploit, Nmap, Wireshark, and Hashcat are pre-installed on the Security Version.

Download Parrot and explore them now!

Editions 

Hacker or not, Parrot offers different editions for different needs:

Home edition: a secure and private OS alternative for everyone, especially for daily users, students, and security-conscious developers. Home edition users have access to the same repository of the security edition, and they can manually install all the tools that they need via apt. 

Security edition: The hackers’ favorite; ideal for penetration testers and red team operations. This special edition comes up with the most known open-source hacking tools that exist to create the ultimate hacking environment and make every hacker’s life easier.

Cloud editions, architect, and IoT: Parrot OS tools come in different editions for various specialized deployments such as virtual machines and cloud environments. More details are below.

Pwnbox: The one of its kind virtual hacking distro for the Hack The Box platform, this edition offers you the ability to hack directly from your browser. With the new release Parrot offers a standalone version of Pwnbox available to download for everyone; a custom edition of Parrot with Hack The Box’s Pwnbox look is released now.

Find Hack The Box version in the cloud editions section here.

Docker Images: Parrot for Docker an emerging trend that offers users the ability to exploit Parrot OS capabilities through other operating systems and cloud environments. Freedom and integration for security analysis and penetration testing is what makes this edition so useful for everyone.

Architect edition: A DYI edition of Parrot OS, offering full customization and flexibility. The image is very lightweight and lets the user choose which graphical environment or toolset category to install. It can also be used for completely headless installations (servers, decoy devices, etc), or as a starting point framework for heavy OS customization.

Raspberry Pi edition: That is totally a new one! A beta edition for IoT is out now that Supports Raspberry Pi, in the near future more IoT devices will be added.

Check all Parrot editions here.

Cool Info

Parrot OS is carbon neutral, meaning that most of its servers are hosted on datacenters that use renewable resources, and other carbon neutral partners are chosen whenever possible. The project also decided to plant a certain amount of trees to compensate for the remaining emissions and to reach a positive carbon footprint in the future.

And that’s just a quick summary of what the amazing Parrot team has been working on lately!

Find everything that Parrot 5.0 comes with here.

A Message From Parrot Team

“Lorenzo “Palinuro” Faletra and the entire Parrot dev team are proud to share version 5.0 with you! As it’s FOSS (free and open-source software), feel free to distribute the Parrot disc image amongst your friends, coworkers, and family. We’re always listening to user feedback and working to make Parrot better than ever. Please share questions, comments, or technical issues with us via Parrot’s Community forum or our Discord channel. We look forward to hearing from you.”

Don’t forget to watch the amazing AMA with Palinuro and r0adrunn3r about Parrot OS!

Download Parrot OS here!