Parrot OS includes “a full portable laboratory for all kinds of cyber security operations, from pentesting to digital forensics and reverse engineering, but it also includes everything needed to develop your own software or keep your data secure“.
Key features are that this operating system (O.S.) is:
- Secure – always updated and frequently released with hardened & sandboxing options.
- Free – being a GNU/Linux distribution it is available free-of-charge, shareable, and includes the source code so it can be changed & adapted.
- Lightweight – has low resource consumption so can be run on old hardware or with very limited resources e.g. inside a Virtual Machine.
- Portable and universal – the tools included are designed to be used on other O.S.’s such as MS Windows, MacOS, and other Linux variants.
“Parrot OS is quite unique, as it does not allow direct root logins for safety reasons (root can only be used with the ‘sudo’ command), and it provides its own sandbox system by combining Firejail and AppArmor with customer security profiles.“
Documentation & Support
Documentation provided includes a User Guide covering Getting Started, Using Parrot and Troubleshooting. A Developer Zone and links through to the Debian Documentation are also included.
The Parrot Community includes a Forum covering such areas as Support, Development, Language-specific Categories, Tools, Hardware, Mobile and many more.
The Community Portal includes Chat options such as Matrix, Riot.im & IRC, a variety of Social Pages plus other Groups and Local Communities around the world.
Downloads
The Download section includes the following installation options:
TITLE
Parrot Home
MATE ISO
Parrot Home
KDE ISO
Parrot Home OVA
Parrot Security
KDE ISO
Parrot Security
MATE ISO
Parrot Security OVA
Parrot Netinstall x32
Parrot Netinstall x64
Parrot Docker Containers
PURPOSE
For daily use.
For daily use.
For Virtual Machines.
For professional use.
For professional use.
For Virtual Machines.
Experimental.
Experimental.
Use Parrot OS on top of another O.S. & in the cloud.
DESCRIPTION
No security tools.
MATE desktop.
No security tools.
KDE desktop.
Home edition.
MATE desktop.
Security tools included.
KDE desktop.
Security tools included.
MATE desktop.
Security edition.
MATE desktop.
Network installer.
Internet required.
Network installer.
Internet required.
Tools
Parrot OS has its own application repository which includes Debian’s 56k+ packages and are accessible using the APT package manager. Additional packages can be included via:
- Flatpak – a next-generation technology for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux.
- SNAP – operated by Canonical Ltd who build Ubuntu. This system includes applications from major software companies as well as small groups and individual developers.
- Wine – “Wine Is Not an Emulator” is a compatibility layer capable of running MS Windows applications on Linux, MacOS and BSD.
Do you have any comment or experiences you want to share about Parrot OS? If so then please comment below.