Malcolm v25.11.0 includes an overhaul of the install.py installation/configuration script, a few bug fixes, and some component version updates.
- ✨ Features and enhancements
- We're in the process of majorly overhauling our install.py script (#395) used for setting up a Linux or MacOS system to run Malcolm and for configuring Malcolm's runtime options. There are future updates still to come (#766) but for now the command-line and dialog-based interfaces' functionality and backend are in place. The step-by-step wizard has been replaced with a menu-based interface that allows for changing individual values without having to step through the whole set of questions. The Docker-based Malcolm installation example on Ubuntu and end-to-end installation example have useful information about this change, as does the command-line arguments document. We've done a lot of testing on what's a complete rewrite of this, but there is a possibility we missed something; if you find an issue with the new install/configure script, please open a discussion or log a bug and let us know. For the next release or so, we're leaving the legacy installer in place as
scripts/legacy_install.pywhich could be used in a pinch (e.g., runscripts/legacy_install.py --configurefor the old configuration menu). - We've incorporated a new "Connections Tree" visualization. This visualization tracks the potential of lateral movement based on the observed communications between all devices that reach a root node, identified by IP address. It gives a high-level view showing both direct and indirect connetions between the root IP and all of its destinations, regardless of time, along with enriched data for each endpoint and connection.
- Updates to the Validated Design Architecture Review (VADR) dashboards.
- The OpenSearch container now includes the
repository-s3plugin, useful for those who wish to configure OpenSearch's snapshots to save to S3-compatible buckets.
- We're in the process of majorly overhauling our install.py script (#395) used for setting up a Linux or MacOS system to run Malcolm and for configuring Malcolm's runtime options. There are future updates still to come (#766) but for now the command-line and dialog-based interfaces' functionality and backend are in place. The step-by-step wizard has been replaced with a menu-based interface that allows for changing individual values without having to step through the whole set of questions. The Docker-based Malcolm installation example on Ubuntu and end-to-end installation example have useful information about this change, as does the command-line arguments document. We've done a lot of testing on what's a complete rewrite of this, but there is a possibility we missed something; if you find an issue with the new install/configure script, please open a discussion or log a bug and let us know. For the next release or so, we're leaving the legacy installer in place as
- ✅ Component version updates
- 🐛 Bug fixes
- 🧹 Code and project maintenance
- Refactored a number of Python functions to reduce cyclomatic complexity (#765, work ongoing)
- 📄 Configuration changes (in environment variables in
./config/) for Malcolm and incontrol_vars.conffor Hedgehog Linux. The Malcolm control script (e.g.,./scripts/status,./scripts/start, etc.) should take care of creating new variables and migrating existing ones as needed based on the rules in./config/env-var-actions.ymlwithout intervention on the user's part.
Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network 🖧 traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring 🕵🏻♀️.
Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers 📦, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker 🐋, Podman 🦭, and Kubernetes ⎈. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.
Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images 💿 for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux 🦔 can be downloaded from Malcolm's releases page on GitHub. Due to limits on individual files in GitHub releases, these ISO files have been split 🪓 into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash 🐧 (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell 🪟 (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.
As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board 💬 to engage with the community, or pop some corn 🍿 and watch a video 📼.
