Parrot Linux Security Edition is the penetration-testing build of Parrot. It ships a ready-to-use toolset for reconnaissance, web testing, exploitation, wireless auditing, reverse engineering and forensics on a Debian 13 base, with KDE Plasma 6 as the default desktop since 7.0.
What’s included
The full list changes with every release; the tools overview explains the categories. These are tools named in the recent release notes and in the documentation on this site:
- Information gathering: Nmap, theHarvester, dnsx, Maltego, autorecon
- Web: Burp Suite, Caido, OWASP ZAP, sqlmap, ffuf, httpx, Nikto
- Exploitation and C2: Metasploit Framework, Sliver, Empire with Starkiller, convoC2, chisel, Ligolo-ng
- Active Directory: BloodHound, bloodhound.py, netexec, Certipy-AD, BloodyAD, evil-winrm-py, enum4linux-ng
- Passwords: John the Ripper, Hashcat (see OpenCL for Hashcat), seclists-lite
- Wireless and network: Aircrack-ng, airgeddon, Bettercap, Kismet, Wireshark
- Reverse engineering and forensics: Rizin with Cutter, jadx, volatility3
- Secrets: TruffleHog
- AI security: Hexstrike AI and MCPwn, added in 7.0 and 7.1
- Privacy: AnonSurf, Tor Browser, a hardened Firefox ESR, Firejail and AppArmor profiles
Why choose Parrot Linux Security Edition
- The tools come from the Parrot repositories and are updated with
sudo parrot-upgrade. - Rocket runs containerised tools, preferring rootless Podman since 7.4, so awkward dependencies stay off the base system.
- AnonSurf and sandboxing are set up out of the box. See Parrot OS vs Kali for how that compares.
- Lighter spins (MATE, LXQt, Enlightenment) are available for older laptops.
System requirements
A 64-bit dual-core CPU, 2 GB of RAM as a minimum (4 GB recommended) and 40 GB of disk space. A GPU only matters for Hashcat acceleration. See system requirements.
Download and install
Images are published by the Parrot project; the download guide links to the official page and explains the formats. After verifying the file, follow the installation guide, or Parrot on VirtualBox for a VM.
Who it is for
Penetration testers, red teams, CTF players and security students. If you only want a privacy-minded desktop, Home Edition is lighter, and any tool can be installed later from the same repositories.
Official images are published by the Parrot project on its download page.
