Seth GroverJun 2

Malcolm v26.06.0 is primarily a security hardening release, addressing fifteen vulnerabilities (2 high severity, 6 medium, and 7 low) identified in a security assessment. Bug fixes address an issue with the zeek container causing performance degredation over time and a fix for duplicate virtual machine entries in NetBox autopopulation. A few component versions have also been updated.

If you are upgrading from an existing Malcolm installation, run ./scripts/status for Malcolm to migrate some settings prior to running ./scripts/configure, ./scripts/start, or other Malcolm control scripts.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v26.05.2...v26.06.0

  • ๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Security Remediation & Hardening (#996)
    • Unauthenticated reflected XSS / open redirect in /dashboards/app/refred; also added Content-Security-Policy framing headers (frame-ancestors, base-uri, form-action) and X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN globally to mitigate clickjacking (#997)
    • Authenticated command injection in filebeat container via SFTP-uploaded filename (#998)
    • Password stored as MD5-crypt for SFTP (#1009)
    • Authenticated archive zip-slip file write in filebeat container (#999)
    • OpenSearch path injection via /mapi/fields?template (#1000)
    • submit.php Location: open redirect via Referer (#1007)
    • htadmin proxied with no nginx auth gate (#1003)
    • Keycloak OIDC ssl_verify always set to false (#1006)
    • NetBox SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=admin shipped default (#1011)
    • RBAC defaultdict(lambda: True) fail-open for unlisted handlers in Malcolm API (#1004)
    • Read-only Arkime deny-regex omits addtags/removetags (#1008)
    • Read-only deployment allows POST /mapi/event (#1002)
    • WISE auth path selectable by client User-Agent (#1001)
    • ARKIME_PASSWORD_SECRET=Malcolm shipped default (#1005)
    • requests CVE bump reverted in logstash image (#1010)
    • Fix API auth errors and hide NGINX version disclosure (#989)
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • auto-discovered Virtual Machines in NetBox seem to allow for duplicates (#978)
    • Ensure list of archive file types supported by Malcolm for uploading Zeek logs (application/gzip,application/vnd.rar,application/x-7z-compressed,application/x-bzip2,application/x-cpio,application/x-gzip,application/x-lzip,application/x-lzma,application/x-rar-compressed,application/x-tar,application/x-xz,application/zip) are consistently used across the platform.
    • zeek container continually grows /usr/local/zeek/crontab, causing Malcolm performance to gradually worsen (#1015)
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance
    • Fixed some incorrect links in documentation (#988, thanks @jsoref)
    • Refactored NGINX error pages configuration into its own include file and added a 401.html page
  • ๐Ÿ“„ Configuration changes for Malcolm (in environment variables in ./config/). The Malcolm control script (e.g., ./scripts/status, ./scripts/start) automatically handles creation and migration of variables according to ./config/env-var-actions.yml.

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #Strelka #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Release Malcolm v26.06.0 ยท idaholab/Malcolm

Malcolm v26.06.0 is primarily a security hardening release, addressing fifteen vulnerabilities (2 high severity, 6 medium, and 7 low) identified in a security assessment. Bug fixes address an issue...

GitHub
Seth GroverMay 19

Malcolm v26.05.2 is out?!? What, already? Dรฉjร  vu? We bumped up to the timetable on this release as a critical vulnerability found in NGINX made it expedient for us to do so.

Malcolm v26.05.2 focuses heavily on security updates, most notably upgrading OpenResty to address a critical NGINX remote code execution heap buffer overflow vulnerability. It also adds new Suricata OT detections for D-Link HNAP abuse, improves alerting webhook support, introduces the File Tree dashboard, and includes Suricata parsing/mapping fixes and documentation updates. Several other components received version bumps as well.

If you are upgrading from an existing Malcolm installation, run ./scripts/status for Malcolm to migrate some settings prior to running ./scripts/configure, ./scripts/start, or other Malcolm control scripts.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v26.05.0...v26.05.2

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • Reference Counting (Use-After-Free) Bug for PyList_SetItem in filescan's python-statfs (#960 #962)
    • Added a few missing Suricata fields (suricata.tc_progress, suricata.ts_progress, suricata.tunnel.pcap_cnt, suricata.tunnel.pkt_src) to the index mapping template
    • When suricata.app_proto_ts and/or suricata.app_proto_tc reported that protocol parsing had failed (due to malformed input data), invalid data could be stored in HTTP, DNS, and/or TLS fields. This is now detected and those invalid values are dropped, and some combination of proto_parse_failed, client_stream_failed, or server_stream_failed are added to tags.
    • Suricata's HTTP version was not being normalized to network.protocol_version.
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #Strelka #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Seth GroverMay 5

Malcolm v26.05.0 delivers a mix of feature improvements, performance improvements, bug fixes, dependency updates, and deployment refinements across Malcolm and Hedgehog for both Docker- and Kubernetes-based workflows.

If you are upgrading from an existing Malcolm installation, run ./scripts/status for Malcolm to migrate some settings prior to running ./scripts/configure, ./scripts/start, or other Malcolm control scripts.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v26.04.1...v26.05.0

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
    • #726 โ€” use hierarchical structure for NetBox device roles
      • Expanded/reworked NetBox preloaded device roles into a hierarchical taxonomy (thanks Crubumble)
    • #867 โ€” examine large chown'ed directories in container images and see if they can be reduced
    • #954 โ€” allow users to provide custom netbox scripts to be automatically registered on startup (thanks PrudhviChanda)
      • Added NetBox custom script support in the container/runtime and docs, including bind-mounting ./netbox/custom-scripts and automatic script registration at startup
      • Renamed NetBox startup/control scripts from netbox/scripts to netbox/control-scripts
    • Added file.strings extraction/indexing/search support across Strelka โ†’ Logstash โ†’ OpenSearch templates (wildcard field mapping type) โ†’ Arkime/WISE
    • Added configurable Zeek file analyzer timeout via ZEEK_FILE_ANALYZER_TIMEOUT_SEC
    • netdev users in ISO-installed environment can run nmcli and nmtui to configure network interfaces.
    • the malcolm_appliance_packager.sh script that creates a tarball of Malcolm images can now package for both Malcolm and Hedgehog profiles.
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • #757 โ€” multiple OpenSearch nodes (using Malcolm-Helm) fail to communicate with each other due to self-signed certs (thanks scott-jeffery)
      • OpenSearch post-start setup now supports configurable default replica counts instead of always forcing single-node replicas to 0
      • OpenSearch self-signed internal cert generation can now be skipped when external/preexisting certs are being used
    • #827 โ€” Fix raspberry pi build which is broken since v25.12.0 Hedgehog/Malcolm platform unification
      • Updated Hedgehog Raspberry Pi docs and first-boot behavior/documentation
      • Hedgehog Raspberry Pi image now forces password change for sensor on first login and disables direct root password login by default
      • Refactored Raspberry Pi GitHub Actions build into reusable workflow .github/workflows/raspi-build-push.yml
    • #878 โ€” Arkime capture Fails to Start on Hedgehog When WISE Web Config Is Enabled
      • Arkime RBAC role-mapping injection is now only applied when role-based access control is enabled
      • Arkime WISE configuration initialization now handles missing/empty persistent config files more robustly
      • Arkime live capture now normalizes WISE URLs better, follows redirects when probing, and avoids some bad URL construction edge cases
    • #957 โ€” configuration script can disable ICS parsers unintentionally
    • #959 โ€” Arkime sessions view attempts to load PCAP for Zeek and Suricata logs (which don't have PCAP) (see also arkime/arkime#3934)
    • Fixed one-off cleanup of interrupted Zeek intel files during stop --wipe
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance
    • Documentation improvements
    • #913 โ€” replace ingress-nginx which is EOL
      • Switched Kubernetes ingress example/docs from ingress-nginx to Traefik and replaced the old Vagrant example with a new RKE2/Traefik-based environment
      • Fixed malformed indentation in kubernetes/01-volumes-nfs.yml.example for the filescan volume section
      • Removed deprecated Kubernetes example files for ingress-nginx and the old separate NFS-server Vagrant setup
      • opensearch is no longer part of the hedgehog Docker Compose profile, and some depends_on relationships were adjusted accordingly
    • #942 - Fixed mutable default argument usage in Zeek threat feed helper functions (thanks @stef41)
    • #917 โ€” develop IronBank (US DoD) images for Malcolm
  • ๐Ÿ“„ Configuration changes for Malcolm (in environment variables in ./config/). The Malcolm control script (e.g., ./scripts/status, ./scripts/start) automatically handles creation and migration of variables according to ./config/env-var-actions.yml.
    • Added ZEEK_FILE_ANALYZER_TIMEOUT_SEC (default 5) to zeek.env. This is the default amount of time a file can be inactive before the file analysis gives up and discards any internal state related to the file.
    • ZEEK_CLUSTER_BACKEND can be specified in zeek.env to specify the Zeek cluster backend (ZeroMQ vs Broker).
  • โŒ Errata
    • Under NetBox โ†’ Plugins โ†’ NetBox HealthCheck Plugin โ†’ HealthCheck the error "unavailable: Unable to connect to Redis: Connection Error" is displayed. This is a side effect of #882 and does not actually indicate a problem with NetBox or its connection to Valkey. This will be fixed in the next release.

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #Strelka #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Seth GroverApr 15

Malcolm v26.04.1 contains improvements, bug fixes, security updates, and component bumps.

If you are upgrading from an existing Malcolm installation, run ./scripts/status for Malcolm to migrate some settings prior to running ./scripts/configure, ./scripts/start, or other Malcolm control scripts.

v26.02.0...v26.04.1

Note that v26.04.1 is the same as v26.04.0 released last week, apart from the fix for bug #943. If you're already running v26.04.0 and don't use the encrypted install option in the installer ISO, you probably don't need to worry about updating to v26.04.1. The full release notes from v26.04.0 are also included here.

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
    • implemented easier way to enable/disable Strelka scanners #935
    • Handle nested file scanning (e.g., from ZIP files) with Strelka #922
    • index selected Strelka result fields #919
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • Hedgehog Linux Breaking on Reboot after Encrypted Quick Install with Multiple Drives #943
    • Fix YAML syntax error in kubernetes/15-redis.yml due to missing end quote #926
    • Using remote elasticsearch data store uses deprecated ssl_certificate_verification setting [https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/issues/915]
    • fix Malcolm API loopback webhook to handle RBAC and non-JSON formatted events #916
    • fix issues in zeekdeploy.sh to handle long crypto handshakes and Zeek's state DB getting out of sync
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance
    • swap redis out for valkey #882
    • pin all third-party GitHub CI actions at known good SHA sums to mitigate things like the Trivy supply chain attack #933
    • some minor tweaks to various Dockerfiles and ISO build scripts to address vulnerability scanner findings
    • some documentation updates
  • ๐Ÿ“„ Configuration changes for Malcolm (in environment variables in ./config/). The Malcolm control script (e.g., ./scripts/status, ./scripts/start) automatically handles creation and migration of variables according to ./config/env-var-actions.yml.
    • Added ARKIME_PCAP_LIBPCAP to arkime.env should uses wish to revert to older libpcap mode for PCAP file processing rather than faster scheme processing (default false)
    • FILEBEAT_SCANNER_FINGERPRINT_LENGTH's default in filescan.env has been changed from 1024 to 512
    • redis.env has been renamed to valkey.env and its variables also have been renamed accordingly
    • STRELKA_SCANNERS has been added to pipeline.env for #935
    • ZEEK_DISABLE_SPICY_ZIP has been added to zeek.env for #922 (default true)

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #Strelka #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Seth GroverDec 18, 2025

Malcolm v25.12.1 contains a few critical bug fixes and component version updates.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v25.12.0...v25.12.1

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
    • Installer splash screen shows "HEDGEHOG" when using Hedgehog run profile
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • Changed field used in Threat Intelligence dashboard's file type table from zeek.intel.file_mime_type to file.mime_type so filters created from it can work on other dashboards
    • link for threat intelligence URL doesn't work correctly from dashboards (behind reverse proxy) (#832)
    • self-signed certificates not accepted by Chrome (#833)
    • Malcolm ISO installer's automatic partitioning may create too-small /var partition (#835)
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Seth GroverNov 4, 2025

Malcolm v25.11.0 includes an overhaul of the install.py installation/configuration script, a few bug fixes, and some component version updates.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v25.09.0...v25.11.0

  • โœจ 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.py which could be used in a pinch (e.g., run scripts/legacy_install.py --configure for 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-s3 plugin, useful for those who wish to configure OpenSearch's snapshots to save to S3-compatible buckets.
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • Double imports when restarting Malcolm (#588) (thanks @KchChr)
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance
    • Refactored a number of Python functions to reduce cyclomatic complexity (#765, work ongoing)
  • ๐Ÿ“„ Configuration changes (in environment variables in ./config/) for Malcolm and in control_vars.conf for 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.yml without intervention on the user's part.
    • Malcolm
      • NGINX_RESOLVER_IPV4_OFF and NGINX_RESOLVER_IPV6_OFF have been renamed to NGINX_RESOLVER_IPV4 and NGINX_RESOLVER_IPV6, respectively, and their logic reversed, in nginx.env.

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Seth GroverSep 24, 2025
#Malcolm (malcolm.fyi) v25.09 features ๐Ÿง  threat intel improvements, new โš™๏ธ config options, ๐Ÿ†™ component updates, ๐Ÿ› fixes, more! Details @ github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/releases. Malcolm is a powerful tool suite for NSM ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ. #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #Suricata #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring

Malcolm
Malcolm

A powerful, easily deployable network traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring

Malcolm
Seth GroverSep 24, 2025

Malcolm v25.09.0 includes new features and available customizations, improvements to Threat Intelligence, component version updates, and several important bug fixes.

https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm/compare/v25.08.1...v25.09.0

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
    • improve Modbus register tracking with new modbus_detailed.log (cisagov/Malcolm#762)
    • add non-LVM option(s) for Malcolm/Hedgehog Linux ISO installers (cisagov/Malcolm#725)
    • allow configuring default search time frame for OpenSearch Dashboards (cisagov/Malcolm#724)
    • allow customizing maximum upload file size (cisagov/Malcolm#769)
    • add Arkime capture statistics to the Packet Capture Statistics dashboard (cisagov/Malcolm#703)
    • integrate Validated Architecture Design Review (VADR) dashboards (cisagov/Malcolm#780)
    • Threat Intelligence improvements
      • support Google Threat Intelligence feed for building Zeek intel source (cisagov/Malcolm#758)
      • renamed Zeek Intelligence dashboard to Threat Intelligence and improved it
      • links from context menu items in Arkime and Dashboards (like reference URLs for IOCs) now ask the user before navigating to external sites
    • Added icons with links to "ready" and "ingest statistics" APIs to landing page
    • Include tx-rx-secure.sh in files packaged by malcolm_appliance_packager.sh
  • โœ… Component version updates
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • Python code handling X-Forwarded- headers should do case insensitive lookup (cisagov/Malcolm#764)
    • uploaded PCAPs that result in no filename-derived tags erroneously end up with internal tags on them (cisagov/Malcolm#774)
    • installer option for encrypted storage are not marking secondary data/artifact storage for encryption (cisagov/Malcolm#779)
    • Malcolm/Hedgehog Linux ISO-installed environments' auditd service fails to start (cisagov/Malcolm#761)
    • Failed shard query error on Overview dashboard (cisagov/Malcolm#754)
  • ๐Ÿงน Code and project maintenance
    • refactor GitHub build actions for Malcolm Docker images to reduce duplication (cisagov/Malcolm#717)
  • ๐Ÿ“„ Configuration changes (in environment variables in ./config/) for Malcolm and in control_vars.conf for 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.yml.
    • Malcolm
      • PCAP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILE_GB added to upload-common.env to allow configuring maximum PCAP upload size (cisagov/Malcolm#769)
      • DASHBOARDS_TIMEPICKER_FROM and DASHBOARDS_TIMEPICKER_TO added to dashboards-helper.env to allow configuring default search time frame for OpenSearch Dashboards (cisagov/Malcolm#724)

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL

Release Malcolm v25.09.0 ยท idaholab/Malcolm

Malcolm v25.09.0 includes new features and available customizations, improvements to Threat Intelligence, component version updates, and several important bug fixes. v25.08.1...v25.09.0 โœจ Features...

GitHub
Seth GroverAug 12, 2025

Building a network traffic analysis system: Deploying Malcolm on Amazon EC2

This is the first of two blog posts on the AWS Public Sector Blog about deploying Malcolm on Amazon AWS. It covers installing Malcolm on a single EC2 instance. The next post will cover deploying Malcolm on EKS.

For those of you more interested in scaling Malcolm using Kubernetes, you can check out our "still-in-beta" Helm chart and share your feedback in the issue tracker on that repo.

#AWS #EC2 #Malcolm #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL #DHS #CISA #CISAgov

Building a network traffic analysis system: Deploying Malcolm on Amazon EC2 | Amazon Web Services

In this post, we provide step-by-step guidance for deploying Malcolmโ€”an open source network traffic analysis suiteโ€”natively on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), using the on-demand compute, elasticity, and scalability of AWS to eliminate traditional infrastructure overhead. This approach is particularly beneficial for cost-conscious public sector (federal, state, and local), utility, and industrial customers who require network and security monitoring to deliver on their missions.

Amazon Web Services
Seth GroverJul 30, 2025

Malcolm v25.07.0 includes quite a few new features and enhancements, performance improvements, bug fixes, and component version updates.

If you are updating from a version older than v25.06.0, please read those release notes prior to updating to this version.

  • โœจ Features and enhancements
    • Add IANA service name and description enrichment to Zeek's known_services.log (#705)
    • Improve the speed of pruning files (#710)
    • allow multiple instance of Suricata in PCAP processing mode via UNIX socket (#707)
    • expose Arkime WISE tagging features to the user (#377)
    • handle comma- or semicolon-separated directories for PCAP_PROCESSED_DIRECTORY (to support new live PCAP processing method in Malcolm-Helm) (#702)
    • handle new OPCUA Binary summary logs (#709)
    • incorporate new ANSI C12.22 parser and add corresponding dashboard (#708)
    • overhauled instructions for Deploying Malcolm on Amazon Web Services (AWS) including deploying Malcolm on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) in Auto Mode
    • install.py script is now a bit more robust in trying to help ensure the correct packages and Python libraries are installed
  • โœ… Component version updates
    • Fluent Bit to v4.0.5
    • Arkime v5.7.1
    • Supercronic v0.2.34
    • OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards v3.1.0
    • Keycloak v26.2.5
    • yq v4.47.1
    • NetBox v4.3.4
      • NetBox Initializers plugin v4.3.0
      • NetBox Topology Views plugin v4.3.0
    • Zeek v7.2.2
    • Spicy v1.13.2
    • urllib3 Python Library to v2.5.0 (addresses CVE-2025-50181)
    • ICSNPP Zeek network analyzer updates
      • BACnet parser fixes for previously unsupported services (see cisagov/icsnpp-bacnet#50 and cisagov/icsnpp-bacnet#51)
      • Ethernet/IP various fixes (cisagov/icsnpp-enip#34 (partial); cisagov/icsnpp-enip#35; cisagov/icsnpp-enip#36; cisagov/icsnpp-enip#37; cisagov/icsnpp-enip#38)
      • GENISYS minor updates (cisagov/icsnpp-genisys#25)
      • OPCUA Binary summary logs (cisagov/icsnpp-opcua-binary#102)
      • S7comm fixes for ACK message processing (cisagov/icsnpp-s7comm#19; cisagov/icsnpp-s7comm#20)
  • ๐Ÿ› Bug fixes
    • zeek logs not cleaned by clean-processed-folder.py due to MIME type mismatch (#712)
    • packet capture statistics dashboard not working in Kibana (#704)
    • need to adjust shared object creation script (e.g., dashboards import) for new versions of Kibana (#713)
    • log fingerprinting needs to be examined to avoid unintentional collisions (#715)
    • install.py issues in Rocky Linux, Almalinux (#385)
    • OpenSearch container health check issue when OpenSearch is disabled (#716)
    • investigate NetBox API access via Malcolm's netbox endpoint and mapi endpoint (#701)

Malcolm is a powerful, easily deployable network ๐Ÿ–ง traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring ๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ.

Malcolm operates as a cluster of containers ๐Ÿ“ฆ, isolated sandboxes which each serve a dedicated function of the system. This makes Malcolm deployable with frameworks like Docker ๐Ÿ‹, Podman ๐Ÿฆญ, and Kubernetes โŽˆ. Check out the Quick Start guide for examples on how to get up and running.

Alternatively, dedicated official ISO installer images ๐Ÿ’ฟ for Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ๐Ÿฆ” 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 ๐Ÿช“ into 2GB chunks and can be reassembled with scripts provided for both Bash ๐Ÿง (release_cleaver.sh) and PowerShell ๐ŸชŸ (release_cleaver.ps1). See Downloading Malcolm - Installer ISOs for instructions.

As always, join us on the Malcolm discussions board ๐Ÿ’ฌ to engage with the community, or pop some corn ๐Ÿฟ and watch a video ๐Ÿ“ผ.

#Malcolm #HedgehogLinux #Zeek #Arkime #NetBox #OpenSearch #Elasticsearch #Suricata #PCAP #NetworkTrafficAnalysis #networksecuritymonitoring #OT #ICS #icssecurity #CyberSecurity #Cyber #Infosec #INL #DHS #CISA #CISAgov