Yes, the time has come again – for a new kernel, and a new release of BackTrack. Codenamed “Nemesis”. This release is our finest release as of yet with faster Desktop responsiveness, better hardware support, broader wireless card support, streamlined work environment.

We could go on for pages on saying how great the new version is, but we’ll cut to the chase, and give you the run down:

• Kernel 2.6.35.8 – *Much* improved mac80211 stack.
• USB 3.0 support.
• New wireless cards supported.
• All wireless Injection patches applied, maximum support for wireless attacks.
• Even *faster* desktop environment.
• Revamped Fluxbox environment for the KDE challenged.
• Metasploit rebuilt from scratch, MySQL db_drivers working out of the box.
• Updated old packages, added new ones, and removed obsolete ones.
• New BackTrack Wiki with better documentation and support.
• Our most professional, tested and streamlined release ever.

For those wanting to upgrade an older release of BT4, an apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade should do the job.

We are also pleased to announce the beginning of a new BackTrack Wiki which covers many important features of BackTrack. Get your brand new copy of BackTrack 4 R2 from our download page. If you enjoy BackTrack and would like to donate to our project – please check our community page! And as usual, if you are looking for high quality real world penetration testing training, check out our Offensive-Security courses.

It’s been a while since our last blog post, so we thought we’d give a quick status update with our progress. We are a week behind schedule with the release of BT4 R2, which is undergoing heavy testing at this moment. We will of course announce the download once it is available.

Another interesting event taking place is the 2nd German BackTrack Day (0x7da). The event will take place in Fulda on the  6-7.11.2010. The whole event is organized by the German BackTrack Team and will include great talks, workshops and CTFs. Tickets are pretty much sold out, except for 5 VIP tickets reserved for speakers.