Katana v1.5 Release

   Updated: 03/02/2010

Katana v1.5 (Z@toichi) has been released! (Click here for Katana project page) After several months of work and some reconsiderations of the pre-packaged tools, this award winning project has a new release. This release has a couple of major changes to the disto list and the introduction of the Katana Tool Kit. The new version should be much more friendly for all the Windows users out there. The addition of the Katana Tool Kit should make using all the portable Windows apps much easier. Another key addition to Katana is a USB write blocker to prevent that pesky anti-virus from deleting some of the tools. Katana can be Downloaded directly or through it's Torrent.

What is Katana? For those who are not familiar with the project, Katana combines hundreds of security tools to run off a single USB thumb drive. Katana brings together many of the best security distributions (Backtrack, Ophcrack, UBCD, Trinity Rescue Kit, Derik's Boot and Nuke, etc.) along side hundreds of portable Windows applications (Wireshark, HiJackThis, OllyDBG, The Sleuth Kit, ClamAV, FindSSN, AngryIP , etc.) to form a Portable Multi-Boot Security Suite. Katana includes distributions and Windows applications which focus on Pen-Testing, Auditing, Forensics, System Recovery, Network Analysis, Malware Removal and more.

Katana is also highly customizable. One of the major goals in the project was to develop an environment where users could tailor Katana to their needs. Users can customize Katana by adding and removing Distros and Portable Applications with relative ease. The best resource for these sorts of modifications is the Hack From A Cave Forum.



The line-up this time around is as follows: Backtrack 4 , the Ultimate Boot CD , Ultimate Boot CD for Windows , Ophcrack Live , Puppy Linux , Kaspersky Live , Trinity Rescue Kit , Clonezilla and , Derik's Boot and Nuke. Users can still customize Katana to add thier favorite distros using the instructions posted here.

There has been a major overhaul in the distros which come pre-loaded with Katana. A lot of this overhaul was due to interests on the forum. Thank you to all the requests and posts we've had. Fear not, instructions on installing all the distros from v1.0 can still be found on the Forum

Removed
Got Root? Slax	Slax is not being included by default, but Katana users are encouraged to add a Slax based distro and modules to fill in some of the gaps in functionality in the included distrso.
OSWA Assistant	Due to the overlap in functionality between this distro and other distros this project has been removed.
Damn Small Linux	This project does not appear to be supported anymore.
Damn Vulnerable Linux	While this distro is great for learning purposes, it is not as useful for field use.
Added
Kaspersky Live	Added some anti-virues capabilities to the distro list.
Trinity Rescue Kit	Some additional tools for recovery and repair operations on Windows machines
Clonezilla	Clone and backup any system.
Puppy	Puppy was added to replace DSL. Puppy seems to be better supported.
Derik's Boot and Nuke	Quickly erase a disk.
Updated
Backtrack	Moved from "Backtrack 4 pre" to "Backtrack 4".

The Katana Tool Kit (KTK) is a suite of Windows applications which can be run of a USB Flash Drive. Without the need for installation on the base system, users can bring a suite of uncompromised tools with them anywhere. Tools like Wireshark, HiJackThis, Firefox, PuTTY, Unstoppable Copier, OllyDBG, ProcessActivityView, SniffPass Password Sniffer, ClamAV, Undelete Plus, IECookiesView, MozillaCacheView, FreeOTFE, The PC Decrapifier, FindSSN, The Sleuth Kit, and OpenOffice. There are over 100 unique projects included in the KTK. (See the full list of tools here) The KTK facilitates fast access to all the Katana Windows applications. The applications are broken down into the following categories: Anti-Virus, Backup, Encryption, File System, Forensics, Media, Networking, Office, Recovery, Registry, System, Utilities. Each project provides unique functionality to the various categories listed above. The KTK also facilitates the easy addition of other portable applications. By simply installing applications to a sub-folder of the "PortableApps" directory, your favorite applications will appear in the KTK the next time it is launched.

In Katana v.1.5, several new utilities have also been added to the Katana Tool Kit:

Application	Description
GNUWin32	The GnuWin32 project provides Win32-versions of GNU tools, or tools with a similar open source license. The ports are native ports, that is they rely only on libraries provided with any standard 32-bits MS-Windows operating system.
Forensic Acquisition Utilities	This is a collection of utilities and libraries By George M. Garner Jr. is intended for forensic or forensic-related investigative use in a modern Microsoft Windows environment. The components in this collection are intended to permit the investigator to sterilize media for forensic duplication, discover where logical volume information is located and to collect the evidence from a running computer system while at the same time ensuring data integrity (e.g. with a cryptographic checksums) and while minimizing distortive alterations to the subject system.
Angry IP	Angry IP Scanner (or simply ipscan) is an open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use. It scans IP addresses and ports as well as has many other features
The Sleuth Kit	The Sleuth Kit (TSK) is a library and collection of command line tools that allow you to investigate volume and file system data.
SpyDLLRemover	SpyDLLRemover is the standalone tool to effectively detect and delete spywares from the system. It comes with advanced spyware scanner which quickly discovers hidden Rootkit processes as well suspcious/injected DLLs within all running processes.
Eraser	Eraser Portable is a secure data removal tool that runs directly from your iPod, USB thumbdrive, portable hard drive or any other portable media. You can plug it right into any Windows computer and use it just like you would on your own. It is a repackaged version of the popular Eraser utility designed with portability in mind, so it has all the same great features of Eraser, but there's nothing to install.
VLC	VLC Media Player Portable is the popular VLC media player packaged as a portable app, so you can take your audio and video files along with everything you need to play them on the go.
InfraRecorder	InfraRecorder Portable is the popular InfraRecorder CD/DVD burning program packaged as a portable app, so you can do your disk burning on the go. It has all the same great features of InfraRecorder including the creation of custom data, audio and mixed-mode projects and recording them to physical discs as well as disc images.
SiteShoter	SiteShoter is a small utility that allows you to save a screenshot of any Web page into a file. It automatically creates hidden window of Internet Explorer, loads the desired Web page, and than save the entire content of the Web page into an image file (.png, .jpg, .tiff, .bmp or .gif). You can also use SiteShoter to convert .html file on your local drive into image file.
uTorrent	uTorrent is the world's most popular BitTorrent client. Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in uTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet).
gVim	gVim Portable is a feature-rich and not-too-hard-to-use text editor, and a very feature rich one at that. With gVim you can code, highlight syntax, and do everything else you would expect of a text editor worth its weight in megabytes.
Ophcrack	Ophcrack is a free Windows password cracker based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method. It comes with a Graphical User Interface and runs on multiple platforms.

A USB write blocker application has been added to help prevent malware installing on the USB Flash Drive and to prevent the anti-virus from deleting any of the totally awesome apps from the Katana Tool Kit. By running the MakeUSBReadOnly.bat on mount, unmounting and remounting the drive, going about you business, and running MakeUSBWritable.bat after you are done, you can prevent most interference by applications on the base OS.



- Added drive logo.
- Changed directory for user data from "home" to "Documents".
- Modified boot menu to add scrolling.