MeshCentral - Agent icon, Batch agent console, Intel AMT import, Web Relay
This week the big news is that MeshCentral has even more advance code to break apart and re-assemble Windows executables. This code has gotten so good, each section of the executable (code, data, resources, etc.) can now be resized to any dimension needed. This code can now replace bitmaps and icons in a Windows executable prior to timestamping it and signing it and as a result, MeshCentral can now customize a Windows agent even more than before. You can set a different icon file (.ico) for agents in each of your domains. Now, the MeshCentral Agent can have your company or customer’s icon on it. This is all done in seconds on MeshCentral server start. As far as I know, MeshCentral is the only server to do this. On top of this, many more improvements this week. In detail:
- MeshCentral can now customize Windows agent icon. It’s difficult to break a Windows executable apart, modify the internals and re-assemble it so that is can still run correctly. Many tables, pointers and alignment issues must be correctly handled and yet, MeshCentral can now customize a Windows executable resource file in many ways, even if the change causes a big change in the size of the resource section of the executable. With this latest release, you can now place a .ico file in the meshcentral-data folder, set it up in the config.json and on restart, MeshCentral will place the icon in the executable and timestamp and sign it. The agent is more customized than ever before.
- Updated Authenticode-JS with icon and bitmap replacement support. MeshCentral’s capability to change a Windows executable is available as a stand-alone tool you can use from the command line. Authenticode-JS was also enhanced to support removal/addition/replacement of both icon and bitmaps in a Windows executable resource section. This is great for other’s that want to do similar customization in their own projects. Authenticode-JS is available on NPM here.
- Batch agent console commands. At the request of GitHub users, MeshCentral can now send agent console commands to many agents at once using the “Group Action” button. This is useful for advanced usages or for developers that want to send the same command to many agents at once. For example, you can set a command to for update a set of agents.
- Intel AMT device import from JSON. There is now a new import button for Intel AMT only device groups. This allows administrators to import a list of Intel AMT devices into MeshCentral in a few clicks. A simple JSON format is supported, but also, the MeshCommander computer list format is supported. This makes it easy to quickly import Intel AMT device information and credentials from other tools.
- Web relay feature now supported on the mobile site. The web relay feature in MeshCentral has gotten to be very popular as you can quickly access any remote web pages even on servers that are on remote private networks. You can do this without using MeshCentral Router or any VPN. This week, we added support for web relay on the mobile web site, so you can see remote sites on cell phones and tablets.
- MeshCentral.com now supports web relay. The web relay feature was also added to MeshCentral.com, so users of the public server can see how this feature works. MeshCentral has been configured with 3 additional DNS names (relay1 to relay3.meshcentral.com) allowing users to see up to 3 remote sites at once.
- MeshCentral download count. After using the Docker Hub REST API to query the exact download count of the top 5 MeshCentral Docker images, it looks like this is more than 4.6 million downloads on Docker Hub and on NPM there is over 1.5 million for a grand total that is well over 6 million since the release of MeshCentral on NPM since March 2017.
Many other features have been added and bug fixes included. As usual,
feedback is appreciated. If you see any problems or need support on
something, please create a new issue on GitHub or help other users. For more information, visit the portal at https://meshcentral.com.
Enjoy!
Ylian
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Reddit, GitHub, YouTube.