Code Name (Helios)
We are pleased to announce the release of r2026-03 CYBER RANGES, code named Helios!
This release builds on the foundation laid in Nyx, with updates across the Main App, Scenario Composer, Admin App, Injector Engine, and several Backend Services. Authors get more control over how scenarios are built, instructors and observers get better tools to run an exercise, the injection editor has been improved, and we've kept up the usual work on performance, stability, and security.
🚀 Highlights
Area | Highlights |
|---|---|
Main App (APP) | Dashboard Controls: Configurable auto-refresh interval for live dashboards. Report Download: Trainers can now download event reports directly from the Observer View. Smart Score Visibility: Score page and toolbar now appear only when the scenario supports scoring. VPN & Hints: Conditional VPN client download and more consistent hint icons across player and observer views. |
Scenario Composer | Feature Tabs: Add only the scenario components you need (Rules, Assets, Cloud Templates, Dashboards, Wikis). Ephemeral Disk: End-to-end support across cloud templates, flavors, and resource limits. Assessment Limits: A 100-question cap with immediate, user-friendly feedback. Observer Dashboards: Support for live exercise monitoring dashboards. Linked Competences: Questions now display all associated competences. |
Admin App | LMS Integration: New page for improved integration with external Learning Management Systems. Systems Tab: All management pages consolidated under a single Systems area. Resource Limits: Ephemeral disk added to resource limit controls. Bulk Uploads: Improved validation for bulk user uploads. |
Injector Engine | Editor Redesign: A major overhaul of the injection canvas with a new layout, multi-tab editing, and improved loading and reconnection. |
📝 What's New [APP]
📊 Dashboards & Monitoring
Configurable Refresh Interval: Live dashboards now include a refresh-interval selector, so you can control how frequently dashboard data updates to suit your exercise.
Observer Report Download: Trainers can now download event reports directly from the Observer View, making it faster to capture and share results after an exercise.
🎮 Player Experience
Smart Score Visibility: The score page and toolbar indicator are now hidden automatically for scenarios that do not support scoring.
Conditional VPN Client: The VPN client download button now appears only when it is applicable to the scenario.
Observer Feedback in Questions: Observer feedback messages are now shown directly on the instance question page, so players see relevant guidance in context.
Consistent Hints: Hint icons are now more consistent across the user instance and observer views.
👤 Profile & Account
Role Labels: The profile page now supports an updated role label for clearer identification of account roles.
Playlist Ratings: Playlists can now be rated using the feedback system introduced in the previous release.
🛠️ Dev Notes - Fixes and Improvements [APP]
Score Display: Corrected an issue where the scoreboard could show an incorrect fill percentage.
Subscription Card: Reworked the subscription card layout to resolve action-button misalignment.
Events: General cleanup and reliability improvements to event handling.
VPN Certificate: VPN certificate downloads now retrieve only the latest version.
Observer Console: Admins can now access the console when viewing hidden servers.
Profile Performance: Removed redundant calls when loading message settings on the profile page for faster load times.
Vaious Performance & Security Enhancements
Refactoring: Continued migration of application pages to TypeScript for long-term type safety, and expanded automated test coverage.
📝 What's New [Composer]
🧩 Scenario Feature Tabs
Build Only What You Need: Authors can now add and remove scenario feature tabs directly on the Scenario Composer page. Using the Add More Features picker, you can attach just the components your scenario requires, such as Rules, Assets, Cloud Templates, Dashboards, and Wikis. This keeps each scenario focused on what it actually needs.
☁️ Cloud Composer & Infrastructure
Ephemeral Disk Support: Ephemeral disk is now supported across cloud flavors and resource limits, with a new field available when configuring cloud templates and a dedicated entry in the toolbar resource limits.
Flexible Network Interfaces: You can now add a server network interface without specifying a subnet and IP address, giving more flexibility when designing topologies.
Flavor Specs: The flavor specifications table now includes a swap column for clearer resource visibility.
🖼️ Cloud Image Management
Improved Upload Experience: The cloud image download and upload flow has been refined, including RAW image upload with gzip compression.
Property Controls: The cloud image properties panel has been updated. Some properties are now hidden, others have been added, and the allowed properties list now matches what OpenStack supports.
🔍 Questions & Assessments
Linked Competences on Questions: Questions now display all of their linked competences, giving authors a clearer view of competency coverage.
Assessment Question Cap: Assessments are now limited to 100 questions, with immediate, user-friendly feedback when the limit is reached.
Save Protection: The Save button is now disabled while an assessment is saving or being created to prevent duplicate submissions.
📈 Scenario Logic & Dashboards
Dashboards: Scenario Composer dashboards improved for live exercise monitoring.
Publishing Safeguards: Injection editing is now disabled once a scenario is published, protecting live content from accidental changes.
Template Filters & Labels: Injector engine scenarios are now clearly labelled in filters, with updated labelling to indicate deprecated template types.
🛠️ Dev Notes - Fixes and Improvements [Composer]
Topology Diagram: Reset edge style color in the topology diagram and corrected updating of a network node's port security value.
Cloud Templates: Users are no longer automatically attached to a cloud template when they lack the required permissions.
Tags: Scenario tags now wrap correctly when needed.
Permissions: Improved user-group permission checks across scenario actions.
Password Modal: The change-password modal now closes correctly after saving.
VPN Certificate: Aligned VPN certificate downloads to retrieve only the latest version.
Stability & Security: Updated libraries, resolved vulnerability warnings, and continued TypeScript migration across cloud flavor, container images, store, and wiki pages.
📝 What's New [Admin]
🔗 LMS Integration
External Learning Management Support: A new administrative page has been added to improve integration with external Learning Management Systems, making it easier to connect CYBER RANGES with your existing learning platforms.
🗂️ Systems Consolidation
Unified Systems Tab: All platform management pages now live under a single Systems tab, so administration sits in one place instead of being spread across the app.
👥 User & Resource Management
Bulk Upload Validation: Bulk user uploads now include improved validation to catch errors earlier and reduce manual cleanup.
Ephemeral Disk in Resource Limits: Resource limit configuration now includes ephemeral disk, aligning with the new Composer capabilities.
Batch Organization Users: Administrators can now create a batch of organization users in a single operation.
🏅 Badges, Playlists & Organizations
Modernized Management Pages: Badges, playlists, promos, and organization management have been refreshed and migrated to TypeScript for improved reliability and maintainability.
🛠️ Dev Notes - Fixes and Improvements [Admin]
Competence Warnings: A warning message is now shown for linked competencies originating from the same platform.
Event Reports: Reworked and fixed event report download functionality in lobbies.
Performance & Security Enhancements
Login Page: Minor cleanup on the login page.
Testing: Configured a modern test framework for the Admin App.
🚀 Injector Engine
Editor (2.0.0)
Canvas Overhaul: A major redesign of the injection-building canvas, with a refreshed layout and top bar for a clearer, more modern editing experience.
Multi-Tab Editing: Added the ability to work across multiple tabs, including a "paste to new tab" shortcut and import/export of layouts.
Layout & Responsiveness: Improved layout presets, output selection for better responsiveness, and independent pane loading.
Reliability: Overhauled loading states, reconnection handling, and network calls, with better read-only enforcement and clearer plugin error reporting.
Testing & Stability
Expanded Test Coverage: Additional unit tests have been added across Injector Engine services.
Build Consistency: Continued standardization of build and dependency handling across Injector Engine components for more predictable deployments.