Mender Blog

New Release – Hosted Mender 4.2.0: Stronger account security and a refreshed management experience

Written by Editorial Team | Jun 30, 2026 10:00:00 AM

Hosted Mender release, 4.2.0-saas.11, is now live. This release unifies user sign-in, strengthens account security, and modernizes the user management interface. The new hosted Mender release also delivers a set of reliability improvements across device connectivity and monitoring.

Release highlights:

  • Increased sign-in flexibility, unifying email-and-password login and external Open Authorization (OAuth) access, such as “Sign in with Google.”
  • Strengthen account security with single-use password reset links and full audit logging.
  • Improved profile security settings with OAuth provider management.


Unified user login across email/password and external OAuth providers

Hosted Mender release 4.2.0-saas.11 utilizes the user’s email address as the single, unique identifier for each account. With email as the unique identifier, users can switch seamlessly between login methods.

Only one method is active at a time: For example, if a user attempts to sign in with email and password while the account is currently authenticated through an external provider, Mender displays a clear message with the currently logged-in method and next steps.

Login settings are managed under the user’s profile settings. Accounts using an external OAuth provider can disconnect it under profile settings, and accounts using email and password can link an OAuth provider. Users control the preferred sign-in method without administrator intervention, facilitating a smoother single sign-on adoption. Users can incrementally consolidate around a preferred identity provider, or move between methods as needs change.

Auditable credential management

Alongside unified login, hosted Mender release 4.2.0-saas.11 strengthens the security and management of credentials and authentication methods.

Password reset links are single-use. Once a password reset is complete, any other reset links previously issued for that user are immediately invalidated. Reset behavior is also locked to the account’s current state at the time the request is made, ensuring predictable, controlled credential changes.

Every authentication change is also fully auditable. Whether completing a password reset, linking an OAuth provider, or changing an authentication method, each action generates an audit log entry and a security notification email to the user. When a reset also changes the authentication method, the audit log and the security notification explicitly reflects both actions. Security notification emails also include instructions for restoring the OAuth method if needed. For teams with compliance and security review requirements, the enhanced auditability of hosted Mender provides a clear, traceable record of account access changes over time.

Additional enhancements

This release of hosted Mender delivers several operational improvements, including:

  • More accurate monitoring alerts: Device monitoring alert emails report the associated device group, improving the clarity and usefulness of operational notifications.
  • Improved remote access to devices: Device connection streams and file transfers are more reliable, delivering smoother, more dependable remote access.
  • Updated device filtering: Filter selections no longer carry over unintentionally when switching between dynamic device groups, tiers, or states. The filtering state resets when switching between groups, and the view always reflects the filtered group.

 

Try the new features

The hosted deployment of Mender is already updated with all the new features. If you are an existing customer, log in to your account to explore the latest improvements today.

If you are new to Mender, we recommend following the Get Started documentation and signing up for a Free Trial account. No credit card is required, and you get 10 devices free for 12 months.

See all improvements

For the full list of changes and improvements in this release, see the Hosted Mender release notes: https://docs.mender.io/release-information/release-notes-changelog/hosted-mender

We hope you enjoy the new improvements and look forward to hearing from you.

Share your feedback

Share your feedback about this release in the Mender Hub General Discussions forum. Your continued feedback ensures Mender keeps meeting your needs.

If you believe you have encountered a bug, please submit a report in the Mender JIRA issue tracker with detailed reproduction steps and configuration information.