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Tor 0.1.2.17 is released



Tor 0.1.2.17 features a new Vidalia version in the Windows and OS X
bundles. Vidalia 0.0.14 makes authentication required for the ControlPort
in the default configuration, which addresses important security risks.
Everybody who uses Vidalia (or another controller) should upgrade.

In addition, this Tor update fixes major load balancing problems with
path selection, which should speed things up a lot once many people
have upgraded.

https://tor.eff.org/download.html

Changes in version 0.1.2.17 - 2007-08-30
  o Major bugfixes (security):
    - We removed support for the old (v0) control protocol. It has been
      deprecated since Tor 0.1.1.1-alpha, and keeping it secure has
      become more of a headache than it's worth.

  o Major bugfixes (load balancing):
    - When choosing nodes for non-guard positions, weight guards
      proportionally less, since they already have enough load. Patch
      from Mike Perry.
    - Raise the "max believable bandwidth" from 1.5MB/s to 10MB/s. This
      will allow fast Tor servers to get more attention.
    - When we're upgrading from an old Tor version, forget our current
      guards and pick new ones according to the new weightings. These
      three load balancing patches could raise effective network capacity
      by a factor of four. Thanks to Mike Perry for measurements.

  o Major bugfixes (stream expiration):
    - Expire not-yet-successful application streams in all cases if
      they've been around longer than SocksTimeout. Right now there are
      some cases where the stream will live forever, demanding a new
      circuit every 15 seconds. Fixes bug 454; reported by lodger.

  o Minor features (controller):
    - Add a PROTOCOLINFO controller command. Like AUTHENTICATE, it
      is valid before any authentication has been received. It tells
      a controller what kind of authentication is expected, and what
      protocol is spoken. Implements proposal 119.

  o Minor bugfixes (performance):
    - Save on most routerlist_assert_ok() calls in routerlist.c, thus
      greatly speeding up loading cached-routers from disk on startup.
    - Disable sentinel-based debugging for buffer code: we squashed all
      the bugs that this was supposed to detect a long time ago, and now
      its only effect is to change our buffer sizes from nice powers of
      two (which platform mallocs tend to like) to values slightly over
      powers of two (which make some platform mallocs sad).

  o Minor bugfixes (misc):
    - If exit bandwidth ever exceeds one third of total bandwidth, then
      use the correct formula to weight exit nodes when choosing paths.
      Based on patch from Mike Perry.
    - Choose perfectly fairly among routers when choosing by bandwidth and
      weighting by fraction of bandwidth provided by exits. Previously, we
      would choose with only approximate fairness, and correct ourselves
      if we ran off the end of the list.
    - If we require CookieAuthentication but we fail to write the
      cookie file, we would warn but not exit, and end up in a state
      where no controller could authenticate. Now we exit.
    - If we require CookieAuthentication, stop generating a new cookie
      every time we change any piece of our config.
    - Refuse to start with certain directory authority keys, and
      encourage people using them to stop.
    - Terminate multi-line control events properly. Original patch
      from tup.
    - Fix a minor memory leak when we fail to find enough suitable
      servers to choose a circuit.
    - Stop leaking part of the descriptor when we run into a particularly
      unparseable piece of it.

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