Re: Tor 0.2.0.19-alpha is out

[Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:36:51 -0500 Roger Dingledine <arma@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
>Tor 0.2.0.19-alpha makes more progress towards normalizing Tor's TLS
>handshake, makes path selection for relays more secure and IP address
>guessing more robust, and generally fixes a lot of bugs in preparation
>for calling the 0.2.0 branch stable.
>
>https://www.torproject.org/download#Dev
>
>Changes in version 0.2.0.19-alpha - 2008-02-09
>  o Major features:
>    - Do not include recognizeable strings in the commonname part of
>      Tor's x509 certificates.
>
>  o Major bugfixes:
>    - If we're a relay, avoid picking ourselves as an introduction point,
>      a rendezvous point, or as the final hop for internal circuits. Bug
>      reported by taranis and lodger. Bugfix on 0.1.2.x.
>    - Patch from "Andrew S. Lists" to catch when we contact a directory
>      mirror at IP address X and he says we look like we're coming from
>      IP address X. Bugfix on 0.1.2.x.
>
>  o Minor features (security):
>    - Be more paranoid about overwriting sensitive memory on free(),
>      as a defensive programming tactic to ensure forward secrecy.
>
>  o Minor features (directory authority):
>    - Actually validate the options passed to AuthDirReject,
>      AuthDirInvalid, AuthDirBadDir, and AuthDirBadExit.
>    - Reject router descriptors with out-of-range bandwidthcapacity or
>      bandwidthburst values.
>
>  o Minor features (controller):
>    - Reject controller commands over 1MB in length.  This keeps rogue
>      processes from running us out of memory.
>
>  o Minor features (misc):
>    - Give more descriptive well-formedness errors for out-of-range
>      hidden service descriptor/protocol versions.
>    - Make memory debugging information describe more about history
>      of cell allocation, so we can help reduce our memory use.
>
>  o Deprecated features (controller):
>    - The status/version/num-versioning and status/version/num-concurring
>      GETINFO options are no longer useful in the v3 directory protocol:
>      treat them as deprecated, and warn when they're used.
>
>  o Minor bugfixes:
>    - When our consensus networkstatus has been expired for a while, stop
>      being willing to build circuits using it. Fixes bug 401. Bugfix
>      on 0.1.2.x.
>    - Directory caches now fetch certificates from all authorities
>      listed in a networkstatus consensus, even when they do not
>      recognize them. Fixes bug 571. Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>    - When connecting to a bridge without specifying its key, insert
>      the connection into the identity-to-connection map as soon as
>      a key is learned. Fixes bug 574. Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>    - Detect versions of OS X where malloc_good_size() is present in the
>      library but never actually declared. Resolves bug 587. Bugfix
>      on 0.2.0.x.
>    - Stop incorrectly truncating zlib responses to directory authority
>      signature download requests. Fixes bug 593. Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>    - Stop recommending that every server operator send mail to tor-ops.
>      Resolves bug 597. Bugfix on 0.1.2.x.
>    - Don't trigger an assert if we start a directory authority with a
>      private IP address (like 127.0.0.1).
>    - Avoid possible failures when generating a directory with routers
>      with over-long versions strings, or too many flags set. Bugfix
>      on 0.1.2.x.
>    - If an attempt to launch a DNS resolve request over the control
>      port fails because we have overrun the limit on the number of
>      connections, tell the controller that the request has failed.
>    - Avoid using too little bandwidth when our clock skips a few
>      seconds. Bugfix on 0.1.2.x.
>    - Fix shell error when warning about missing packages in configure
>      script, on Fedora or Red Hat machines. Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>    - Do not become confused when receiving a spurious VERSIONS-like
>      cell from a confused v1 client.  Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>    - Re-fetch v2 (as well as v0) rendezvous descriptors when all
>      introduction points for a hidden service have failed. Patch from
>      Karsten Loesing. Bugfix on 0.2.0.x.
>
>  o Code simplifications and refactoring:
>    - Remove some needless generality from cpuworker code, for improved
>      type-safety.
>    - Stop overloading the circuit_t.onionskin field for both "onionskin
>      from a CREATE cell that we are waiting for a cpuworker to be
>      assigned" and "onionskin from an EXTEND cell that we are going to
>      send to an OR as soon as we are connected". Might help with bug 600.
>    - Add an in-place version of aes_crypt() so that we can avoid doing a
>      needless memcpy() call on each cell payload.
>
     Looks wonderful, Roger!  Thanks, you guys, very much!  I've now
built it on my FreeBSD system and will fire it up the next time I restart
my tor server, which should be within a couple of days.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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