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[tor-talk] Tor 0.2.5.2-alpha is out



Tor 0.2.5.2-alpha includes all the fixes from 0.2.4.18-rc and 0.2.4.20,
like the "poor random number generation" fix and the "building too many
circuits" fix. It also further improves security against potential
adversaries who find breaking 1024-bit crypto doable, and launches
pluggable transports on demand (which gets us closer to integrating
pluggable transport support by default -- not to be confused with Tor
bundles enabling pluggable transports and bridges by default).

https://www.torproject.org/dist/

Changes in version 0.2.5.2-alpha - 2013-02-13
  o Major features (client security):
    - When we choose a path for a 3-hop circuit, make sure it contains
      at least one relay that supports the NTor circuit extension
      handshake. Otherwise, there is a chance that we're building
      a circuit that's worth attacking by an adversary who finds
      breaking 1024-bit crypto doable, and that chance changes the game
      theory. Implements ticket 9777.
    - Clients now look at the "usecreatefast" consensus parameter to
      decide whether to use CREATE_FAST or CREATE cells for the first hop
      of their circuit. This approach can improve security on connections
      where Tor's circuit handshake is stronger than the available TLS
      connection security levels, but the tradeoff is more computational
      load on guard relays. Implements proposal 221. Resolves ticket 9386.

  o Major features (bridges):
    - Don't launch pluggable transport proxies if we don't have any
      bridges configured that would use them. Now we can list many
      pluggable transports, and Tor will dynamically start one when it
      hears a bridge address that needs it. Resolves ticket 5018.
    - The bridge directory authority now assigns status flags (Stable,
      Guard, etc) to bridges based on thresholds calculated over all
      Running bridges. Now bridgedb can finally make use of its features
      to e.g. include at least one Stable bridge in its answers. Fixes
      bug 9859.

  o Major features (other):
    - Extend ORCONN controller event to include an "ID" parameter,
      and add four new controller event types CONN_BW, CIRC_BW,
      CELL_STATS, and TB_EMPTY that show connection and circuit usage.
      The new events are emitted in private Tor networks only, with the
      goal of being able to better track performance and load during
      full-network simulations. Implements proposal 218 and ticket 7359.
    - On some platforms (currently: recent OSX versions, glibc-based
      platforms that support the ELF format, and a few other
      Unix-like operating systems), Tor can now dump stack traces
      when a crash occurs or an assertion fails. By default, traces
      are dumped to stderr (if possible) and to any logs that are
      reporting errors. Implements ticket 9299.

  o Major bugfixes:
    - Avoid a segfault on SIGUSR1, where we had freed a connection but did
      not entirely remove it from the connection lists. Fixes bug 9602;
      bugfix on 0.2.4.4-alpha.
    - Do not treat streams that fail with reason
      END_STREAM_REASON_INTERNAL as indicating a definite circuit failure,
      since it could also indicate an ENETUNREACH connection error. Fixes
      part of bug 10777; bugfix on 0.2.4.8-alpha.

  o Major bugfixes (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.20):
    - Do not allow OpenSSL engines to replace the PRNG, even when
      HardwareAccel is set. The only default builtin PRNG engine uses
      the Intel RDRAND instruction to replace the entire PRNG, and
      ignores all attempts to seed it with more entropy. That's
      cryptographically stupid: the right response to a new alleged
      entropy source is never to discard all previously used entropy
      sources. Fixes bug 10402; works around behavior introduced in
      OpenSSL 1.0.0. Diagnosis and investigation thanks to "coderman"
      and "rl1987".
    - Fix assertion failure when AutomapHostsOnResolve yields an IPv6
      address. Fixes bug 10465; bugfix on 0.2.4.7-alpha.
    - Avoid launching spurious extra circuits when a stream is pending.
      This fixes a bug where any circuit that _wasn't_ unusable for new
      streams would be treated as if it were, causing extra circuits to
      be launched. Fixes bug 10456; bugfix on 0.2.4.12-alpha.

  o Major bugfixes (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.18-rc):
    - No longer stop reading or writing on cpuworker connections when
      our rate limiting buckets go empty. Now we should handle circuit
      handshake requests more promptly. Resolves bug 9731.
    - Stop trying to bootstrap all our directory information from
      only our first guard. Discovered while fixing bug 9946; bugfix
      on 0.2.4.8-alpha.

  o Minor features (bridges, pluggable transports):
    - Add threshold cutoffs to the networkstatus document created by
      the Bridge Authority. Fixes bug 1117.
    - On Windows, spawn background processes using the CREATE_NO_WINDOW
      flag. Now Tor Browser Bundle 3.5 with pluggable transports enabled
      doesn't pop up a blank console window. (In Tor Browser Bundle 2.x,
      Vidalia set this option for us.) Implements ticket 10297.

  o Minor features (security):
    - Always clear OpenSSL bignums before freeing them -- even bignums
      that don't contain secrets. Resolves ticket 10793. Patch by
      Florent Daignière.

  o Minor features (config options and command line):
    - Add an --allow-missing-torrc commandline option that tells Tor to
      run even if the configuration file specified by -f is not available.
      Implements ticket 10060.
    - Add support for the TPROXY transparent proxying facility on Linux.
      See documentation for the new TransProxyType option for more
      details. Implementation by "thomo". Closes ticket 10582.

  o Minor features (controller):
    - Add a new "HS_DESC" controller event that reports activities
      related to hidden service descriptors. Resolves ticket 8510.
    - New "DROPGUARDS" controller command to forget all current entry
      guards. Not recommended for ordinary use, since replacing guards
      too frequently makes several attacks easier. Resolves ticket 9934;
      patch from "ra".

  o Minor features (build):
    - Assume that a user using ./configure --host wants to cross-compile,
      and give an error if we cannot find a properly named
      tool-chain. Add a --disable-tool-name-check option to proceed
      nevertheless. Addresses ticket 9869. Patch by Benedikt Gollatz.
    - If we run ./configure and the compiler recognizes -fstack-protector
      but the linker rejects it, warn the user about a potentially missing
      libssp package. Addresses ticket 9948. Patch from Benedikt Gollatz.

  o Minor features (testing):
    - If Python is installed, "make check" now runs extra tests beyond
      the unit test scripts.
    - When bootstrapping a test network, sometimes very few relays get
      the Guard flag. Now a new option "TestingDirAuthVoteGuard" can
      specify a set of relays which should be voted Guard regardless of
      their uptime or bandwidth. Addresses ticket 9206.

  o Minor features (log messages):
    - When ServerTransportPlugin is set on a bridge, Tor can write more
      useful statistics about bridge use in its extrainfo descriptors,
      but only if the Extended ORPort ("ExtORPort") is set too. Add a
      log message to inform the user in this case. Resolves ticket 9651.
    - When receiving a new controller connection, log the origin address.
      Resolves ticket 9698; patch from "sigpipe".
    - When logging OpenSSL engine status at startup, log the status of
      more engines. Fixes ticket 10043; patch from Joshua Datko.
    - Turn "circuit handshake stats since last time" log messages into a
      heartbeat message. Fixes bug 10485; bugfix on 0.2.4.17-rc.

  o Minor features (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.18-rc):
    - Improve the circuit queue out-of-memory handler. Previously, when
      we ran low on memory, we'd close whichever circuits had the most
      queued cells. Now, we close those that have the *oldest* queued
      cells, on the theory that those are most responsible for us
      running low on memory. Based on analysis from a forthcoming paper
      by Jansen, Tschorsch, Johnson, and Scheuermann. Fixes bug 9093.
    - Generate bootstrapping status update events correctly when fetching
      microdescriptors. Fixes bug 9927.
    - Update to the October 2 2013 Maxmind GeoLite Country database.

  o Minor bugfixes (clients):
    - When closing a channel that has already been open, do not close
      pending circuits that were waiting to connect to the same relay.
      Fixes bug 9880; bugfix on 0.2.5.1-alpha. Thanks to skruffy for
      finding this bug.

  o Minor bugfixes (relays):
    - Treat ENETUNREACH, EACCES, and EPERM connection failures at an
      exit node as a NOROUTE error, not an INTERNAL error, since they
      can apparently happen when trying to connect to the wrong sort
      of netblocks. Fixes part of bug 10777; bugfix on 0.1.0.1-rc.

  o Minor bugfixes (bridges):
    - Fix a bug where the first connection works to a bridge that uses a
      pluggable transport with client-side parameters, but we don't send
      the client-side parameters on subsequent connections. (We don't
      use any pluggable transports with client-side parameters yet,
      but ScrambleSuit will soon become the first one.) Fixes bug 9162;
      bugfix on 0.2.0.3-alpha. Based on a patch from "rl1987".

  o Minor bugfixes (node selection):
    - If ExcludeNodes is set, consider non-excluded hidden service
      directory servers before excluded ones. Do not consider excluded
      hidden service directory servers at all if StrictNodes is
      set. (Previously, we would sometimes decide to connect to those
      servers, and then realize before we initiated a connection that
      we had excluded them.) Fixes bug 10722; bugfix on 0.2.0.10-alpha.
      Reported by "mr-4".
    - If we set the ExitNodes option but it doesn't include any nodes
      that have the Exit flag, we would choose not to bootstrap. Now we
      bootstrap so long as ExitNodes includes nodes which can exit to
      some port. Fixes bug 10543; bugfix on 0.2.4.10-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (controller and command-line):
    - If changing a config option via "setconf" fails in a recoverable
      way, we used to nonetheless write our new control ports to the
      file described by the "ControlPortWriteToFile" option. Now we only
      write out that file if we successfully switch to the new config
      option. Fixes bug 5605; bugfix on 0.2.2.26-beta. Patch from "Ryman".
    - When a command-line option such as --version or --help that
      ordinarily implies --hush appears on the command line along with
      --quiet, then actually obey --quiet. Previously, we obeyed --quiet
      only if it appeared later on the command line. Fixes bug 9578;
      bugfix on 0.2.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (code correctness):
    - Previously we used two temporary files when writing descriptors to
      disk; now we only use one. Fixes bug 1376.
    - Remove an erroneous (but impossible and thus harmless) pointer
      comparison that would have allowed compilers to skip a bounds
      check in channeltls.c. Fixes bugs 10313 and 9980; bugfix on
      0.2.0.10-alpha. Noticed by Jared L Wong and David Fifield.
    - Fix an always-true assertion in pluggable transports code so it
      actually checks what it was trying to check. Fixes bug 10046;
      bugfix on 0.2.3.9-alpha. Found by "dcb".

  o Minor bugfixes (protocol correctness):
    - When receiving a VERSIONS cell with an odd number of bytes, close
      the connection immediately since the cell is malformed. Fixes bug
      10365; bugfix on 0.2.0.10-alpha. Spotted by "bobnomnom"; fix by
      "rl1987".

  o Minor bugfixes (build):
    - Restore the ability to compile Tor with V2_HANDSHAKE_SERVER
      turned off (that is, without support for v2 link handshakes). Fixes
      bug 4677; bugfix on 0.2.3.2-alpha. Patch from "piet".
    - Fix compilation warnings and startup issues when running with
      "Sandbox 1" and libseccomp-2.1.0. Fixes bug 10563; bugfix on
      0.2.5.1-alpha.
    - Fix compilation on Solaris 9, which didn't like us having an
      identifier named "sun". Fixes bug 10565; bugfix in 0.2.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (testing):
    - Fix a segmentation fault in our benchmark code when running with
      Fedora's OpenSSL package, or any other OpenSSL that provides
      ECDH but not P224. Fixes bug 10835; bugfix on 0.2.4.8-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (log messages):
    - Fix a bug where clients using bridges would report themselves
      as 50% bootstrapped even without a live consensus document.
      Fixes bug 9922; bugfix on 0.2.1.1-alpha.
    - Suppress a warning where, if there's only one directory authority
      in the network, we would complain that votes and signatures cannot
      be uploaded to other directory authorities. Fixes bug 10842;
      bugfix on 0.2.2.26-beta.
    - Report bootstrapping progress correctly when we're downloading
      microdescriptors. We had updated our "do we have enough microdescs
      to begin building circuits?" logic most recently in 0.2.4.10-alpha
      (see bug 5956), but we left the bootstrap status event logic at
      "how far through getting 1/4 of them are we?" Fixes bug 9958;
      bugfix on 0.2.2.36, which is where they diverged (see bug 5343).

  o Minor bugfixes (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.20):
    - Avoid a crash bug when starting with a corrupted microdescriptor
      cache file. Fixes bug 10406; bugfix on 0.2.2.6-alpha.
    - If we fail to dump a previously cached microdescriptor to disk, avoid
      freeing duplicate data later on. Fixes bug 10423; bugfix on
      0.2.4.13-alpha. Spotted by "bobnomnom".

  o Minor bugfixes on 0.2.4.x (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.18-rc):
    - Correctly log long IPv6 exit policies, instead of truncating them
      or reporting an error. Fixes bug 9596; bugfix on 0.2.4.7-alpha.
    - Our default TLS ecdhe groups were backwards: we meant to be using
      P224 for relays (for performance win) and P256 for bridges (since
      it is more common in the wild). Instead we had it backwards. After
      reconsideration, we decided that the default should be P256 on all
      hosts, since its security is probably better, and since P224 is
      reportedly used quite little in the wild.  Found by "skruffy" on
      IRC. Fix for bug 9780; bugfix on 0.2.4.8-alpha.
    - Free directory authority certificate download statuses on exit
      rather than leaking them. Fixes bug 9644; bugfix on 0.2.4.13-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes on 0.2.3.x (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.18-rc):
    - If the guard we choose first doesn't answer, we would try the
      second guard, but once we connected to the second guard we would
      abandon it and retry the first one, slowing down bootstrapping.
      The fix is to treat all our initially chosen guards as acceptable
      to use. Fixes bug 9946; bugfix on 0.1.1.11-alpha.
    - Fix an assertion failure that would occur when disabling the
      ORPort setting on a running Tor process while accounting was
      enabled. Fixes bug 6979; bugfix on 0.2.2.18-alpha.
    - When examining the list of network interfaces to find our address,
      do not consider non-running or disabled network interfaces. Fixes
      bug 9904; bugfix on 0.2.3.11-alpha. Patch from "hantwister".
    - Avoid an off-by-one error when checking buffer boundaries when
      formatting the exit status of a pluggable transport helper.
      This is probably not an exploitable bug, but better safe than
      sorry. Fixes bug 9928; bugfix on 0.2.3.18-rc. Bug found by
      Pedro Ribeiro.

  o Removed code and features:
    - Clients now reject any directory authority certificates lacking
      a dir-key-crosscert element. These have been included since
      0.2.1.9-alpha, so there's no real reason for them to be optional
      any longer. Completes proposal 157. Resolves ticket 10162.
    - Remove all code that existed to support the v2 directory system,
      since there are no longer any v2 directory authorities. Resolves
      ticket 10758.
    - Remove the HSAuthoritativeDir and AlternateHSAuthority torrc
      options, which were used for designating authorities as "Hidden
      service authorities". There has been no use of hidden service
      authorities since 0.2.2.1-alpha, when we stopped uploading or
      downloading v0 hidden service descriptors. Fixes bug 10881; also
      part of a fix for bug 10841.

  o Code simplification and refactoring:
    - Remove some old fallback code designed to keep Tor clients working
      in a network with only two working relays. Elsewhere in the code we
      have long since stopped supporting such networks, so there wasn't
      much point in keeping it around. Addresses ticket 9926.
    - Reject 0-length EXTEND2 cells more explicitly. Fixes bug 10536;
      bugfix on 0.2.4.8-alpha. Reported by "cypherpunks".
    - Remove data structures which were introduced to implement the
      CellStatistics option: they are now redundant with the addition
      of a timestamp to the regular packed_cell_t data structure, which
      we did in 0.2.4.18-rc in order to resolve ticket 9093. Implements
      ticket 10870.

  o Documentation (man page) fixes:
    - Update manpage to describe some of the files you can expect to
      find in Tor's DataDirectory. Addresses ticket 9839.
    - Document that all but one DirPort entry must have the NoAdvertise
      flag set. Fixes bug 10470; bugfix on 0.2.3.3-alpha / 0.2.3.16-alpha.

  o Documentation fixes (new since 0.2.5.1-alpha, also in 0.2.4.18-rc):
    - Clarify the usage and risks of setting the ContactInfo torrc line
      for your relay or bridge. Resolves ticket 9854.
    - Add anchors to the manpage so we can link to the html version of
      the documentation for specific options. Resolves ticket 9866.
    - Replace remaining references to DirServer in man page and
      log entries. Resolves ticket 10124.

  o Tool changes:
    - Make the "tor-gencert" tool used by directory authority operators
      create 2048-bit signing keys by default (rather than 1024-bit, since
      1024-bit is uncomfortably small these days). Addresses ticket 10324.

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