[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]
[tor-talk] Tor Weekly News â February 25th, 2015
========================================================================
Tor Weekly News February 25th, 2015
========================================================================
Welcome to the eighth issue in 2015 of Tor Weekly News, the weekly
newsletter that covers whatâs happening in the Tor community.
Tor 0.2.6-alpha-3 is out
------------------------
Nick Mathewson announced [1] the third (âand hopefully finalâ) alpha
release in the Tor 0.2.6.x series. The major user- and operator-facing
changes in this release include support for AF_UNIX sockets, allowing
high-risk applications to reach a local Tor without having to enable
other kinds of networking activity; a new warning for relay operators,
in order to make it even harder to accidentally run an exit node;
improvements and additions to the directory system; and much else
besides.
See Nickâs announcement for the full changelog, and download your copy
of the source code from the distribution directory [2], but note that
âthis is an alpha releaseâ, so âplease expect bugsâ.
[1]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-0263-alpha-released
[2]: https://dist.torproject.org/
Tails 1.3 is out
----------------
The Tails team announced [3] version 1.3 of the anonymous live operating
system. This release brings several major new features, including
Bitcoin support with Electrum; connections to Tor using the obfs4
pluggable transport; an AppArmor profile to protect the filesystem
against some kinds of attack on Tor Browser; a simpler Tails drive
creation process on Mac and Linux; and more intuitive handling of
computer trackpads.
See the announcement for links to the full list of changes and known
issues, and download your copy from the website [4] or, if you already
have a running Tails, using the incremental update system.
[3]: https://tails.boum.org/news/version_1.3/
[4]: https://tails.boum.org/download/
CITIZENFOUR wins many awards
----------------------------
Laura Poitrasâ documentary film CITIZENFOUR [5], recording the initial
encounters between herself, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the American
surveillance whistleblower (and sometime Tor relay operator [6]) Edward
Snowden, has been decorated at numerous awards ceremonies over the past
few months [7] for its artistic and political achievement.
The filmmakers have been tireless in their activism on behalf of Tor and
the free software community both in the mainstream press and at
community conferences [8]; upon receiving the Ridenhour Documentary Film
Prize last week [9], Laura called attention to the role of these
projects in the production process: âThis film and our NSA reporting
would not have been possible without the work of the Free Software
community that builds free tools to communicate privately. The prize
money for the award will be given to the Tails Free Software project.â
CITIZENFOUR went on to win the Independent Spirit [10] and Academy [11]
Awards for Best Documentary Feature over the weekend. The recognition is
richly deserved. Thanks to Laura and her colleagues for their
extraordinary work over the last two years!
[5]: https://citizenfourfilm.com/
[6]: http://www.wired.com/2014/05/snowden-cryptoparty/
[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenfour#Awards_and_nominations
[8]: https://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6258_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412282030_-_reconstructing_narratives_-_jacob_-_laura_poitras.html
[9]: http://www.nationinstitute.org/blog/prizes/4376/%22citizenfour%22_will_receive_the_ridenhour_documentary_film_prize/
[10]: http://www.filmindependent.org/press/press-releases/2015-film-independent-spirit-awards-winners-announced/
[11]: http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2015
Miscellaneous news
------------------
Giovanni Pellerano released [12] a security advisory for a bug in
GlobaLeaks that was introduced on 28th January 2015, and fixed on 16th
February. The bug could have allowed an attacker to read any file in the
/var/globaleaks/ directory with the exception of the Tor onion service
key; if you installed or upgraded your GlobaLeaks instance on or between
those dates, please see Giovanniâs announcement for more details, and
upgrade again as soon as possible.
[12]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2015-February/036969.html
Nathan Freitas announced [13] Orbot version 15-alpha-4, featuring bridge
scanning and distribution via QR code, and simpler configuration for
pluggable transports like meek, among other improvements.
[13]: https://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/guardian-dev/2015-February/004261.html
Rob Jansen announced [14] a major new release of Shadow [15], the Tor
network simulation tool. New features include support for running
Bitcoin software inside the simulation, client activity modelling using
dependency graphs, and much more.
[14]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2015-February/008317.html
[15]: https://shadow.github.io/
Yaron Goland updated [16] the Tor Onion Proxy libary [17], a project to
âenable Android and Java applications to easily host their own Tor Onion
Proxies using the core Tor binariesâ. This release incorporates newer
software and a simplified build process.
[16]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2015-February/036952.html
[17]: https://github.com/thaliproject/Tor_Onion_Proxy_Library
The organizers of the Workshop on Surveillance and Technology issued a
call for papers [18] ahead of their event, which will be held on June
29th. The deadline for submission is midnight UTC on March 11th; please
see SATâs website for topics covered by the workshop and submission
guidelines.
[18]: https://satsymposium.org/
Bendert Zevenbergen relayed [19] another call for participation, this
time in the ACM SigComm2015 workshop on âEthics in Networked Systems
Researchâ.
[19]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2015-February/036939.html
Upcoming events
---------------
Feb 25 13:30 UTC | little-t tor development meeting
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Feb 25 16:00 UTC | Pluggable transports meeting
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Mar 01 - 06 | Tor Winter Dev Meeting 2015
| Valencia, Spain
| https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2015WinterDevMeeting
|
Mar 24 - 25 | Roger and Jake @ RightsCon 2015
| Manila, Philippines
| https://www.rightscon.org/manila/
This issue of Tor Weekly News has been assembled by Harmony and Roger
Dingledine.
Want to continue reading TWN? Please help us create this newsletter.
We still need more volunteers to watch the Tor community and report
important news. Please see the project page [20], write down your
name and subscribe to the team mailing list [21] if you want to
get involved!
[20]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorWeeklyNews
[21]: https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/news-team
--
tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe or change other settings go to
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk