Posts in category releases

New Release: Tor 0.4.4.5

by nickm | September 15, 2020

After months of work, we have a new stable release series!
If you build Tor from source, you can download the source
code for 0.4.4.5 on the
download page.
Packages should be available within the next several weeks, with a new Tor Browser by some time next week.

Tor 0.4.4.5 is the first stable release in the 0.4.4.x series. This series improves our guard selection algorithms, adds v3 onion balance support, improves the amount of code that can be disabled when running without relay support, and includes numerous small bugfixes and enhancements. It also lays the ground for some IPv6 features that we'll be developing more in the next (0.4.5) series.

Per our support policy, we support each stable release series for nine months after its first stable release, or three months after the first stable release of the next series: whichever is longer. This means that 0.4.4.x will be supported until around June 2021--or later, if 0.4.5.x is later than anticipated.

Note also that support for 0.4.2.x has just ended; support for 0.4.3 will continue until Feb 15, 2021. We still plan to continue supporting 0.3.5.x, our long-term stable series, until Feb 2022.

Below are the changes since 0.4.3.6-rc. For a complete list of changes since 0.4.4.4-rc, see the ChangeLog file.

Changes in version 0.4.4.5 - 2020-09-15

  • Major features (Proposal 310, performance + security):
    • Implements Proposal 310, "Bandaid on guard selection". Proposal 310 solves load-balancing issues with older versions of the guard selection algorithm, and improves its security. Under this new algorithm, a newly selected guard never becomes Primary unless all previously sampled guards are unreachable. Implements recommendation from 32088. (Proposal 310 is linked to the CLAPS project researching optimal client location-aware path selections. This project is a collaboration between the UCLouvain Crypto Group, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and Princeton University.)
  • Major features (fallback directory list):
    • Replace the 148 fallback directories originally included in Tor 0.4.1.4-rc (of which around 105 are still functional) with a list of 144 fallbacks generated in July 2020. Closes ticket 40061.

 

New release candidate: 0.4.4.4-rc

by nickm | August 13, 2020

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.4.4-rc from the download page. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release likely in the coming weeks.

Remember, this is a release candidate, not a a stable release: you should only run this if you'd like to find and report more bugs than usual.

Tor 0.4.4.4-rc is the first release candidate in its series. It fixes several bugs in previous versions, including some that caused annoying behavior for relay and bridge operators.

Changes in version 0.4.4.4-rc - 2020-08-13

  • Minor features (security):
    • Channels using obsolete versions of the Tor link protocol are no longer allowed to circumvent address-canonicity checks. (This is only a minor issue, since such channels have no way to set ed25519 keys, and therefore should always be rejected for circuits that specify ed25519 identities.) Closes ticket 40081.
  • Minor features (defense in depth):
    • Wipe more data from connection address fields before returning them to the memory heap. Closes ticket 6198.

 

New alpha release: Tor 0.4.4.3-alpha

by nickm | July 27, 2020

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.4.3-alpha from the download page on the website. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release by mid-August.

Remember, this is an alpha release: you should only run this if you'd like to find and report more bugs than usual.

Tor 0.4.4.3-alpha fixes several annoyances in previous versions, including one affecting NSS users, and several affecting the Linux seccomp2 sandbox.

Changes in version 0.4.4.3-alpha - 2020-07-27

  • Major features (fallback directory list):
    • Replace the 148 fallback directories originally included in Tor 0.4.1.4-rc (of which around 105 are still functional) with a list of 144 fallbacks generated in July 2020. Closes ticket 40061.
  • Major bugfixes (NSS):
    • When running with NSS enabled, make sure that NSS knows to expect nonblocking sockets. Previously, we set our TCP sockets as nonblocking, but did not tell NSS, which in turn could lead to unexpected blocking behavior. Fixes bug 40035; bugfix on 0.3.5.1-alpha.

 

Tor’s Bug Smash Fund: Progress Since January 2020

by alsmith | July 17, 2020

At the beginning of August 2019, we asked you to help us build our very first Bug Smash Fund. This fund will ensure that the Tor Project has a healthy reserve earmarked for maintenance work and smashing the bugs necessary to keep Tor Browser, the Tor network, and the many tools that rely on Tor strong, safe, and running smoothly. We want to share a final update on the work the 2019 Bug Smash Fund made possible.

New release: Tor 0.4.4.1-alpha

by nickm | June 16, 2020

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.4.1-alpha from the download page. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release by early July.

Remember, this is an alpha release: you should only run this if you'd like to find and report more bugs than usual.

This is the first alpha release in the 0.4.4.x series. It improves our guard selection algorithms, improves the amount of code that can be disabled when running without relay support, and includes numerous small bugfixes and enhancements. It also lays the ground for some IPv6 features that we'll be developing more in the next (0.4.5) series.

Here are the changes since 0.4.3.5.

Changes in version 0.4.4.1-alpha - 2020-06-16

  • Major features (Proposal 310, performance + security):
    • Implements Proposal 310, "Bandaid on guard selection". Proposal 310 solves load-balancing issues with older versions of the guard selection algorithm, and improves its security. Under this new algorithm, a newly selected guard never becomes Primary unless all previously sampled guards are unreachable. Implements recommendation from 32088. (Proposal 310 is linked to the CLAPS project researching optimal client location-aware path selections. This project is a collaboration between the UCLouvain Crypto Group, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and Princeton University.)
  • Major features (IPv6, relay):
    • Consider IPv6-only EXTEND2 cells valid on relays. Log a protocol warning if the IPv4 or IPv6 address is an internal address, and internal addresses are not allowed. But continue to use the other address, if it is valid. Closes ticket 33817.
    • If a relay can extend over IPv4 and IPv6, and both addresses are provided, it chooses between them uniformly at random. Closes ticket 33817.
    • Re-use existing IPv6 connections for circuit extends. Closes ticket 33817.
    • Relays may extend circuits over IPv6, if the relay has an IPv6 ORPort, and the client supplies the other relay's IPv6 ORPort in the EXTEND2 cell. IPv6 extends will be used by the relay IPv6 ORPort self-tests in 33222. Closes ticket 33817.

 

New Release Candidate: Tor 0.4.3.4-rc

by nickm | April 13, 2020

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.3.4-rc from the download page on the website. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release likely later this week.

This is a release candidate: unless we find new significant bugs in it, the stable release for the 0.4.3.x series will be substantially the same as this release.

Tor 0.4.3.4-rc is the first release candidate in its series. It fixes several bugs from earlier versions, including one affecting DoS defenses on bridges using pluggable transports.

Changes in version 0.4.3.4-rc - 2020-04-13

  • Major bugfixes (DoS defenses, bridges, pluggable transport):
    • Fix a bug that was preventing DoS defenses from running on bridges with a pluggable transport. Previously, the DoS subsystem was not given the transport name of the client connection, thus failed to find the GeoIP cache entry for that client address. Fixes bug 33491; bugfix on 0.3.3.2-alpha.
  • Minor feature (sendme, flow control):
    • Default to sending SENDME version 1 cells. (Clients are already sending these, because of a consensus parameter telling them to do so: this change only affects what clients would do if the consensus didn't contain a recommendation.) Closes ticket 33623.