New Alpha Release: Tor 0.4.6.2-alpha

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.6.2-alpha from the download page on the website. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release likely some time next week.

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

Tor 0.4.6.2-alpha is the second alpha in its series. It fixes several small bugs in previous releases, and solves other issues that had enabled denial-of-service attacks and affected integration with other tools.

Changes in version 0.4.6.2-alpha - 2021-04-15

• Minor features (client):
  • Clients now check whether their streams are attempting to re-enter the Tor network (i.e. to send Tor traffic over Tor), and close them preemptively if they think exit relays will refuse them for this reason. See ticket 2667 for details. Closes ticket 40271.
• Minor features (command line):
  • Add long format name "--torrc-file" equivalent to the existing command-line option "-f". Closes ticket 40324. Patch by Daniel Pinto.

• Minor features (dormant mode):
  • Add a new 'DormantTimeoutEnabled' option to allow coarse-grained control over whether the client ever becomes dormant from inactivity. Most people won't need this. Closes ticket 40228.
• Minor features (fallback directory list):
  • Regenerate the list of fallback directories to contain a new set of 200 relays. Closes ticket 40265.
• Minor features (geoip data):
  • Update the geoip files to match the IPFire Location Database, as retrieved on 2021/04/13.
• Minor features (logging):
  • Edit heartbeat log messages so that more of them begin with the string "Heartbeat: ". Closes ticket 40322; patch from 'cypherpunks'.
• Minor bugfixes (bridge, pluggable transport):
  • Fix a regression that made it impossible start Tor using a bridge line with a transport name and no fingerprint. Fixes bug 40360; bugfix on 0.4.5.4-rc.
• Minor bugfixes (channel, DoS):
  • Fix a non-fatal BUG() message due to a too-early free of a string, when listing a client connection from the DoS defenses subsystem. Fixes bug 40345; bugfix on 0.4.3.4-rc.
• Minor bugfixes (compilation):
  • Fix a compilation warning about unused functions when building with a libc that lacks the GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC constant. Fixes bug 40354; bugfix on 0.4.5.1-alpha. Patch by Daniel Pinto.
• Minor bugfixes (configuration):
  • Fix pattern-matching for directories on all platforms when using %include options in configuration files. This patch also fixes compilation on musl libc based systems. Fixes bug 40141; bugfix on 0.4.5.1-alpha.
• Minor bugfixes (relay):
  • Move the "overload-general" line from extrainfo to the server descriptor. Fixes bug 40364; bugfix on 0.4.6.1-alpha.
• Minor bugfixes (testing, BSD):
  • Fix pattern-matching errors when patterns expand to invalid paths on BSD systems. Fixes bug 40318; bugfix on 0.4.5.1-alpha. Patch by Daniel Pinto.
• Documentation (manual):
  • Move the ServerTransport* options to the "SERVER OPTIONS" section. Closes issue 40331.
  • Indicate that the HiddenServiceStatistics option also applies to bridges. Closes ticket 40346.
  • Move the description of BridgeRecordUsageByCountry to the section "STATISTICS OPTIONS". Closes ticket 40323.