New release: Tor 0.4.1.5

by nickm | August 20, 2019

After months of work, we have a new stable release series! If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.1.5 on the website. Packages should be available within the next several weeks, with a new Tor Browser in early September.

This is the first stable release in the 0.4.1.x series. This series adds experimental circuit-level padding, authenticated SENDME cells to defend against certain attacks, and several performance improvements to save on CPU consumption. It fixes bugs in bootstrapping and v3 onion services. It also includes numerous smaller features and bugfixes on earlier versions.

Per our support policy, we will support the 0.4.1.x series for nine months, or until three months after the release of a stable 0.4.2.x: whichever is longer. If you need longer-term support, please stick with 0.3.5.x, which will we plan to support until Feb 2022.

Below are the changes since 0.4.0.5. For a list of only the changes since 0.4.1.4-rc, see the ChangeLog file.

Changes in version 0.4.1.5 - 2019-08-20

  • Directory authority changes:
    • The directory authority "dizum" has a new IP address. Closes ticket 31406.
  • Major features (circuit padding):
    • Onion service clients now add padding cells at the start of their INTRODUCE and RENDEZVOUS circuits, to make those circuits' traffic look more like general purpose Exit traffic. The overhead for this is 2 extra cells in each direction for RENDEZVOUS circuits, and 1 extra upstream cell and 10 downstream cells for INTRODUCE circuits. This feature is only enabled when also supported by the circuit's middle node. (Clients may specify fixed middle nodes with the MiddleNodes option, and may force-disable this feature with the CircuitPadding option.) Closes ticket 28634.

 

New release candidate: Tor 0.4.1.4-rc

by nickm | July 25, 2019

There's a new release candidate available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.1.4-rc from the usual place on the website. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release likely in the next month or so.

Remember, this is just a release candidate: you should only run this if you'd like to find and report bugs.

Tor 0.4.1.4-rc fixes a few bugs from previous versions of Tor, and updates to a new list of fallback directories. If no new bugs are found, the next release in the 0.4.1.x series should be stable.

Changes in version 0.4.1.4-rc - 2019-07-25

  • Major bugfixes (circuit build, guard):
    • When considering upgrading circuits from "waiting for guard" to "open", always ignore circuits that are marked for close. Otherwise, we can end up in the situation where a subsystem is notified that a closing circuit has just opened, leading to undesirable behavior. Fixes bug 30871; bugfix on 0.3.0.1-alpha.
  • Minor features (continuous integration):
    • Our Travis configuration now uses Chutney to run some network integration tests automatically. Closes ticket 29280.

 

Reflections from Our Stockholm All Hands

Through partnership with our community and our community’s broader connections, we turned limited resources into a safe space to cultivate connections, collaboration, and progress toward the vision and values that we are all working towards at Tor.

New alpha release: Tor 0.4.1.3-alpha

by nickm | June 25, 2019

There's a new alpha release available for download. If you build Tor from source, you can download the source code for 0.4.1.3-alpha from the usual place on the website. Packages should be available over the coming weeks, with a new alpha Tor Browser release likely in the next couple of weeks.

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

Tor 0.4.1.3-alpha resolves numerous bugs left over from the previous alpha, most of them from earlier release series.

Changes in version 0.4.1.3-alpha - 2019-06-25

  • Major bugfixes (Onion service reachability):
    • Properly clean up the introduction point map when circuits change purpose from onion service circuits to pathbias, measurement, or other circuit types. This should fix some service-side instances of introduction point failure. Fixes bug 29034; bugfix on 0.3.2.1-alpha.
  • Minor features (geoip):
    • Update geoip and geoip6 to the June 10 2019 Maxmind GeoLite2 Country database. Closes ticket 30852.