[tor-talk] Tor 0.3.5.4-alpha is released.

[Nick Mathewson]

Hi, all!

There's a new alpha Tor release! Because it's an alpha, you should
only run it if you're ready to find more bugs than usual, and report
them on trac.torproject.org.

The source code is available from the Download page on
www.torproject.org; if you build Tor from source, why not give it a
try? And if you don't build Tor from source, packages should be ready
over the coming days, with a Tor Browser alpha release likely by
mid-December.

Here's what's new:

Changes in version 0.3.5.4-alpha - 2018-11-08
  Tor 0.3.5.4-alpha includes numerous bugfixes on earlier versions and
  improves our continuous integration support. It continues our attempts
  to stabilize this alpha branch and build it into a foundation for an
  acceptable long-term-support release.

  o Major bugfixes (compilation, rust):
    - Rust tests can now build and run successfully with the
      --enable-fragile-hardening option enabled. Doing this currently
      requires the rust beta channel; it will be possible with stable
      rust once Rust version 1.31 is released. Patch from Alex Crichton.
      Fixes bugs 27272, 27273, and 27274. Bugfix on 0.3.1.1-alpha.

  o Major bugfixes (embedding, main loop):
    - When DisableNetwork becomes set, actually disable periodic events
      that are already enabled. (Previously, we would refrain from
      enabling new ones, but we would leave the old ones turned on.)
      Fixes bug 28348; bugfix on 0.3.4.1-alpha.

  o Minor features (continuous integration):
    - Add a Travis CI build for --enable-nss on Linux gcc. Closes
      ticket 27751.
    - Add new CI job to Travis configuration to run stem-based
      integration tests. Closes ticket 27913.

  o Minor features (Windows, continuous integration):
    - Build tor on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 using
      Appveyor's CI. Closes ticket 28318.

  o Minor bugfixes (C correctness, also in 0.3.4.9):
    - Avoid undefined behavior in an end-of-string check when parsing
      the BEGIN line in a directory object. Fixes bug 28202; bugfix
      on 0.2.0.3-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (compilation):
    - Fix a pair of missing headers on OpenBSD. Fixes bug 28303; bugfix
      on 0.3.5.1-alpha. Patch from Kris Katterjohn.

  o Minor bugfixes (compilation, OpenSolaris):
    - Fix compilation on OpenSolaris and its descendants by adding a
      missing include to compat_pthreads.c. Fixes bug 27963; bugfix
      on 0.3.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (configuration):
    - Refuse to start with relative file paths and RunAsDaemon set
      (regression from the fix for bug 22731). Fixes bug 28298; bugfix
      on 0.3.3.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (directory authority, also in 0.3.4.9):
    - Log additional info when we get a relay that shares an ed25519 ID
      with a different relay, instead of a BUG() warning with a
      backtrace. Fixes bug 27800; bugfix on 0.3.2.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (onion service v3):
    - Build the service descriptor's signing key certificate before
      uploading, so we always have a fresh one: leaving no chances for
      it to expire service side. Fixes bug 27838; bugfix
      on 0.3.2.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (onion service v3, client authorization):
    - Fix an assert() when adding a client authorization for the first
      time and then sending a HUP signal to the service. Before that,
      Tor would stop abruptly. Fixes bug 27995; bugfix on 0.3.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (onion services):
    - Unless we have explicitly set HiddenServiceVersion, detect the
      onion service version and then look for invalid options.
      Previously, we did the reverse, but that broke existing configs
      which were pointed to a v2 service and had options like
      HiddenServiceAuthorizeClient set. Fixes bug 28127; bugfix on
      0.3.5.1-alpha. Patch by Neel Chauhan.

  o Minor bugfixes (portability):
    - Make the OPE code (which is used for v3 onion services) run
      correctly on big-endian platforms. Fixes bug 28115; bugfix
      on 0.3.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (protover, rust):
    - Reject extra commas in version strings. Fixes bug 27197; bugfix
      on 0.3.3.3-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (relay shutdown, systemd):
    - Notify systemd of ShutdownWaitLength so it can be set to longer
      than systemd's TimeoutStopSec. In Tor's systemd service file, set
      TimeoutSec to 60 seconds to allow Tor some time to shut down.
      Fixes bug 28113; bugfix on 0.2.6.2-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (rust, also in 0.3.4.9):
    - Fix a potential null dereference in protover_all_supported(). Add
      a test for it. Fixes bug 27804; bugfix on 0.3.3.1-alpha.
    - Return a string that can be safely freed by C code, not one
      created by the rust allocator, in protover_all_supported(). Fixes
      bug 27740; bugfix on 0.3.3.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (rust, directory authority, also in 0.3.4.9):
    - Fix an API mismatch in the rust implementation of
      protover_compute_vote(). This bug could have caused crashes on any
      directory authorities running Tor with Rust (which we do not yet
      recommend). Fixes bug 27741; bugfix on 0.3.3.6.

  o Minor bugfixes (testing):
    - Avoid hangs and race conditions in test_rebind.py. Fixes bug
      27968; bugfix on 0.3.5.1-alpha.

  o Minor bugfixes (testing, also in 0.3.4.9):
    - Treat backtrace test failures as expected on BSD-derived systems
      (NetBSD, OpenBSD, and macOS/Darwin) until we solve bug 17808.
      (FreeBSD failures have been treated as expected since 18204 in
      0.2.8.) Fixes bug 27948; bugfix on 0.2.5.2-alpha.

  o Documentation (onion service manpage):
    - Improve HSv3 client authorization by making some options more
      explicit and detailed. Closes ticket 28026. Patch by Mike Tigas.