[tor-talk] Tor 0.4.6.2-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 gitlab.torproject.org.

The source code is available from the download page at
https://www.torproject.org/download/tor/ ; 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 some time next week.

Here's what's new:

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

  o 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.

  o 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.

  o 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.

  o Minor features (fallback directory list):
    - Regenerate the list of fallback directories to contain a new set
      of 200 relays. Closes ticket 40265.

  o Minor features (geoip data):
    - Update the geoip files to match the IPFire Location Database, as
      retrieved on 2021/04/13.

  o Minor features (logging):
    - Edit heartbeat log messages so that more of them begin with the
      string "Heartbeat: ". Closes ticket 40322; patch
      from 'cypherpunks'.

  o 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.

  o 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.

  o 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.

  o 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.

  o Minor bugfixes (relay):
    - Move the "overload-general" line from extrainfo to the server
      descriptor. Fixes bug 40364; bugfix on 0.4.6.1-alpha.

  o 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.

  o 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.