Release of a new stable branch TOR 0.4.6

is presented Release toolkit Tor 0.4.6.5 used to organize the work of the anonymous TOR network. Tor version 0.4.6.5 is recognized as the first stable release of branch 0.4.6, which developed the last five months. Branch 0.4.6 will be accompanied within the framework of the standard maintenance cycle – the issue of updates will be terminated after 9 months or 3 months after the release of the branch 0.4.7.x. A long support cycle (LTS) is provided for branch 0.3.5, updates for which will be issued until February 1, 2022. At the same time, TOR 0.3.5.15, 0.4.4.9 and 0.4.5.9, 0.4.4.9 and 0.4.5.9 are formed in which DOS-vulnerabilities are eliminated to cause a refusal to maintain Onion-services clients and relays.

Basic Change :

  • Added The ability to create Onion services based on the third version of the Protocol with customer access authentication Through the files in the ‘Authorized_Clients’ directory.
  • for relays added a sign that allows the host operator to understand that the relay is not included in Consensus in the process of selecting directory servers (for example, when too much relays on one IP address).
  • is provided the ability to transfer overload information in Extrainfo data, which can be used when balancing the load on the network. The transfer of metrics is monitored using the OverloadStatistics option in Torrc.
  • in the DOS-attack subsystem Added The ability to limit the intensity of customer connections to relays .
  • The relays implemented the publication of statistics on the number of Onion services based on the third version of the protocol and the volume of their traffic.
  • from the code for relays deleted support for the Dirports option, which is not used for this type of nodes.
  • Code refactoring. DOS-attack protection subsystem moved to Subsys manager.
  • stopped supporting old onion services based on the second version of the protocol, which was declared outdated a year ago. Fully removal of the code associated with the second version of the protocol is expected in autumn. The second version of the protocol was developed at about 16 years ago and due to the use of outdated algorithms in modern conditions, it cannot be considered safe. Two and a half years ago, in the release of 0.3.2.9, users were offered the third version of the ONION-services protocol, a notable transition to 56-character addresses, more reliable protection against data leaks through the directory servers expandable by the modular structure and using the SHA3 algorithms, ED25519 and CURVE25519 instead of SHA1, DH and RSA-1024.
/Media reports.