[PacketFence-devel] ANN: PacketFence 5.6.0

[Ludovic M. <lma...@in...>]

The Inverse team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of 
PacketFence 5.6.0. This is a major release with new features, 
enhancements and important bug fixes. This release is considered ready 
for production use and upgrading from previous versions is strongly advised.


      What is PacketFence ?

PacketFence is a fully supported, trusted, Free and Open Source Network 
Access Control (NAC) solution. Boasting an impressive feature set, 
PacketFence can be used to effectively secure small to very large 
heterogeneous networks.

Among the features provided by PacketFence, there are:

  * powerful BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) capabilities
  * state-of-the art devices fingerprinting with Fingerbank
  * multiple enforcement methods including Role-Based Access Control
    (RBAC) and hotspot-style
  * compliance checks for endpoints present on your network
  * integration with various vulnerability scanners, intrusion detection
    solutions, security agents and firewalls
  * bandwidth accounting for all devices

A complete overview of the solution is available from the official 
website:http://www.packetfence.org/about/overview.html


      Changes Since Previous Release

*New Features*

  * New RADIUS auditing report allows troubleshooting from the GUI
  * The email authorization source now allows to set roles based on the
    email used to register
  * New switch groups now allows to assign settings to multiple switches
    at once
  * DHCP filters now allow arbitrary rules to perform actions based on
    DHCP fingerprinting
  *

    Cisco switches login access can now be authenticated through PacketFence

  * The filter engine configuration can now be edited through the admin GUI

*Enhancements*

  * New dedicated search feature for violations in the nodes panel
  * New pfcmd pfqueue command allows managing the queue from the command
    line
  * New option to specify the authentication source to use depending on
    the RADIUS realm
  *

    Upgrade Config::IniFiles to allow faster loading of configuration files

  * Performance improvements to the filtering engine by avoiding
    unnecessary database lookups
  * New columns bypass_vlan and bypass_role are allowed to be import for
    nodes
  * Service start/stop order can now be configured through the admin GUI
  * Pagination can now be defined by the user in the admin GUI search
    results
  * The pfdns service now forks to process multiple requests in parallel
  * Added configurable timeout for send/receive operations on the OMAPI
    socket
  * The authorization process will now test if the role changed before
    reevaluating access
  * New option to add date based VLAN filter condition (is before date,
    is after date)
  * pfconfig backend can now be cleared via pfcmd
  * Improved RADIUS accounting handling for better performance

*Bug Fixes (bug Id is denoted with #id)*

  * Remove old entries in ipset session
  * Always reevaluate the access if the order come from the admin gui
    (#1056)
  * Portal profiles templates are now properly synced between members of
    a cluster (#942)
  * Process requests properly when running a pfdhcplistener on an
    interface that has networks with and without dhcpd activated
  * Violation trigger from web admin will now override grace period (#1028)
  * Fix queue task counters out of sync when a task expires
  * Reworked the configuration backends to prevent a race condition of
    the configuration namespaces in active/active cluster (#1067)
  * Define each internal network to NAT instead of a global rule when
    passthroughs are enabled (#1118)

Seehttps://github.com/inverse-inc/packetfence/commits/packetfence-5.6.0for 
the complete change log.

See the UPGRADE file for notes about 
upgrading:https://github.com/inverse-inc/packetfence/tree/packetfence-5.6.0/UPGRADE.asciidoc


      Getting PacketFence

PacketFence is free software and is distributed under the GNU GPL. As 
such, you are free to download and try it by either getting the new 
release or by getting the 
sources:http://www.packetfence.org/development/sourcecode.html

Documentation about the installation and configuration of PacketFence is 
also available:http://www.packetfence.org/documentation/


      How Can I Help ?

PacketFence is a collaborative effort in order to create the best Free 
and Open Source NAC solution. There are multiple ways you can contribute 
to the project:

  * Documentation reviews, enhancements and translations
  * Feature requests or by sharing your ideas
  *

    Participate in the discussion on mailing lists
    (http://www.packetfence.org/support/community.html)

  * Patches for bugs or enhancements
  * Provide new translations of remediation pages


      Getting Support

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by writing 
tos...@in... <mailto:su...@in...>

You can also fill our online form (http://www.inverse.ca/#contact) and a 
representative from Inverse will contact you.

Inverse offers professional services to organizations willing to secure 
their wired and wireless networks with the PacketFence solution.

-- 
Ludovic Marcotte
lma...@in...  ::  +1.514.755.3630  ::  http://inverse.ca
Inverse inc. :: Leaders behind SOGo (http://sogo.nu) and PacketFence (http://packetfence.org)