UnrealIRCd 4.0.12 released

[Bram M. <sy...@un...>]

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Hi everyone,

UnrealIRCd 4.0.12 is now available for download. It fixes a number of bugs and 
adds a new user mode +Z which SSL/TLS users may find useful.

Also, an important note to anyone using *3rd party modules*: They are a great 
way to extend UnrealIRCd's functionality. However, a (small) mistake in a 
module can easily cause UnrealIRCd to crash. Currently *more than 95% of the 
crashes* reported to us are due to faulty 3rd party modules and not due to any 
bug in UnrealIRCd itself. Third party modules are modules coded by authors 
other than the UnrealIRCd team. We do not investigate such bug reports. These 
bugs are caused by and should be resolved by the module author(s). Keep this 
in mind if your server crashes: try unloading all (recently) installed 3rd 
party modules and see if the crash issue disappears. Also, be sure to check 
for updates of 3rd party modules, your crash issue may very well be fixed already.

*Changes between version 4.0.11 and 4.0.12
*Improvements

  * New user mode +Z: Only allow SSL/TLS users to private message you.
  * Ability to hide all channels in /LIST that you cannot join due to deny
    channel blocks: /set { hide-list { deny-channel }; };/
  * The optional 'nocodes' module makes +S/+c also block/strip bold, underline
    and italic text. (The latter is new)
  * Add support for 'mask' in allow channel { } and deny channel { } and add
    some support for negative 'mask'. Probably not very useful on most
    networks with services, since bans/AKICK do the same, but you can now do
    like this:
    /deny channel { channel "#help*"; };//
    //allow channel { channel "#help-nolan"; mask !192.168.*; };//
    //allow channel { channel "#help-lan"; mask 192.168.*; };/

Major issues fixed

  * Crash issue if a module using ModData was unloading (not reloading)
  * Vhosts were not always correctly synched across servers.
  * The maximum number of clients that a server could accept was decreased by
    one on every linking attempt if it was both: 1) an outgoing SSL/TLS
    linking attempt; AND 2) the error was "Connection refused".

Minor issues fixed

  * Adjustments to channel mode +f were not always effective.
  * If you have a vhost set and wish to remove it and change to a cloaked host
    you can now safely use '/MODE yournick -t'. This feature was rarely used
    so far and it previously had a bug which caused it to still expose the
    real host/IP to others. This has been resolved.
  * Channel mode +D (delayjoin): when people are de-oped we now part 'hidden'
    users to avoid a client desynch.
  * Bump lag for remote MOTD requests to avoid flooding.

*Other
*

  * More than 95% of the crashes reported to us are due to 3rd party modules
    (and thus not bugs in our code). We now ask users to unload any recently
    installed 3rd party modules first, see if the crash issue persists, and
    only then submit a crash report to us.
  * UnrealIRCd will now refuse to run as root.
    https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Do_not_run_as_root

*For module coders*

  * Added two functions to search for user modes:
    /has_user_mode(acptr, 'i') // returns 1 / 0//
    //find_user_mode('i') // returns the user mode (as 'long')/

*What's new in UnrealIRCd 4
*A short overview of the most important changes:*
*

  * <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Modules>You decide what to load
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Modules>. We have moved as much
    functionality as possible to 150+ individually loadable modules (commands
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/User_%26_Oper_commands>, user modes
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/User_modes>, channel modes
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Channel_modes>, extbans
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Extended_bans>, snomasks, ..). You decide
    which features your UnrealIRCd should have.
  * Fine-grained IRCOp privileges
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Operclass_block>. The way IRCOp
    privileges are granted has been redone entirely. This allows you to
    configure oper privileges on a very detailed level. You don't want
    OperOverride? You don't want opers to see secret channels? Or you want an
    oper with a very minimal set of privileges? This is all possible.
  * Wiki <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/UnrealIRCd_4_documentation>. All
    documentation has been moved to a wiki <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/>.
    It's even better than before and more accessible to people who are new to
    IRCd's. The wiki also allows easy translation
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Translating_UnrealIRCd_wiki_pages> by
    community members.
  * New directory structure
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/UnrealIRCd_files_and_directories>. On
    *NIX the IRCd is now always installed to a different directory than where
    you compile from (~/unrealircd by default). No more mess. On both *NIX and
    Windows configuration files go in conf/, modules go in modules/, etc..
    Configuration files can be identical on Windows and *NIX. This new
    directory structure also allows easier packaging.
  * New I/O system using kqueue & epoll. The IRCd can now handle thousands of
    users more easily.
  * Improved SSL/TLS support. SSL has always been a major feature in
    UnrealIRCd but has been enhanced. UnrealIRCd is now always built with SSL
    support (both on *NIX and Windows). SSL client certificate fingerprints
    are visible in /WHOIS, a new certfp extban
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Extended_bans>
    (~S:certificatefingerprint), better defaults including 4096 bit keys and
    Perfect forward secrecy <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_secrecy>, etc.
  * DNS Blacklist support <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Blacklist_block>
    (DNSBL/RBL). Great for combating drones and other abusers.
  * Better and more helpful error messages. Especially regarding the
    configuration file.
  * More modern server-to-server protocol.
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Server_protocol:Changes> Such as using
    UID/SID's. Resulting in less desynch. issues.
  * Lowering the bar for Spamfilter
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Spamfilter#Block_simple_spam>. You can
    now choose between 'regex' and 'simple' matching. Simple matching allows
    using the usual '?' and '*' wildcards that everyone knows about. The regex
    engine has been moved from TRE to PCRE (=about twice as fast).
  * Configuration is more logical
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Upgrading_from_3.2.x>. Around 30% of the
    configuration blocks have been restructured. Don't worry, we include an
    UnrealIRCd 3.2.x to 4.x configuration file converter.
  * Easier 3rd party module management. On *NIX you now just put your 3rd
    party modules in /src/modules/third/ and then each time you run 'make'
    they will be compiled if needed.
  * Easier upgrading. On *NIX, when upgrading to a new version, ./Config will
    ask you to import settings from a previous installation, remembering your
    installation directory and other settings. It will also copy the 3rd party
    modules from the old to the new installation and re-compile them.
  * More secure. Even better secure defaults, more warnings about insecure
    behavior, ..
  * *IPv6 now also on Windows* <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Ipv6>.

For developers:

  * Easier source navigation. Because we moved almost everything to modules,
    it's now much easier to see all the code for a particular feature.
  * Cleaner code. There have been a lot of source code cleanups. Code has been
    restructured or rewritten. Old irrelevant code has been deleted.
  * Development documentation can be found on the wiki
    <https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Main_Page>. We explain how to write a
    module in C and list all the details on the various Module API's such as
    how to write commands, channel modes, plug-in by using Hooks, etc...

*Upgrading from 3.2.x**to UnrealIRCd 4*
If you are upgrading from 3.2.x to 4.x then there are three important things 
to know:
*1) New file locations*
In UnrealIRCd 4 the location of the configuration files and other files have 
been changed. On *NIX the directory where you compile the IRCd from 
(previously 'Unreal3.2.X', now 'unrealircd-4.0.0') is no longer the same as 
the directory where the IRCd will be running from.
By default the IRCd is installed to //home/yourusername/unrealircd/ on *NIX. 
On Windows UnrealIRCd will install to /C:\Program Files (x86\UnrealIRCd 4/.

The new directory structure is as follows (both on Windows and *NIX):
conf/           contains all configuration files
logs/           for log files
modules/   all modules (.so files on *NIX, .dll files on Windows)

*2) Configuration file changes
*There have also been changes in various configuration blocks and settings. 
Don't worry, UnrealIRCd can convert your existing 3.2.x configuration files to 
UnrealIRCd 4 format. There's no need to start from scratch.
Please read https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Upgrading_from_3.2.x for more 
information on the config file conversion.

*3) Third party modules*
If you are using 3rd party modules (modules not developed by the UnrealIRCd 
team) then they will require an update before they can run on UnrealIRCd 4. 
Contact your developer for a new version or ask on our Modules forum 
<https://forums.unrealircd.org/viewforum.php?f=52> where someone may be kind 
enough to convert the module for you if you ask nicely. Due to the many core 
changes in UnrealIRCd 4 it was simply impossible to make 3.2.x modules work 
out-of-the-box on 4.x as well.

*End of the 3.2.x series*
UnrealIRCd 3.2.x is End Of Life since December 2015. All support for it has 
been stopped after 2016.
See https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/UnrealIRCd_3.2.x_deprecated

*Download*
As always, you can download UnrealIRCd from https://www.unrealircd.org/
All releases are signed with our PGP key (short key id 0x108FF4A9 and long id 
0xA7A21B0A108FF4A9)

Please report all bugs and feature suggestions at https://bugs.unrealircd.org/

-- 
Bram Matthys
Security res...@vu...
Website:www.vulnscan.org
PGP key:www.vulnscan.org/pubkey.asc
PGP fp: EBCA 8977 FCA6 0AB0 6EDB  04A7 6E67 6D45 7FE1 99A6