Internet Systems Consortium is pleased to announce that a new major
release of INN is available at:

https://ftp.isc.org/isc/inn/inn-2.7.0.tar.gz

The SHA-256 checksum of this release is:

75c17e02aac939149187766a448e706118e13b22fecd8802a987e1f8ce866066

A PGP signature is available in the same directory. Due to the extensive changes between INN 2.6 and INN 2.7, no patch is available.

INN 2.7.0 is almost entirely compatible with INN 2.6, and most INN 2.6
users will be able to upgrade with a simple "make update". A few checks explained in the upgrade changes below should also be made.

All of the applicable bug fixes from the INN 2.6 series are also included
in INN 2.7.0.

Further 2.7.x releases will be made for bug fixes. New features will go
into the 2.8.x series, which is already under development. Please note
that the STABLE development branch is now INN 2.7.x, and there will be no further INN 2.6.x releases after INN 2.6.5.

Many thanks to Julien ÉLIE for preparing this release and for all of his
work on INN over the past seven years of this development cycle.

The following changes require your full attention because a manual
intervention may be needed:

* The *require_ssl* parameter in readers.conf has been renamed to
*require_encryption* as it applies to any kind of encryption layers,
including TLS and SASL security layers. Since innupgrade only takes
care of the change in the file named readers.conf, you will have to
manually rename that parameter in configuration files for nnrpd with
an alternate name.

* The innreport.conf file in *pathetc* has been split into a general
configuration file (innreport.conf itself) and a display configuration
file (innreport-display.conf in *pathlib*). If you made local changes
in sections other than the *default* section in innreport.conf, and
wish to keep them, then you need renaming the new
innreport-display.conf file to another name in *pathlib*, setting this
local file name in the new *display_conf_file* option in
innreport.conf, and re-applying your local changes to that local
display configuration file.

As a matter of fact, the default display configuration file would
otherwise be overwritten each time INN is updated. Bug fixes or
enhancements are made from time to time to the display configuration
of innreport, and previously couldn't be automatically be merged in
innreport.conf on update. This new separate configuration file to
parameter the display will now permit an automatic update (if of
course you use the default display configuration file).

* A new inn-secrets.conf configuration file has been added in *pathetc*.
The intent is that, from now on, new secrets used by INN are added to
that file, and that all secrets currently stored in several other
configuration files eventually move to that file. Make sure it is
properly created during the upgrade, and not world-readable. It
currently only stores the secrets used for the new Cancel-Lock
functionality.

* The -C flag given to innd to disable the execution of cancels has been
deprecated and is no longer taken into account (an error message will
be present in your logs if innd is started with it). Instead, a new
parameter has been added in inn.conf to tune the types of cancels innd
should process. If *docancels* is set to "require-auth", which is the
default if INN has Cancel-Lock support, only articles originally
protected by the Cancel-Lock authentication mechanism can be withdrawn
by a valid authenticated cancel article or a valid authenticated
supersede request. Withdrawals of articles not originally protected by
Cancel-Lock will not be executed. See inn.conf(5) for more details
about the different values of the new *docancels* parameter, and make
sure to parameter it according to your needs.

* The *refusecybercancels* and *verifycancels* parameters have been
removed from inn.conf. The first was performing an inefficient and
inexact check (that should be done, if wanted, in the special "ME"
entry in newsfeeds, or even better, ask your peers not to feed you
articles with "cyberspam" in the Path header field body); the second
check performed on the newsgroups present in cancel articles was not
useful in innd (this check is relevant to posting agents).

The related lines in inn.conf will be commented by innupgrade during
the upgrade.

* The XBATCH command is no longer enabled by default in innd. You'll
have to explicitly enable that capability by setting the new *xbatch*
parameter to true in incoming.conf for the peers sending you such
compressed batches.

* The *nolist* and *noresendid* parameters in incoming.conf have been
respectively renamed to *list* and *resendid* (and the meaning of
their related boolean values is now the opposite). Besides, the unused
*comment* and *email* parameters in incoming.conf have been removed.
innupgrade will take care of the changes (inverting the boolean
values, and commenting the lines with removed parameters).

* filechan is no longer shipped with INN; it was just a simple version
of buffchan. All calls to "filechan" will be changed to "buffchan -u"
(for its unbuffered mode) in newsfeeds by innupgrade. If you have
local scripts running filechan, you will have to manually take care of
the change.

* send-nntp is no longer shipped with INN. If you have local scripts
running it, you will have to manually adjust them to use nntpsend
which basically does the same thing, better. Or, even greater, use
innfeed if that is possible.

* Wrappers around old Perl and Python authentication and access hooks,
pre-dating INN 2.4.0 and identifiable by the *nnrpperlauth* and
*nnrppythonauth* parameters in inn.conf, are no longer shipped as
samples in INN releases. If not already done, you should either
replace old hooks with new modern hooks or use the possibilities that
readers.conf and regular authenticator and resolver programs offer.

* The libauth.h header file and the libstorage library have been renamed
to libinnauth.h and libinnstorage to homogenize their name with
existing libinnhist library. External programs building or linking
against them need a manual change.

Changes in 2.7.0:

* Upgrading to a major release is a good time to ensure that your
configuration files, that are usually kept untouched during normal
updates, are up-to-date: notably control.ctl (with your local changes
in a separate control.ctl.local file), new better default values in
inn.conf and innfeed.conf, improvements in innreport.conf (along with
innreport-display.conf) and innreport.css, fixes in innwatch.ctl,
updated moderators and nocem.ctl files.

You may also want to check that the PGP keys used to verify the
signature of control articles and NoCeM notices are still up-to-date
and working. The keys of a few hierarchies and NoCeM issuers have
recently changed.

* Bo Lindbergh has implemented a new overview storage method based on
SQLite, known for its long-term stability and compatibility. Robust
and faster at reading ranges of overview data, but somewhat slower at
writing, this new SQLite-based method is a perfect choice to store
overview data.

To select it as your overview method, set the *ovmethod* parameter in
inn.conf to "ovsqlite". Details about ovsqlite, the ovsqlite.conf
configuration file and how to switch to that new modern overview
storage method can be found in the ovsqlite(5) and makehistory(8) man
pages.

* Julien Elie has implemented Cancel-Lock support in innd and nnrpd,
based on RFC 8315 and libcanlock. A new inn-secrets.conf configuration
file has been added in *pathetc* wherein you can set the secrets to
use for Cancel-Lock. See the inn-secrets.conf(5) man page for more
details.

A new -F flag is recognized by innconfval to indicate the type of file
to parse (by default, "inn.conf"); just run "innconfval -F
inn-secrets.conf" to get the values of that new configuration file.
Another new flag, -f, permits specifying another file name to parse
than the standard one.

The *addcanlockuser* parameter has been added in readers.conf to
deactivate the generation of user-specific hashes when several
different posters have the same identity in an access group. This
parameter also permits setting whether the hash, when generated, is
based on the username or the (static) IP of the connection.

* Added a new tool, gencancel, to help the news administrator generate
authenticated cancel control messages, with the expected admin
Cancel-Key hashes. See the gencancel(1) man page for more details.

* A new *docancels* parameter has been added in inn.conf to define which
types of cancels innd should process. The -C flag given to innd is
deprecated in favour of that new parameter (you'll see in your logs
the message "innd -C flag has been deprecated and has no effect; use
docancels in inn.conf" in case you're passing that flag to innd).

* Andreas Kempe has implemented blacklistd support in nnrpd. This
daemon, available notably in FreeBSD and NetBSD, can be used to
prevent brute force attacks by blocking attackers after a number of
failed login attempts. When nnrpd is run with the new -B flag, and INN
has been configured with the new --with-blacklist option, it will
report login attempts to the blacklistd daemon for potential blocking.

* Building INN with TLS support using LibreSSL is now supported (only
OpenSSL was previously officially supported and tested).

* Fixed the parsing of *hosts* and *localaddress* parameters in
readers.conf; exclusion patterns (beginning with "!") have not been
working since INN 2.5.0.

* Improved the robustness of innxmit when receiving 500 or 501 response
codes from peers, indicating they do not understand the NNTP command
or (wrongly) think there is a syntax error. Richard Kettlewell added a
proper handling of these responses, making innxmit dropping the
refused article instead of keeping sending it over and over (and thus
receiving each time the same error in response codes).

* innreport now collects statistics from innxbatch and generates a
section for them in its reports.

* The innreport.conf file in *pathetc*, previously containing almost
2500 lines, has been split into a general configuration file
(innreport.conf itself, still in *pathetc*, with about 60 lines) and a
display configuration file (innreport-display.conf, a new separate
file in *pathlib*). The name of this display configuration file can be
parametered in the new *display_conf_file* option in innreport.conf.

* The -m flag given to mailpost now sets a List-ID header field instead
of a Mailing-List header field.

* rc.news, used to start and stop INN daemons, now checks whether it is
run as the news user. It will exit if not the case, to ensure not to
tamper with the ownership of files INN manipulates.

* filechan has been removed; it was just a simple version of buffchan,
which should now be used.

* send-nntp has been removed; it was just a simple version of nntpsend,
which should now be used (or, even better, innfeed).

* The *refusecybercancels* and *verifycancels* parameters have been
removed from inn.conf. Besides, inews no longer checks if the From or
Sender header fields of a cancel or supersede request match the ones
of the original article being withdrawn. All of these were either
inefficient or inexact checks.

* The *xbatch* parameter has been added in incoming.conf to enable the
XBATCH command in innd for specific remote peers. The default is to
disable the capability.

* The *nolist* and *noresendid* parameters in incoming.conf have been
respectively renamed to *list* and *resendid* (and the meaning of
their related boolean values is now the opposite). Besides, the unused
*comment* and *email* parameters in incoming.conf have been removed.

* inews no longer adds a Sender header field nor overwrites an existing
one in articles it processes if the new -P flag is used. The Path
header field, if unset, no longer systematically contains the path
identity of the local news server (you may want to add it manually
with the -x flag, if needed). Finally, inews also no longer adds the
obsolescent Lines header field.

* A new -E flag can now be given to inews to silently discard empty
articles, instead of bailing out with an error. Another new -m flag
permits setting the Message-ID instead of letting inews generate one.
And a third new flag, -Y, forces inews to authenticate to the remote
news server even if not asked to.

* signcontrol has been removed as it embeds per-site configuration which
is overwritten each time INN is updated to a newer version, and it is
unlikely you ever need it. Nonetheless, if you need to issue
PGP-signed control messages, you can still download it from
<https://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/>.

* Support in controlchan for obsolete *sendsys*, *senduuname* and
*version* control messages has been removed. These control messages,
long been deprecated, should no longer be sent nor honoured nowadays.
Besides, the "doifarg" keyword in control.ctl is no longer recognized
(it was only used for these three kinds of control messages).

* The *require_ssl* parameter in readers.conf has been renamed to
*require_encryption*, which is a better name as it applies to any kind
of encryption layers, including TLS and SASL security layers.

* Fixed the use of a deprecated API in Kerberos V5. INN now requires
version 1.6.1 or higher of MIT Kerberos v5 to build.

* The libauth.h header file and the libstorage library have been renamed
to libinnauth.h and libinnstorage to homogenize their name with
existing libinnhist library.

* All of the applicable bug fixes from the INN 2.6 STABLE series are
also included in INN 2.7.

--
Russ Allbery (eagle@eyrie.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Please post questions rather than mailing me directly.
<https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/questions.html> explains why.

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