Privoxy 3.0.14 User Manual
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3. What's New in this Release

Privoxy 3.0.14 Beta is a bugfix-release - for the previous beta which introduced IPv6 support, improved keep-alive - support and a bunch of minor improvements. The changes since 3.0.12:

Added IPv6 support. Thanks to Petr Pisar who not only provided - the initial patch but also helped a lot with the integration. -
Added client-side keep-alive support. -
The connection sharing code is only used if the connection-sharing - option is enabled. -
The latency is taken into account when evaluating whether or not to - reuse a connection. This should significantly reduce the number of - connections problems several users reported. -
The max-client-connections option has been added to restrict - the number of client connections below a value enforced by - the operating system. -
If the server doesn't specify how long the connection stays alive, - Privoxy errs on the safe side of caution and assumes it's only a second. -
Setting keep-alive-timeout to 0 disables keep-alive support. Previously - Privoxy would claim to allow persistence but not reuse the connection. -
Pipelined requests are less likely to be mistaken for the request - body of the previous request. Note that Privoxy still has no real - pipeline support and will either serialize pipelined requests or - drop them in which case the client has to resent them. -
Fixed a crash on some Windows versions when header randomization - is enabled and the date couldn't be parsed. -
Privoxy's keep-alive timeout for the current connection is reduced - to the one specified in the client's Keep-Alive header. -
For HTTP/1.1 requests, Privoxy implies keep-alive support by not - setting any Connection header instead of using 'Connection: keep-alive'. -
If the socket isn't reusable, Privoxy doesn't temporarily waste - a socket slot to remember the connection. -
If keep-alive support is disabled but compiled in, the client's - Keep-Alive header is removed. -
Fixed a bug on mingw32 where downloading large files failed if - keep-alive support was enabled. -
Fixed a bug that (at least theoretically) could cause log - timestamps to be occasionally off by about a second. -
The configure script respects the $PATH variable when searching - for groups and id. -
Compressed content with extra fields couldn't be decompressed - and would get passed to the client unfiltered. This problem - has only be detected through statical analysis with clang as - nobody seems to be using extra fields anyway. -
If the server resets the Connection after sending only the headers - Privoxy forwards what it got to the client. Previously Privoxy - would deliver an error message instead. -
Error messages in case of connection timeouts use the right - HTTP status code. -
If spawning a child to handle a request fails, the client - gets an error message and Privoxy continues to listen for - new requests right away. -
The error messages in case of server-connection timeouts or - prematurely closed server connections are now template-based. -
If zlib support isn't compiled in, Privoxy no longer tries to - filter compressed content unless explicitly asked to do so. -
In case of connections that are denied based on ACL directives, - the memory used for the client IP is no longer leaked. -
Fixed another small memory leak if the client request times out - while waiting for client headers other than the request line. -
The client socket is kept open until the server socket has - been marked as unused. This should increase the chances that - the still-open connection will be reused for the client's next - request to the same destination. Note that this only matters - if connection-sharing is enabled. -
A TODO list has been added to the source tarballs to give potential - volunteers a better idea of what the current goals are. Donations - are still welcome too: http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#DONATE -

3.1. Note to Upgraders

A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier - versions of Privoxy:

The recommended way to upgrade Privoxy is to backup your old - configuration files, install the new ones, verify that Privoxy - is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using - diff and maybe patch. -
There are a number of new features in each Privoxy release and - most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration - files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due - to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new - Privoxy isn't always possible anyway. -
- Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely, - including configuration files, therefore you should really save - any important configuration files! -
- On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration - files, thinking you will want to do that yourself. -
- standard.action has been merged into - the default.action file. -
In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now. - You can change that in the debug section - of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose - logging until you verified that the new Privoxy version is working - as expected. -
Three other config file settings are now off by default: - enable-remote-toggle, - enable-remote-http-toggle, - and enable-edit-actions. - If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and - be aware of the security issues involved. -

Privoxy 3.0.33 User Manual
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3. What's New in this Release

Privoxy 3.0.33 fixes an XSS issue and multiple DoS issues and a couple of other + bugs. The issues also affect earlier Privoxy releases. Privoxy 3.0.33 also comes + with a couple of general improvements an new features.

Changes in Privoxy 3.0.33 stable:

+
Security/Reliability:
+
- +
  cgi_error_no_template(): Encode the template name to prevent XSS (cross-side scripting) when Privoxy is + configured to servce the user-manual itself. Commit 0e668e9409c. OVE-20211102-0001. CVE-2021-44543. + Reported by: Artem Ivanov
  +
- +
  get_url_spec_param(): Free memory of compiled pattern spec before bailing. Reported by Joshua Rogers + (Opera) who also provided the fix. Commit 652b4b7cb0. OVE-20211201-0003. CVE-2021-44540.
  +
- +
  process_encrypted_request_headers(): Free header memory when failing to get the request destination. + Reported by Joshua Rogers (Opera) who also provided the fix. Commit 0509c58045. OVE-20211201-0002. + CVE-2021-44541.
  +
- +
  send_http_request(): Prevent memory leaks when handling errors Reported by Joshua Rogers (Opera) who + also provided the fix. Commit c48d1d6d08. OVE-20211201-0001. CVE-2021-44542.
  +
+
+
Bug fixes:
+
- +
  handle_established_connection(): Skip the poll()/select() calls if TLS data is pending on the server + socket. The TLS library may have already consumed all the data from the server response in which case + poll() and select() will not detect that data is available to be read. Fixes SF bug #926 reported by Wen + Yue.
  +
- +
  continue_https_chat(): Update csp->server_connection.request_sent after sending the request to make + sure the latency is calculated correctly. Previously https connections were not reused after timeout + seconds after the first request made on the connection.
  +
- +
  free_pattern_spec(): Don't try to free an invalid pointer when unloading an action file with a TAG + pattern while Privoxy has been compiled without FEATURE_PCRE_HOST_PATTERNS. Closes: SF patch request #147. + Patch by Maxim Antonov.
  +
- +
  Adjust build_request_line() to create a CONNECT request line when https-inspecting and forwarding to a + HTTP proxy. Fixes SF bug #925 reported by Wen Yue.
  +
- +
  load_config(): Add a space that was missing in a log message.
  +
- +
  read_http_request_body(): Fix two error messages that used an incorrect variable.
  +
- +
  If the the response is chunk-encoded, ignore the Content-Length header sent by the server. Allows to + load https://redmine.lighttpd.net/ with filtering enabled.
  +
+
+
General improvements:
+
- +
  Allow to edit the add-header action through the CGI editor by generalizing the code that got added with + the suppress-tag action. Closes SF patch request #146. Patch by Maxim Antonov.
  +
- +
  Add a CGI handler for /wpad.dat that returns a Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC) file. Among other things, + it can be used to instruct clients through DHCP to use Privoxy as proxy. For example with the dnsmasq + option: dhcp-option=252,http://config.privoxy.org/wpad.dat Initial patch by Richard Schneidt.
  +
- +
  Don't log the applied actions in process_encrypted_request() Log them in continue_https_chat() instead + to mirror chat(). Prevents the applied actions from getting logged twice for the first request on an + https-inspected connection.
  +
- +
  OpenSSL generate_host_certificate(): Use config.privoxy.org as Common Name Org and Org Unit if the real + host name is too long to get accepted by OpenSSL. Clients should only care about the Subject Alternative + Name anyway and we can continue to use the real host name for it. Reported by Miles Wen on + privoxy-users@.
  +
- +
  Establish the TLS connection with the client earlier and decide how to route the request afterwards. + This allows to change the forwarding settings based on information from the https-inspected request, for + example the path.
  +
- +
  listen_loop(): When shutting down gracefully, close listening ports before waiting for the threads to + exit. Allows to start a second Privoxy with the same config file while the first Privoxy is still + running.
  +
- +
  serve(): Close the client socket as well if the server socket for an inspected connection has been + closed. Privoxy currently can't establish a new server connection when the client socket is reused and + would drop the connection in continue_https_chat() anyway.
  +
- +
  Don't disable redirect checkers in redirect_url(). Disable them in handle_established_connection() + instead. Doing it in redirect_url() prevented the +redirect{} and +fast-redirects{} actions from being + logged with LOG_LEVEL_ACTIONS.
  +
- +
  handle_established_connection(): Slightly improve a comment.
  +
- +
  handle_established_connection(): Fix a comment.
  +
- +
  socks5_connect(): Fix indentation.
  +
- +
  handle_established_connection(): Improve an error message.
  +
- +
  create_pattern_spec(): Fix ifdef indentation.
  +
- +
  Fix comment typos.
  +
- +
  process_encrypted_request(): Improve a log message. The function only processes request headers and + there may still be unread request body data left to process.
  +
- +
  chat(): Log the applied actions before deciding how to forward the request.
  +
- +
  parse_time_header(): Silence a coverity complaint when building without assertions.
  +
- +
  receive_encrypted_request_headers(): Improve a log message.
  +
- +
  mbedTLS get_ciphersuites_from_string(): Use strlcpy() instead of strncpy(). Previously the terminating + NUL wasn't copied which resulted in a compiler warning. This didn't cause actual problems as the target + buffer was initialized by zalloc_or_die() so the last byte of the target buffer was NUL already. Actually + copying the terminating NUL seems clearer, though.
  +
- +
  Remove compiler warnings. "log_error(LOG_LEVEL_FATAL, ..." doesn't return but apparently the compiler + doesn't know that. Get rid of several "this statement may fall through [-Wimplicit-fallthrough=]" + warnings.
  +
- +
  Store the PEM certificate in a dynamically allocated buffer when https-inspecting. Should prevent errors + like: 2021-03-16 22:36:19.148 7f47bbfff700 Error: X509 PEM cert len 16694 is larger than buffer len 16383 + As a bonus it should slightly reduce the memory usage as most certificates are smaller than the previously + used fixed buffer. Reported by: Wen Yue
  +
- +
  OpenSSL generate_host_certificate(): Fix two error messsages.
  +
- +
  Improve description of handle_established_connection()
  +
- +
  OpenSSL ssl_store_cert(): Translate EVP_PKEY_EC to a string.
  +
- +
  OpenSSL ssl_store_cert(): Remove pointless variable initialization.
  +
- +
  OpenSSL ssl_store_cert(): Initialize pointer with NULL instead of 0.
  +
+
+
Action file improvements:
+
- +
  Disable fast-redirects for .microsoftonline.com/.
  +
- +
  Disable fast-redirects for idp.springer.com/.
  +
- +
  Disable fast-redirects for .zeit.de/zustimmung.
  +
- +
  Unblock adv-archiv.dfn-cert.de/.
  +
- +
  Block requests to eu-tlp01.kameleoon.eu/.
  +
- +
  Block requests to fpa-events.arstechnica.com/.
  +
- +
  Unblock nlnet.nl/.
  +
- +
  Unblock adguard.com/.
  +
+
+
Privoxy-Log-Parser:
+
- +
  Highlight 'Socket timeout 3 reached: http://127.0.0.1:20000/no-filter/chunked-content/36'.
  +
- +
  Improve documentation for inactivity-detection mode.
  +
- +
  Detect date changes when looking for inactivity.
  +
- +
  Add a --passed-request-statistics-threshold option that can be set to get statistics for requests that + were passed.
  +
- +
  Add a "inactivity detection" mode which can be useful for debugging purposes.
  +
- +
  Bump version to 0.9.4.
  +
- +
  Only run print_intro() and print_outro() when syntax highlighting.
  +
- +
  Rephrase a sentence in the documentation.
  +
- +
  Highlight 'Client socket 7 is no longer usable. The server socket has been closed.'.
  +
- +
  Clarify --statistics output by explicitly mentioning that the status codes sent by the server may differ + from the ones in "debug 512" messages.
  +
- +
  Fix typo in the --statistics output.
  +
- +
  Remove an unused variable.
  +
- +
  Highlight 'The peer notified us that the connection on socket 11 is going to be closed'.
  +
+
+
Privoxy-Regression-Test:
+
- +
  Remove duplicated word in a comment.
  +
+
+
regression-tests.action:
+
- +
  Add fetch test for http://p.p/wpad.dat.
  +
- +
  Bump for-privoxy-version to 3.0.33 which introduced the wpad.dat support.
  +
- +
  Add more tests for the '/send-banner' code.
  +
- +
  Add test for OVE-20210203-0001.
  +
- +
  Add a test for CVE-2021-20217.
  +
+
+
uagen:
+
- +
  Bump generated Firefox version to 91 (ESR).
  +
- +
  Bump version to 1.2.3.
  +
- +
  Bump copyright.
  +
+
+
Build system:
+
- +
  configure: Bump SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.
  +
- +
  GNUmakefile.in: Fix typo.
  +
- +
  configure: Add another warning in case --disable-pthread is used while POSIX threads are available. + Various features don't even compile when not using threads.
  +
- +
  Add configure option to enable MemorySanitizer.
  +
- +
  Add configure option to enable UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.
  +
- +
  Add configure option to enable AddressSanitizer.
  +
- +
  Bump copyright.
  +
- +
  Add a configure option to disable pcre JIT compilation. While JIT compilation makes filtering faster it + can cause false-positive valgrind complaints. As reported by Gwyn Ciesla in SF bug 924 it also can cause + problems when the SELinux policy does not grant Privoxy "execmem" privileges.
  +
- +
  configure: Remove obsolete RPM_BASE check.
  +
+
+
Windows build system:
+
- +
  Update the build script to use mbed tls version 2.6.11.
  +
- +
  Update build script to use the final 8.45 pcre library.
  +
- +
  Put all the '--enable-xxx' options in the configure call together.
  +
+
+
macOS build system:
+
- +
  The OSXPackageBuilder repository has been updated and can be used to create macOS packages again.
  +
+
+
Documentation:
+
- +
  contacting: Remove obsolete reference to announce.sgml.
  +
- +
  contacting: Request that the browser cache is cleared before producing a log file for submission.
  +
- +
  Sponsor FAQ: Note that Privoxy users may follow sponsor links without Referer header set.
  +
- +
  newfeatures: Clarify that https inspection also allows to filter https responses.
  +
- +
  developer-manual: Mention that announce.txt should be updated when doing a release.
  +
- +
  config: Explicitly mention that the CGI pages disclosing the ca-password can be blocked and upgrade the + disclosure paragraphs to a warning.
  +
- +
  Put all the requested debug options in the config file. Section 11.1 of the Privoxy user manual lists + all the debug options that should be enabled when reporting problems or requesting support. Make it easier + for users to do the right thing by having all those options present in the config.
  +
- +
  Update TODO list item #184 to note that WolfSSL support will (hopefully) appear after the 3.0.34 + release.
  +
- +
  Update max-client-connections's description. On modern systems other than Windows Privoxy should use + poll() in which case the FD_SETSIZE value isn't releveant.
  +
- +
  Add a warning that the socket-timeout does not apply to operations done by TLS libraries.
  +
- +
  Make documentation slightly less "offensive" for some people by avoiding the word "hell".
  +
+

3.1. Note to Upgraders

A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier versions of Privoxy:

+
The recommended way to upgrade Privoxy is to backup your old + configuration files, install the new ones, verify that Privoxy is working + correctly and finally merge back your changes using diff and maybe + patch.
+
There are a number of new features in each Privoxy release and most of + them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration files. Old configuration files obviously don't do + that and due to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new Privoxy isn't always possible anyway.
+
+
Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely, including configuration files, therefore you + should really save any important configuration files!
+
+
On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration files, thinking you will want + to do that yourself.
+
+
In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now. You can change that in the debug section of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose + logging until you verified that the new Privoxy version is working as + expected.
+
+
Three other config file settings are now off by default: enable-remote-toggle, enable-remote-http-toggle, and enable-edit-actions. If you use or want these, you will need to + explicitly enable them, and be aware of the security issues involved.
+

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Installation		Quickstart to Using Privoxy

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Installation		Quickstart to Using Privoxy