Privoxy 3.0.11 User Manual
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3. What's New in this Release

There are only a few improvements and new features since - Privoxy 3.0.10, the last stable release:

On most platforms, outgoing connections can be kept alive and - reused if the server supports it. Whether or not this improves - things depends on the connection. -
When dropping privileges, membership in supplementary groups - is given up as well. Not doing that can lead to Privoxy running - with more rights than necessary and violates the principle of - least privilege. Users of the --user option are advised to update. - Thanks to Matthias Drochner for reporting the problem, - providing the initial patch and testing the final version. -
Passing invalid users or groups with the --user option - didn't lead to program exit. Regression introduced in 3.0.7. -
The match all section has been moved from default.action - to a new file called match-all.action. As a result the - default.action no longer needs to be touched by the user - and can be safely overwritten by updates. -
The standard.action file has been removed. Its content - is now part of the default.action file. -
In some situations the logged content length was slightly too low. -
Crunched requests are logged with their own log level. - If you used "debug 1" in the past, you'll probably want - to additionally enable "debug 1024", otherwise only passed - requests will be logged. If you only care about crunched - requests, simply replace "debug 1" with "debug 1024". -
The crunch reason has been moved to the beginning of the - crunch message. For HTTP URLs, the protocol is logged as well. -
Log messages are shortened by not printing the thread id - on its own (as opposed to putting it inside "Privoxy()". -
The config option socket-timeout has been added to control - the time Privoxy waits for data to arrive on a socket. -
Support for remote toggling is controlled by the configure - option --disable-toggle only. In previous versions it also - depended on the action editor and thus configuring with the - --disable-editor option would disable remote toggling support - as well. -
Requests with invalid HTTP versions are rejected. -
The template symbol @date@ can be used to include a date(1)-like - time string. Initial patch submitted by Endre Szabo. -
Responses from shoutcast servers are accepted again. - Problem reported and fix suggested by Stefan. -
The hide-forwarded-for-headers action has been replaced with - the change-x-forwarded-for{} action which can also be used to - add X-Forwarded-For headers. The latter functionality already - existed in Privoxy versions prior to 3.0.7 but has been removed - as it was often used unintentionally (by not using the - hide-forwarded-for-headers action). -
A "clear log" view option was added to the mingw32 version - to clear out all of the lines in the Privoxy log window. - Based on a patch submitted by T Ford. -
The mingw32 version uses "critical sections" now, which prevents - log message corruption under load. As a side effect, the - "no thread-safe PRNG" warning could be removed as well. -
The mingw32 version's task bar icon is crossed out and - the color changed to gray if Privoxy is toggled off. -

For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.

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 3.0.34 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 and new features.

Changes in Privoxy 3.0.33 stable:

+
Security/Reliability:
+
- +
  cgi_error_no_template(): Encode the template name to prevent XSS (cross-site 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