2 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
9 -Use this section to encode all document information
15 <!ENTITY EtherealCurrentVersion "0.99.0">
20 <title>Ethereal &EtherealCurrentVersion; Release Notes</title>
22 <section id="WhatIs"><title>What is Ethereal?</title>
24 Ethereal is the world's most popular network protocol analyzer. It
25 is used for troubleshooting, analysis, development, and education.
29 <section id="WhatsNew"><title>What's New</title>
30 <section><title>Bug Fixes</title>
32 Many security vulnerabilities have been fixed since the
33 previous release. See the
34 <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/appnotes/enpa-sa-00022.html">application
35 advisory</ulink> for more details.
39 The H.248 dissector could crash.
40 <!-- Fixed in r16967, r17015 -->
42 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
46 The UMA dissector could go into an infinite loop.
47 <!-- Fixed in r17119, r17273 -->
49 Versions affected: 0.10.12.
52 <!-- Canary bugs found after r17235 -->
55 The X.509if dissector could crash.
56 <!-- Fixed in r16995, r17337 -->
57 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
58 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
62 The SRVLOC dissector could crash.
63 <!-- Fixed in r17001 -->
64 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
65 Versions affected: 0.10.0.
69 The H.245 dissector could crash.
70 <!-- Fixed in r17022 -->
72 Versions affected: 0.10.13.
76 Ethereal's OID printing routine was susceptible to an
78 <!-- Fixed in r17048 -->
80 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
84 The COPS dissector could overflow a buffer.
85 <!-- Fixed in r17051 -->
86 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
87 Versions affected: 0.9.15.
91 The ALCAP dissector could overflow a buffer.
92 <!-- Fixed in r17495 -->
94 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
99 <!-- Coverity bugs (r17489 and above) -->
101 Under a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
102 <ulink url="http://www.coverity.com">Coverity</ulink> has uncovered
103 a number of vulnerabilities in Ethereal:
106 <!-- CID 1 - 30: DEADCODE -->
107 <!-- CID 31: Post-0.10.14 -->
110 The statistics counter could crash Ethereal.
111 <!-- Fixed in r17497 -->
112 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
113 <!-- Coverity CID 32 -->
114 Versions affected: 0.10.10.
118 Ethereal could crash while reading a malformed Sniffer capture.
119 <!-- Fixed in r17556 -->
120 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
121 <!-- Coverity CID 33 -->
122 Versions affected: 0.8.12.
126 An invalid display filter could crash Ethereal.
127 <!-- Fixed in r17555 -->
128 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
129 <!-- Coverity CID 34 -->
130 Versions affected: 0.9.16.
134 The general packet dissector could crash Ethereal.
135 <!-- Fixed in r17494 -->
136 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
137 <!-- Coverity CID 35 -->
138 Versions affected: 0.10.9.
141 <!-- CID 36 - 38: Bogus -->
144 The AIM dissector could crash Ethereal.
145 <!-- Fixed in r17512 -->
146 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
147 <!-- Coverity CID 39 -->
148 Versions affected: 0.10.7.
152 The RPC dissector could crash Ethereal.
153 <!-- Fixed in r17546 -->
154 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
155 <!-- Coverity CID 40 -->
156 Versions affected: 0.9.8.
160 The DCERPC dissector could crash Ethereal.
161 <!-- Fixed in r17657 -->
162 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
163 <!-- Coverity CID 41 -->
164 Versions affected: 0.9.16.
168 The ASN.1 dissector could crash Ethereal.
169 <!-- Fixed in r17548, r17710, r17736, r17770 -->
170 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
171 <!-- Coverity CID 42, 43, 146 -->
172 Versions affected: 0.9.8.
176 The SMB PIPE dissector could crash Ethereal.
177 <!-- Fixed in r17509, r17523, r17621, r17708 -->
178 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
179 <!-- Coverity CID 44, 46, 47, 48 -->
180 Versions affected: 0.8.20.
183 <!-- CID 45: Bogus -->
184 <!-- CID 46 - 48: See CID 44 -->
185 <!-- CID 49: Bogus -->
186 <!-- CID 50 - 62: Not security-related -->
187 <!-- CID 63 - 66: Bogus -->
190 The BER dissector could loop excessively.
191 <!-- Fixed in r17498, r17625 -->
192 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
193 <!-- Coverity CID 67, 68, 136 -->
194 Versions affected: 0.10.4.
197 <!-- CID 69 - 72: Bogus -->
200 The SNDCP dissector could abort.
201 <!-- Fixed in r17518 -->
202 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
203 <!-- Coverity CID 73 -->
204 Versions affected: 0.10.4.
207 <!-- CID 74 - 78: Bogus -->
208 <!-- CID 79: Lemon is a build-time tool -->
209 <!-- CID 80: Bogus -->
210 <!-- CID 81: Post-0.10.14 -->
213 The Network Instruments file code could overrun a buffer.
214 <!-- Fixed in r17520 -->
215 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
216 <!-- Coverity CID 82 -->
217 Versions affected: 0.10.0.
221 The NetXray/Windows Sniffer file code could overrun a buffer.
222 <!-- Fixed in r17580 -->
223 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
224 <!-- Coverity CID 83 -->
225 Versions affected: 0.10.13.
228 <!-- CID 83 - 103: Bogus -->
231 The GSM SMS dissector could crash Ethereal.
232 <!-- Fixed in r17506 -->
233 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
234 <!-- Coverity CID 104 -->
235 Versions affected: 0.9.16.
239 The ALCAP dissector could overrun a buffer.
240 <!-- Fixed in r17724 -->
241 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
242 <!-- Coverity CID 105 -->
243 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
247 The telnet dissector could overrun a buffer.
248 <!-- Fixed in r17487 -->
249 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
250 <!-- Coverity CID 106 -->
251 Versions affected: 0.8.5.
254 <!-- CID 107: See CID 79 -->
255 <!-- CID 108: Not security-related -->
258 ASN.1-based dissectors could crash Ethereal.
259 <!-- Fixed in r17489 -->
260 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
261 <!-- Coverity CID 109 -->
262 Versions affected: 0.9.10.
265 <!-- CID 110: Not security-related -->
266 <!-- CID 111: Bogus -->
267 <!-- CID 112: Not security-related -->
270 The H.248 dissector could crash Ethereal.
271 <!-- Fixed in r17571 -->
272 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
273 <!-- Coverity CID 113,114 -->
274 Versions affected: 0.10.11.
277 <!-- CID 115, 116: See CID 79 -->
278 <!-- CID 117: Bogus -->
279 <!-- CID 118 - 119: Not security-related -->
280 <!-- CID 120 - 121: Bogus -->
281 <!-- CID 122 - 126: Not security-related -->
282 <!-- CID 127: Bogus -->
285 The DCERPC NT dissector could crash Ethereal.
286 <!-- Fixed in r17511 -->
287 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
288 <!-- Coverity CID 128 -->
289 Versions affected: 0.9.14.
292 <!-- CID 129: Bogus -->
293 <!-- CID 130 - 134: Not security-related -->
296 The PER dissector could crash Ethereal.
297 <!-- Fixed in r17511 -->
298 <!-- Bug IDs: None -->
299 <!-- Coverity CID 135 -->
300 Versions affected: 0.9.14.
303 <!-- CID 136: See CID 67 -->
304 <!-- CID 137 - 139: Not security-releated -->
305 <!-- CID 140 - 141: Bogus -->
306 <!-- CID 142: Not security-releated -->
307 <!-- CID 143 - 144: See CID 79 -->
308 <!-- CID 144: Lemon is a build-time tool -->
309 <!-- CID 145: Post-0.10.14 -->
310 <!-- CID 146: See CID 42 -->
311 <!-- CID 147 - 148: Post-0.10.14 -->
317 Win32: Unicode characters in the users profile path causes problems
318 reading/writing the preferences (and alike) files.
319 <!-- Fixed in r17024,r17025 -->
320 <!-- Bug IDs: 648 -->
321 Versions affected: 0.10.14.
325 The Coverity audit turned up several UI-related bugs that could
331 <section><title>New and Updated Features</title>
333 The following features are new (or have been significantly updated)
334 since the last release:
338 The new command line tool <command>dumpcap</command> makes it
339 possible to capture network data without the drawbacks of (t)ethereal
340 (memory usage, security problems, ...) while keeping the benefit of
341 advanced techniques like multiple (ringbuffer) files and alike.
344 The manpage of <command>dumpcap</command> in HTML format is available
345 at: <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/docs/"/>
349 Win32: Catch hardware exceptions caused by buggy dissectors.
350 If e.g. a NULL pointer exceptions occurs, Ethereal won't crash now
351 but displays the exception and tries to continue decoding packets.
355 The Windows version of Ethereal now uses native open and save
359 In related news, Ethereal now runs as a full-fledged Unicode
360 application under Windows.
364 Recent versions of Ethereal were flagging packets with an
365 incorrect TCP checksum as malformed. False positives were
366 being triggered on systems that use TCP checksum offloading.
367 We now check to see if the checksum is <emphasis>not</emphasis>
368 0x0000 before flagging the packet as malformed.
370 <note><title>Please Note</title>
372 If your system uses TCP checksum offloading <emphasis>and</emphasis>
373 Ethereal still shows bad checksums for outgoing TCP packets
374 <emphasis>and</emphasis> the checksums for outgoing TCP packets
375 are <emphasis>not</emphasis> 0x0000, this could mean that your
376 operating system is exposing kernel memory unneccessarily. If
377 this is the case, you should report the problem to your OS
387 <section><title>New Protocol Support</title>
393 <section><title>Updated Protocol Support</title> <para>
398 <section><title>New and Updated Capture File Support</title>
406 <section id="GettingEthereal"><title>Getting Ethereal</title>
407 <section><title>Microsoft Windows</title>
409 Download ethereal-setup-&EtherealCurrentVersion;.exe from the
410 <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/distribution/win32/">Windows
411 download area</ulink> on the main web site. Double-click the
412 installer executable.
416 <section><title>Sun Solaris</title>
418 Download the appropriate package from the
419 <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/distribution/solaris/">Solaris
420 download area</ulink> on the main web site. Uncompress the package
421 using bzip2, and install it using pkgadd.
425 <section><title>Source Code</title>
427 Download ethereal-&EtherealCurrentVersion;.tar.gz from the
428 <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/distribution/">main
429 download area</ulink> on the web site. Extract the package
430 using tar and gzip. Run "configure ; make ; make install".
434 <section><title>Vendor-supplied Packages</title>
436 Most Linux and Unix vendors supply their own Ethereal packages.
437 You can install or upgrade Ethereal using the package management
438 system specific to that platform. A list of third-party packages
439 can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/download.html#otherplat">download page</ulink> on the Ethereal web site.
445 <!-- XXX needs to be written
446 <section id="RemovingEthereal"><title>Removing Ethereal</title>
452 <section id="FileLocations"><title>File Locations</title>
454 Ethereal and Tethereal look in several different locations for
455 preference files, plugins, SNMP MIBS, and RADIUS dictionaries.
456 These locations vary from platform to platform. You can use
457 About->Folders to find the default locations on your system.
461 <section id="KnownProblems"><title>Known Problems</title>
464 On Windows systems the packet list scroll bar can sometimes disappear
465 or become unusable. Until the problem is fixed you can work around it
466 by resizing the packet list or the main window.
467 (<ulink url="http://bugs.ethereal.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=220">Bug
472 The <guibutton>Filter</guibutton> button is nonfunctional in the
473 file dialogs under Windows.
478 <section id="GettingHelp"><title>Getting Help</title>
480 Community support is available on the ethereal-users mailing list.
481 Subscription information and archives for all of Ethereal's mailing
482 lists can be found on <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/lists/">the
483 web site</ulink>. There is also an <ulink url="irc://irc.freenode.net/ethereal">IRC channel dedicated to Ethereal</ulink>.
486 Commercial support, training, and development services are available
487 from <ulink url="http://www.etherealsoft.com/">Ethereal Software</ulink>.
491 <section id="FAQ"><title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
493 A complete FAQ is available on the
494 <ulink url="http://www.ethereal.com/faq.html">Ethereal web site</ulink>.