2.1 Kernel Changes

The kernel dump device can now be set via the dumpdev loader tunable. As a result, it is now possible to obtain crash dumps from panics during the late stages of kernel initialization (before the system enters into single-user mode).

The snp(4) device is no longer static and can now be compiled as a module.

    options DEVICE_POLLING
    options HZ=1000 # not compulsory but strongly recommended

2.2 Security Advisories

An ``off-by-one'' bug has been fixed in OpenSSH's multiplexing code. This bug could have allowed an authenticated remote user to cause sshd(8) to execute arbitrary code with superuser privileges, or allowed a malicious SSH server to execute arbitrary code on the client system with the privileges of the client user. (See security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:13.)

A programming error in zlib could result in attempts to free memory multiple times. The malloc(3)/ free(3) routines used in FreeBSD are not vulnerable to this error, but applications receiving specially-crafted blocks of invalid compressed data could be made to function incorrectly or abort. This zlib bug has been fixed. For a workaround and solutions, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:18.

Bugs in the TCP SYN cache (``syncache'') and SYN cookie (``syncookie'') implementations, which could cause legitimate TCP/IP traffic to crash a machine, have been fixed. For a workaround and patches, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:20.

A routing table memory leak, which could allow a remote attacker to exhaust the memory of a target machine, has been fixed. A workaround and patches can be found in security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:21.

A bug with memory-mapped I/O, which could cause a system crash, has been fixed. For more information about a solution, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:22.

A security hole, in which SUID programs could be made to read from or write to inappropriate files through manipulation of their standard I/O file descriptors, has been fixed. Information regarding a solution can be found in security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:23.

Some unexpected behavior could be allowed with k5su(8) because it does not require that an invoking user be a member of the wheel group when attempting to become the superuser (this is the case with su(1)). To avoid this situation, k5su(8) is now installed non-SUID by default (effectively disabling it). More information can be found in security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:24.

Multiple vulnerabilities were found in the bzip2(1) utility, which could allow files to be overwritten without warning or allow local users unintended access to files. These problems have been corrected with a new import of bzip2. For more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:25.

A bug has been fixed in the implementation of the TCP SYN cache (``syncache''), which could allow a remote attacker to deny access to a service when accept filters (see accept_filter(9)) were in use. This bug has been fixed; for more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:26.

Due to a bug in rc(8)'s use of shell globbing, users may be able to remove the contents of arbitrary files if /tmp/.X11-unix does not exist and the system can be made to reboot. This bug has been corrected (see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:27).

2.3 Userland Changes

atacontrol(8) has been added to control various aspects of the ata(4) driver.

On ATAPI CDROM drives, cdcontrol(1) now supports a speed command to set the maximum speed to be used by the drive.

ctags(1) no longer creates a corrupt tags file if the source file used // (C++-style) comments.

dump(8) now supplies progress information in its process title, useful for monitoring automated backups.

/etc/rc.firewall and /etc/rc.firewall6 will no longer add their own hardcoded rules in the cases of a rules file in the firewall_type variable or a non-existent firewall type. (The motivation for this change is to avoid acting on assumptions about a site's firewall policies.) In addition, the closed firewall type now works as documented in the rc.firewall(8) manual page.

The functionality of /etc/security has been been moved into a set of scripts under the periodic(8) framework, to make local customization easier and more maintainable. These scripts now reside in /etc/periodic/security/.

The ether address family of ifconfig(8) has been changed to a more generic link family (ether is still accepted for backwards compatability).

fsdb(8) now supports a blocks command to list the blocks allocated by a particular inode.

ispppcontrol(8) has been deleted, and its functionality has been folded into spppcontrol(8).

k5su(8) is no longer installed SUID root by default. Users requiring this feature can either manually change the permissions on the k5su(8) executable or add ENABLE_SUID_K5SU=yes to /etc/make.conf before a source upgrade.

ldd(1) can now be used on shared libraries, in addition to executables.

last(1) now supports a -y flag, which causes the year to be included in the session start time.

libstand now has support for loading large kernels and modules split across several physical media.

libusb has been renamed as libusbhid, following NetBSD's naming conventions.

lpd(8) now recognizes the -s flag as the preferred synonym for -p (these flags cause lpd(8) not to open a socket for network print jobs).

lpd(8) now implements a new rc printcap option. When specified in a print queue for a remote host, boolean option causes lpd(8) to resend the data file for each copy the user requested via lpr -#n.

ls(1) now accepts a -h flag, which when combined with the -l flag, causes file sizes to be printed with unit suffixes, such that the number of digits printed is fewer than four.

m4(1) now accepts a -s flag to cause it to emit #line directives for use by cpp(1).

mergemaster(8) now supports two new flags. The -p flag enables a ``pre-buildworld'' mode to compare files known to be essential to the success of the buildworld and installworld system updating steps. The -C flag, used after a successful mergemaster(8) run, compares options in /etc/rc.conf to the default options in /etc/defaults/rc.conf.

ngctl(8) now supports a write command to send a data packet down a given hook.

patch(1) now accepts a -i command-line flag to read a patch from a file, rather than standard input.

A pam_ssh(8) module has been added to allow the use of SSH passphrases and keypairs for authentication. This module also handles session management by invoking ssh-agent(1).

pr(1) now supports the -f and -p flags to pause output going to a terminal.

The -W option to ps(1) (to extract information from a specified swap device) has been useless for some time; it has been removed.

reboot(8) now takes a -k to specify the next kernel to boot.

sshd(8) no longer emits fake S/Key challenges for users who do not have S/Key enabled. The prior behavior created confusing, useless one-time-password prompts when using some newer SSH clients to connect to a FreeBSD system.

sysinstall(8) now has rudimentary support for retrieving packages from the correct volume of a multiple-volume installation (such as a multi-CD distribution).

tftp(1) and tftpd(8) now support IPv6.

The usbhidctl(1) utility has been added to manipulate USB Human Interface Devices.

uuencode(1) and uudecode(1) now accept a -o option to set their output files. uuencode(1) can now be made to do base64 encoding when given the -m flag, while uudecode(1) can now automatically decode base64 files.

watch(8) now takes a -f option to specify a snp(4) device to use.

Locales with names of the form *.EUC have been renamed to the form *.euc??. For example, ja_JP.EUC has become ja_JP.eucJP. This improves locale name compatability with FreeBSD CURRENT, X11R6, and a number of other UNIX versions.

The locale support was synchronized with the code from FreeBSD -CURRENT. This change brings support for the LC_NUMERIC, LC_MONETARY, and LC_MESSAGES categories, as well as improvements to strftime(3), revised locale definitions, and improvement of the localization of many base system programs.

    XFREE86_VERSION=3

2.4 Release Engineering and Integration

XFree86 4.2.0 is now the default version of the X Window System supported by sysinstall(8). It installs XFree86 as a set of standard binary packages, so the usual package utilities such as pkg_info(1) can be used to examine/manipulate its components.