certificate or key. It added the cert/key to the list of certs, like a
"dual cert" approach.
This was caused by commit 877d151da4,
which indeed adds support for "dual cert" (or more).
I have now deferred setting the default to happen only if no
set::tls::certificate is specified, as you would expect.
We (already) used a similar delayed-initialization / deferred setting
approach in the ::tls-options inheritance code (for blocks like
listen, sni, link, etc.)
Just as a slightly related reminder, we do normally suggest keeping the
conf/tls/server.cert.pem and conf/tls/server.key.pem for server linking
and then use a cert from a trusted CA in the listen block for 6697 etc.
See https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Using_Let's_Encrypt_with_UnrealIRCd
for more information (and the 'why').
New RPC methods:
- security_group.list: List all security groups
- security_group.get: Get details of a specific security group
- connthrottle.status: Get full connection throttle status, counters, and config
- connthrottle.set: Enable/disable connection throttling
- connthrottle.reset: Reset connection throttling counts
This also adds json_expand_mask_list(), json_expand_name_list(), and
json_expand_nvplist() to src/json.c for reuse by RPC modules.
A link to https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/JSON-RPC and such is nice.
And also explain that not all JSON-RPC modules will be in rpc/*.
Sometimes it makes more sense to just put everything in the same
module, such as connthrottle RPC stuff in the connthrottle module.
always available (also w/cURL) so it can be used by the crash
reporter. And delete duplicate code crashreport_init_tls()
function since it is now unused.
As always, duplicate code causes problems when one is changed and
the other is not. This also happened here, where the curves or
TLS groups where set in url_unreal but not in the crash reporter.
Now that one is minor, but the danger is clear.
It could cause a spurious
"Your config has NO errors, but you received some best practices tips above, in summary"
even though no best practices were displayed... which was a bit mysterious.
Also, ::listen-nontls-port was actually meant to be called ::listen-tls-only
so accept both forms from now on. The reason it was supposed to be like that
is that all best-practices options are... best practices...
hashed passwords, trusted cert, trusted cert with valid hostname,
listening on a nontls port... ? NOPE! listen-tls-only! Aaaaa.
* In 2016 we switched from OpenSSL to LibreSSL because the OpenSSL
codebase was in a bit of bad shape and LibreSSL promised to be a
more modern codebase. Now, almost a decade later, OpenSSL has had
many code cleanups and is more security aware (code audits etc),
especially since OpenSSL v3 things are looking OK and it seems
LibreSSL doesn't have much progress nowadays. Which is understandable
as they have a lot fewer coders available but has an effect on things
like how long it took for TLSv1.3 to appear and for other new things
like PQC. It also seems like security fixes are now slower than
OpenSSL instead of the other way around. Anyway, I think they did their
job well (together with other people) in "triggering" the OpenSSL
project to get things back on track. Let's switch back now.
* For context: it seems several Linux distro's that used to do go for
LibreSSL have also switched back to OpenSSL.
* LibreSSL is still and will continue to be a supported library to
use with UnrealIRCd (especially with OpenBSD and FreeBSD in mind).
So, if there are any issues (compile problems, configuration problems,
some feature not detected), then please report it on our bug tracker
at https://bugs.unrealircd.org/ ! We will have to rely more on such
user-reports now that the main devs will likely only work with OpenSSL.
Also... i have cleaned up the Makefile.windows a bit to be more consistent
Hopefully i didn't make a mistake there...
[skip ci]
Just in case someone thinks we are going to msg users on plaintext ports
by default, no we don't that, or at least not this year.
This is purely a "best practices" advice to admins on config load.
[skip ci]
Isn't that what it was supposed to do? Well, yes and no, previously
it only guaranteed that between reconnects (so the 2nd try not being
before class::connfreq than the 1st try), but there were no guarantees
for the first time period directly after a squit.
* When a netsplit happens and
[set::server-linking::autoconnect-strategy](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::server-linking)
is `sequential` (which is the default) or `sequential-fallback`
(which is a good value for leafs) then we now consistently wait for
[class::connfreq](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Class_block)
seconds before trying to connect to the (same or next) server.
By default this is 15 seconds in the example configuration
server class. The reason for this is to provide a consistent behavior.
Previously we waited semi-randomly for 0 to class::connfreq seconds.
The previous behavior caused the picking of 'next server to try' to
be inconsistent, which especially caused issues for `sequential-fallback`.
If you want quicker recovery times in case of a netsplit, simply lower
the value of [class::connfreq](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Class_block)
in your configuration file, e.g. to 5 instead of 15 seconds.
Oh yeah and for connect-strategy 'parallel' things stay as is, with
the wait of 0 to class::connfreq per-server, which seems fine for that.
Unless you want a 'BOOM!' effect of mass reconnects instantly, in
which case you can just set class::connfreq very low.
/* Standard IRC port 6667:
* Insecure plaintext (NOT for production servers)
* This listen block is here only for quick testing.
* Delete or comment out this listen block on production servers
* and use TLS on port 6697 instead.
*/
Also throw it in translated example*conf's (in English),
the translators can translate it.
* [set::tls](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/TLS_Ciphers_and_protocols):
Rename `ecdh-curves` to `groups` (the old name will continue to work)
* Add (and prefer) the `X25519MLKEM768` hybrid group, which is a mix
of `X25519` that is commonly used today and quantum-safe `ML-KEM-768`.
This to protect against
["harvest now, decrypt later"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_now,_decrypt_later).
* To benefit from this, OpenSSL 3.5.0 or later (released April 2025)
is required on the server, and similarly a client that supports this.
At the time of writing, almost all Linux distros don't have such an
OpenSSL version yet (which is not a problem, this new feature will simply
not be available). Notably Debian 13 (when released in August
2025) will have it. LibreSSL does not support it either yet, so our
Windows build does not have this feature.
* Also, change the TLS information on-connect and in WHOIS etc. from
something like `TLSv1.3-TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256` to
`TLSv1.3/X25519/TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256`. In other words: using
slashes as separators and showing the group / key exchange in the middle.
The group is only shown on newer OpenSSL versions. If someone would
use the new PQC hybrid group mentioned above then their TLS info would
start with `TLSv1.3/X25519MLKEM768/`.
* TL;DR: better secrecy against future quantum attacks, even though
not many clients or servers support it at the moment.
[skip ci]
[Channel flood protection by default](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Channel_anti-flood_settings):
This is an important change that IRCOps and chanops should know about:
* By default we now apply the anti-flood profile "normal", which should be fine for most channels.
* If a chanop does not want this they can override this by setting
`MODE +F` with [another profile](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Channel_anti-flood_settings#Channel_mode_F_profiles).
* For example, for a channel with hundreds of users and lots of activity
`+F relaxed` may be more appropriate. Or, chanops can turn anti-flood
off entirely by setting `+F off`
* The reason for this change is that many admins and chanops in practice
don't seem to use `+f` or `+F`. With this change they are now protected "by default"
when no MODE `+f` or `+F` is set.
* Advanced users can can grab the detailed effective settings with `MODE #test F`
(there will be an error if you use `cloak_md5`, but everything
will work fine if you use `cloak_sha256`).
We phased out MD5 usage years ago, so it is only contained to
the old cloaking module. In fact that was the only reason we
started to provide the SHA256 cloaking module, simply so it
isn't using old MD5.
Of course, for module coders this means they should not call
DoMD5() or md5hash(), but that would be rare. Currently zero
modules in unrealircd contrib do this and it makes no sense
to start using it nowadays anyway.
Bram Matthys