« Changelog History


CIDRAM v3.0.0 Release Notes

  • CIDRAM v3 branches from v2 at v2.8.0 (2022.02.14).

    🔊 At the time of branching, CIDRAM's changelog was more than 2,300 lines long and was becoming difficult to read due to both its length and its format. To improve readability, I've decided to clear out the old changelogs from the v3 branch, and to switch from plain-text format to markdown format from v3 onward. The old changelogs will continue at previous branches and remain accessible from there.

    Backwards-incompatible changes.

    • ✂ Removed support for webfonts (this expands upon other changes made in the past in response to potential legal concerns; #66).
    • ✂ Removed support for INI files in favour of using just YAML files instead (this is necessary because of changes to the configuration directives available made for v3 and how those changes are intended to work for v3).
    • Reorganised how CIDRAM handles L10N data.
    • 🔖 Configuration directives hide_version, empty_fields, omit_ip, omit_hostname, and omit_ua have been replaced by a new configuration directive, fields. The new configuration directive is capable of providing the same functionality provided previously, as well as some other, new, related functionality.
    • 🌲 Configuration directives error_log_stages and track_mode have been replaced by a new configuration directive, stages. The new configuration directive is capable of providing the same functionality provided previously, as well as some other, new, related functionality (#208, #211).
    • Configuration directive statistics has been changed from a boolean to a checkbox, to enable users to specify exactly which statistics they want to track. It's also now possible to track non-blocked requests (#204).
    • 🚧 Configuration directive maintenance_mode removed. "Maintenance mode" is now implicit (determined by which execution stages are enabled), rather than explicit (determined by its own configuration directive).
    • Configuration directive forbid_on_block has been renamed to http_response_header_code (#136, #139).
    • Default value for http_response_header_code has been changed to 403.
    • 🍱 Reorganised CIDRAM's file structure, non-executable assets separated into their own directory (front-end and core alike) plus various other small structural changes.
    • 0️⃣ Flags.css is now bundled as part of the front-end and thus installed by default, instead of being its own component and not installed by default as was the case before.
    • Caching has been unified. Instead of the front-end having its own, separate cache file (frontend.dat), it now just uses CIDRAM's main cache system, and the "frontend.dat" and "frontend.dat.safety" files don't exist anymore.
    • 🔧 Completely overhauled the login, sessions, and accounts management system. Account information is now stored within the CIDRAM configuration file, and session information is now handled by CIDRAM's main cache system.
    • 🚚 Moved all the signature files and modules to their own dedicated directories.
    • 🔧 Front-end configuration directives split off to their own category, and it's now possible to set the default themes/templates for the front-end and other generated output (e.g., block event page) separately.
    • ✂ Removed some of the backwards-compatibility code for older themes/templates.
    • 📇 URLs for remotes are now specified by the configuration, instead of by the components metadata. New configuration directive remotes added accordingly.
    • All available CIDRAM themes are to be bundled with CIDRAM as of v3 onward.
    • 📚 CIDRAM won't have predefined entrypoints anymore. From v3 onward, you can specify your entrypoints wherever and however you want (details about how to do this will be included in the documentation and applicable installation instructions).
    • The disable_frontend and protect_frontend configuration directives have been removed. These directives would be irrelevant for v3, because whether the front-end is "disabled" or "protected" for v3 onward would depend entirely on how you build your entrypoints.
    • 🔧 Configuration directive config_imports has been renamed to imports, and along with the configuration directives ipv4, ipv6, modules, and events, has been moved to a new configuration category, components.
    • 🔧 The default_dns configuration directive, and all components configuration directives (ipv4, ipv6, modules, imports, events), now delimit entries by newlines (\x0A), no longer delimiting by commas, thus having them behave more naturally as "lists".
    • 🔧 Component supplementary configuration can no longer be loaded implicitly, and must now be listed explicitly as an import entry in order to be loaded.
    • 📇 Component type can no longer be implicitly discerned from its description, and must now be declared explicitly by its metadata.
    • 👍 The overall structure of the CIDRAM codebase has been rearranged, made more classful, and namespaced in entirety, its file structure completely rewritten, no more functions files or similar, said parts of the codebase now existing as traits or classes wherever appropriate in order to better facilitate entrypoint changes and a better API experience.
    • 📇 The updater and its internal workings, as well as the overall structure of components metadata, have been completely reworked and rewritten (although with very limited UI changes). Those supplying remotes to the public will need to update their formatting accordingly (the general userbase outside of that won't need to be concerned about these changes).
    • Configuration directive enable_two_factor has been moved from the phpmailer configuration category to the frontend configuration category.
    • PHPMailer further decoupled from the main CIDRAM codebase. Various hooks and bridges between CIDRAM and PHPMailer are now handled by event handlers rather than through hardcoding.
    • 🚚 Moved all the event handlers and imports to their own dedicated directories.
    • Most (but not all) available CIDRAM modules are to be bundled with CIDRAM as of v3 onward.
    • There's no longer any need for an external API or CLI script for CIDRAM, as these are both bundled into CIDRAM itself as of v3 onward.
    • Configuration directives max_login_attempts and signatures_update_event_log have been moved from the general configuration category to the frontend configuration category.
    • 🌲 Configuration directives standard_log, apache_style_log, serialised_log, error_log, truncate, log_rotation_limit, log_rotation_action, log_banned_ips, and log_sanitisation have been moved to a new configuration category, logging.
    • 🔧 Configuration directives for CAPTCHA logging have been renamed.
    • Configuration directives search_engines, social_media, and other have been moved to a new configuration category, verification.
    • Configuration directives block_attacks, block_cloud, block_bogons, block_generic, block_legal, block_malware, block_proxies, and block_spam have been replaced by a new configuration directive, shorthand. The new configuration directive is capable of providing the same functionality provided previously, as well as some other, new, related functionality.
    • 🔧 Configuration can't be injected directly via globals anymore. Instead, paths to files containing any configuration external to CIDRAM's own configuration files can now be specified via the Core's constructor.

    🐛 Bugs fixed.

    • 🛠 Some specific files were being misclassified by the file manager; Fixed.
    • 🛠 HCaptcha class was sending invalid headers when generating output; Fixed (#293).
    • 🛠 Wrong CSP headers being set by the HCaptcha class; Fixed (#294).
    • 🛠 Fixed a bottleneck caused by the ReadFile closure (since v3, the readFile method).
    • The nonblocked_status_code configuration directive wasn't displaying as intended at the front-end configuration page; Fixed.
    • 🍱 Instead of "GMT", the "Last modified" header given for front-end assets specified "+0000", which some browsers don't understand properly; Fixed.
    • ✅ When using the front-end IP test page, hostnames sometimes weren't looked up properly under some conditions; Fixed (#313).

    Other changes.

    • 👌 Improved IP address resolution strategy (#286).
    • 0️⃣ Changed the enable_apcu default value to true and the prefix default value to CIDRAM_.
    • 🔧 Checkbox configuration directives are now delimited in the configuration by newlines instead of commas.
    • 🔧 The Output stage of the execution chain has been split into four distinct, separate stages for easier configurability and control.
    • ➕ Added a mechanism to the front-end IP test and IP tracking pages to enable the copying of IPs displayed there.
    • ➕ Added a copy mechanism for the output of all range-based pages.
    • Added two new configuration directives, block_event_title and captcha_title, allowing users to customise the page title used for block events and CAPTCHA requests (#216).
    • ➕ Added a "dry run mode" (determined by which execution stages are enabled). While in dry run mode, requests are still checked and logged as block events as per usual, but nothing is blocked (#98, #221).
    • ➕ Added warnings for when the IP tests, modules, or page termination stages are disabled, and for when there aren't any active signature files (as long as the IP tests stage is enabled) or any active modules (as long as the modules stage is enabled).
    • The calculator (previously, the "CIDR calculator") now shows both CIDRs and netmasks.
    • At the range tables page, show the IPv4/IPv6 totals side by side, for easier comparison between the two.
    • ✂ Removed some unused file manager icons and slightly simplified its logic.
    • ➕ Added a JavaScript warning to the front-end login.
    • ⚠ Front-end warnings have been hidden from non-logged in users.
    • ⚠ Made the warnings/notices at the front-end accounts page slightly smaller.
    • The aggregator has been decoupled from its internal references to the CIDRAM working data, bringing it more in line with its stand-alone counterpart.
    • ➕ Added the copy SVG to the front-end signature file fixer page.
    • 👌 Improved log identification strategy.
    • Following symlinks for RecursiveDirectoryIterator instances enabled.
    • 👍 Slightly improved RTL support.
    • ➕ Added the ability to enable/disable auxiliary rules (#318).
    • The path to the cache file can now be customised.
    • ✅ Made IPs at the IP test page searchable.
    • ⚡️ At the updater, when a checksum error occurs, the difference between the actual and the expected will be displayed now.
    • 🚚 Confirmation is now sought before engaging an attempt to delete an auxiliary rule, and the option moved to the far right to reduce the risk of engaging by accident (#333).
    • ➕ Added the ability to reset specific parts of the configuration back to their defaults (#331).
    • ➕ Added L10N support for some additional languages.