Linewize - release notes

SphireOS Release 256

25 August, 2022

As a result of this release, SphireOS will support more throughput than ever before! Our lab tests have shown us a sustained load at 20Gbps, bursting to 40Gbps at times. As part of this work, we’ve made a number of other further improvements to the platform stability and reliability.

SphireOS is scheduled to be released for BETA on August 24, EA on August 29, and GA on September 12.

Please follow our maintenance updates here.

Fixes and Improvements

• We made significant improvements to the backend to support more throughput, while increasing the platform's stability. Our goal is to have zero unplanned downtime with your Linewize Gateway.
• We added a Restrictive Mode in the Captive Portal that will prevent students from using VPNs to bypass filtering.
• We fixed an issue that prevented devices with bonded interfaces from updating to the latest version.

SphireOS Release 255.22

30 May, 2022

This release focuses on bug fixes and improving reliability. This update will be rolled out during your configured upgrade windows on June 7th for Stable 2 and June 13th for Stable 1.

Fixes and Improvements

• We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors and WMI to not authenticate users reliably.
• We resolved some bugs that could cause SphireOS to crash and restart.
• We fixed an issue that could cause Sphirewall to crash in certain Walled Garden or static IP configurations.

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SphireOS Release 255.16 (Stable 1)

6 April, 2022

Fixes and Improvements

• We removed the PPE1 code from SphireOS.
• We added the average download and upload rates of the firewall in School Manager (Debugging > Diagnostics > Performance Metrics).
• We resolved an issue that caused errors when retrieving Netlink log entries.
• We fixed an issue where hostnames were not being extracted from HTTP requests correctly.
• We resolved an issue that caused DHCP errors.

SphireOS Release 255.15 (Stable 2)

10 March, 2022

Fixes and Improvements

• We removed the PPE1 code from SphireOS.
• We added the average download and upload rates of the firewall in School Manager (Debugging > Diagnostics > Performance Metrics).
• We resolved an issue that caused errors when retrieving Netlink log entries.
• We fixed an issue where hostnames were not being extracted from HTTP requests correctly.
• We resolved an issue that caused DHCP errors.

SphireOS Release 254.16 (Stable 1)

24 February, 2022

Fixes and Improvements

• We migrated our Packet Pipeline Engine 1 (PPE1) customers to Packet Pipeline Engine 2 (PPE2). These changes will allow for faster, more responsive user experience for HTTPS Inspection features. 
• We fixed an issue that allowed users to bypass filtering rules by using HTTP in front of the IP address.
• We fixed an issue that could crash Sphirewall by using an invalid IP address.
• We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors with the latest Windows update.
• We improved the way we collect logs when SphireOS restarts due to memory exhaustion. 

   

SphireOS Release 254.13 (Stable 2)

16 February, 2022

Fixes and Improvements

• We migrated our Packet Pipeline Engine 1 (PPE1) customers to Packet Pipeline Engine 2 (PPE2). These changes will allow for faster, more responsive user experience for HTTPS Inspection features. 
• We fixed an issue that allowed users to bypass filtering rules by using HTTP in front of the IP address.
• We fixed an issue that could crash Sphirewall by using an invalid IP address.
• We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors with the latest Windows update.
• We improved the way we collect logs when SphireOS restarts due to memory exhaustion. 

   

SphireOS Release 252.19

19 January, 2022

Welcome to SphireOS Release 252.19

Fixes

• We fixed an issue that could cause a buffer overflow and crash SphireOS.
• We improved the way we capture and log radius accounting packets. This should result in better and more detailed error logs. 
•  We improved the way we collect statistics on packets.
• The transparent proxy service in SphireOS won’t crash HTTPS inspection is enabled.
• Sphirewall won’t  keep trying to send DHCP requests if the link is down. 
• Creating a rule with empty or missing criteria won’t cause  SphireOS to crash.
• SphireOS no longer cares about letter cases in group names when you’re creating and applying filtering rules.
• We found and fixed a rare case where SphireOS wouldn’t process all LDAP records, resulting in users incorrectly being set as archived.
• SphireOS won’t apply HTTPs inspection to additional subnet ranges if subnets were specified in IP/Subnet notation. 
• SphireOS won’t crash if you update user or group configuration while HTTPS Inspection is enabled.

SphireOS Release 251.17 (Stable 2)

28 October, 2021

Welcome to SphireOS Release 251.17 (Stable 2)

New Features & Improvements

• The linux kernel version of SphireOS has been upgraded to 5.4.112.
• We've updated SphireOS’s root certificate.

Fixes

• We fixed an issue with the ethernet driver that could stop some school manager appliances from coming back online if the bridge link was disabled.
• The cloud crash core dump process would crash itself the first time it was run because there was no directory to store the data. The process now handles this scenario gracefully—and without crashing.

SphireOS Release 250.22 Hotfix

5 October, 2021

Fixes

• We changed the default value of the "LOG_PRIORITY_FILTER" advanced configuration setting from 5 to 3 to drastically reduce the amount of log entry spam.

SphireOS Release 250.20 (Stable 2)

14 September, 2021

Welcome to SphireOS Release 250.20 (Stable 2)

New Features & Improvements

• We improved the way that SphireOS handles YouTube and Wikipedia searches. SphireOS will be able to filter and report on searches in these two signatures to School Manager.

Fixes

• We found and fixed an exploit where users could manipulate the google image cache to access blocked YouTube videos.
• We fixed a couple crashes, including one where SphireOS could crash when it encountered a signature with circular dependencies.
• We found and fixed a memory leak with signature storage.
• Rules that were supposed to apply at certain times of the day on certain days weren’t always taking effect as they should have.