The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. The operating system has grown a lot since it started 5 years ago. A new version of the operating system is now available, containing major security upgrades, and new advance features.
Changes:
* Hardware support is improved
o OpenBSD 2.8 will run on Apple iMac, G3, G4, and G4 Cube machines.
o Improved hardware crypto support, now including Hifn PowerCrypt and Broadcom Bluesteelnet (uBsec) hardware accelerator boards.
o Many new Ethernet devices supported, including National Semiconductor DP83815-based adapters, 3Com MiniPCI adapters, 3Com 574-based PCMCIA, and many new CardBus devices (Xircom, Intel 21143, Intel CardBus II).
o Support for most of the Gigabit Ethernet cards on the market, i.e., SysKonnect, Intel, and Alteon-based.
o Support for most types of USB devices, including Ethernet, printers, audio, etc. Sync your Handspring Visor, or transfer MP3's to your Rio.
o Support for 3ware Escalade 3W-5x000 and 3W-6x000 series RAID controllers.
o New audio support, including the Cirrus Logic CS4280, ForteMedia FM801, and integrated audio chips found on newer VIA and Intel motherboards.
o Improvements and new support in the PCI IDE subsystem.
* Security has been further strengthened
o In response to the threat posed by so-called "format string" bugs, OpenBSD performed a complete source tree audit in June to identify and correct such problems. This involved countless hours of code reading and careful bug fixes. OpenBSD are confidant that these issues have been solved and that once again their proactive security auditing process has proved itself an invaluable component of the OpenBSD philosophy.
o Several other security issues dealt with across the system, many of which were identified by members of the OpenBSD team themselves. Please see http://www.openbsd.org/errata27.html for more details on what was fixed.
* Even more integrated cryptography
o OpenSSH has been improved, debugged, and is now at version 2.3.0. Support for both SSH1 and SSH2 protocols ensure maximum interoperability with other implementations. This version also includes an SFTP server for secure file transfers with several Windows-based clients. Since o OpenSSH is free, it has continued to gain acceptance on other operating systems as well. For more information, see www.OpenSSH.com, or simply install OpenBSD 2.8 and try it out. OpenBSD sends their sincerest thanks to Markus Friedl, one of our developers and the driving force behind OpenSSH.
o OpenBSD's already very mature IPSEC code has been enhanced to comply with the latest standard changes, i.e., AES. Using IPSEC and bridging, Ethernets can be securely tunneled over the Internet. The IKE isakmpd has become more robust and can be used in a configuration-less mode in conjunction with certificates. IPSEC performance has improved for software cryptography, but with hardware crypto accelerators (including HiFn and Broadcom based encryption processors), incredibly fast IPSEC processing is possible.
o Improving on the encryption of swap space introduced in the previous release, OpenBSD now uses Rijndael, the recently chosen AES encryption standard.
* Many subsystems improved and updated since the last release
o XFree86 3.3.6-current
o gcc 2.95.3
o perl 5.6.0 plus a few fixes.
o Apache 1.3.12 (+ patches), Mod_ssl 2.6.2, OpenSSL 0.9.5a, DSO support
o ipf 3.3.18
o groff 1.15
o sendmail 8.10.1
o lynx 2.8.2 with HTTPS support added
o sudo 1.6.3p5
o ncurses 5.2
o Latest KAME IPv6
o KTH Kerberos 1.0.2
o OpenSSH 2.3.0
