forward-port the 0.2.4.18-rc changelog

ChangeLog

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+Changes in version 0.2.4.18-rc - 2013-11-16
+  Tor 0.2.4.18-rc is the fourth release candidate for the Tor 0.2.4.x
+  series. It takes a variety of fixes from the 0.2.5.x branch to improve
+  stability, performance, and better handling of edge cases.
+
+  o Major features:
+    - Re-enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 when built with OpenSSL 1.0.1e or later.
+      Resolves ticket 6055. (OpenSSL before 1.0.1 didn't have TLS 1.1 or
+      1.2, and OpenSSL from 1.0.1 through 1.0.1d had bugs that prevented
+      renegotiation from working with TLS 1.1 or 1.2, so we had disabled
+      them to solve bug 6033.)
+
+  o Major bugfixes:
+    - No longer stop reading or writing on cpuworker connections when
+      our rate limiting buckets go empty. Now we should handle circuit
+      handshake requests more promptly. Resolves bug 9731.
+    - If we are unable to save a microdescriptor to the journal, do not
+      drop it from memory and then reattempt downloading it. Fixes bug
+      9645; bugfix on 0.2.2.6-alpha.
+    - Stop trying to bootstrap all our directory information from
+      only our first guard. Discovered while fixing bug 9946; bugfix
+      on 0.2.4.8-alpha.
+    - The new channel code sometimes lost track of in-progress circuits,
+      causing long-running clients to stop building new circuits. The
+      fix is to always call circuit_n_chan_done(chan, 0) from
+      channel_closed(). Fixes bug 9776; bugfix on 0.2.4.17-rc.
+
+  o Minor bugfixes (on 0.2.4.x):
+    - Correctly log long IPv6 exit policies, instead of truncating them
+      or reporting an error. Fixes bug 9596; bugfix on 0.2.4.7-alpha.
+    - Our default TLS ecdhe groups were backwards: we meant to be using
+      P224 for relays (for performance win) and P256 for bridges (since
+      it is more common in the wild). Instead we had it backwards. After
+      reconsideration, we decided that the default should be P256 on all
+      hosts, since its security is probably better, and since P224 is
+      reportedly used quite little in the wild.  Found by "skruffy" on
+      IRC. Fix for bug 9780; bugfix on 0.2.4.8-alpha.
+    - Free directory authority certificate download statuses on exit
+      rather than leaking them. Fixes bug 9644; bugfix on 0.2.4.13-alpha.
+
+  o Minor bugfixes (on 0.2.3.x and earlier):
+    - If the guard we choose first doesn't answer, we would try the
+      second guard, but once we connected to the second guard we would
+      abandon it and retry the first one, slowing down bootstrapping.
+      The fix is to treat all our initially chosen guards as acceptable
+      to use. Fixes bug 9946; bugfix on 0.1.1.11-alpha.
+    - Fix an assertion failure that would occur when disabling the
+      ORPort setting on a running Tor process while accounting was
+      enabled. Fixes bug 6979; bugfix on 0.2.2.18-alpha.
+    - When examining the list of network interfaces to find our address,
+      do not consider non-running or disabled network interfaces. Fixes
+      bug 9904; bugfix on 0.2.3.11-alpha. Patch from "hantwister".
+    - Avoid an off-by-one error when checking buffer boundaries when
+      formatting the exit status of a pluggable transport helper.
+      This is probably not an exploitable bug, but better safe than
+      sorry. Fixes bug 9928; bugfix on 0.2.3.18-rc. Bug found by
+      Pedro Ribeiro.
+
+  o Minor features (protecting client timestamps):
+    - Clients no longer send timestamps in their NETINFO cells. These were
+      not used for anything, and they provided one small way for clients
+      to be distinguished from each other as they moved from network to
+      network or behind NAT. Implements part of proposal 222.
+    - Clients now round timestamps in INTRODUCE cells down to the nearest
+      10 minutes. If a new Support022HiddenServices option is set to 0, or
+      if it's set to "auto" and the feature is disabled in the consensus,
+      the timestamp is sent as 0 instead. Implements part of proposal 222.
+    - Stop sending timestamps in AUTHENTICATE cells. This is not such
+      a big deal from a security point of view, but it achieves no actual
+      good purpose, and isn't needed. Implements part of proposal 222.
+    - Reduce down accuracy of timestamps in hidden service descriptors.
+      Implements part of proposal 222.
+
+  o Minor features (other):
+    - Improve the circuit queue out-of-memory handler. Previously, when
+      we ran low on memory, we'd close whichever circuits had the most
+      queued cells. Now, we close those that have the *oldest* queued
+      cells, on the theory that those are most responsible for us
+      running low on memory. Based on analysis from a forthcoming paper
+      by Jansen, Tschorsch, Johnson, and Scheuermann. Fixes bug 9093.
+    - Generate bootstrapping status update events correctly when fetching
+      microdescriptors. Fixes bug 9927.
+    - Update to the October 2 2013 Maxmind GeoLite Country database.
+
+  o Documentation fixes:
+    - Clarify the usage and risks of setting the ContactInfo torrc line
+      for your relay or bridge. Resolves ticket 9854.
+    - Add anchors to the manpage so we can link to the html version of
+      the documentation for specific options. Resolves ticket 9866.
+    - Replace remaining references to DirServer in man page and
+      log entries. Resolves ticket 10124.
+
+
 Changes in version 0.2.5.1-alpha - 2013-10-02
   Tor 0.2.5.1-alpha introduces experimental support for syscall sandboxing
   on Linux, allows bridges that offer pluggable transports to report usage