PacketFence 2.0.0 released
December 15, 2010

The Inverse Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PacketFence 2.0.0. This is a major release bringing new features, new hardware support, performance enhancements, documentation update and many other changes.

New Hardware Support

  • SMC TigerStack 6128 L2 support in Port Security (feature sponsored by Seattle Pacific University)
  • HP ProCurve MSM710 Mobility Controller
  • Meru Networks MC3000 Wireless Controller
  • Juniper EX Series in MAC RADIUS (Juniper’s MAC Authentication)

New Features

  • Simplification of the Wireless, Wired 802.1X and Wired MAC Authentication configuration. Because of a new FreeRADIUS module and a Web Service interface, everything is now using standard PacketFence proccesses and configuration files.
  • VoIP devices authorization over RADIUS (#1008)
  • Proxy interception. PacketFence can now operate in an environment where there is a client-side proxy configured. Check proxy-bypass in addons/ for details. (#1035)
  • Passthroughs support! You can now configure PacketFence to let your users reach specific websites even if they are in registration or isolation. (#772) (feature sponsored by Shippensburg University)
  • New pf::web::custom extension point to customize the captive portal’s code without the usual maintenance burden on upgrades (#1045)
  • Bulk importation of nodes through CLI or Admin Web interface
  • New parameter in switches.conf to ease FreeRADIUS integration
  • Optional automatic configuration of FreeRADIUS’ clients using switches.conf (see addons/freeradius-integration/README for details)
  • New ‘pending’ status for node. Allows for a wide range of captive portal workflows where an administrator approves network access (by email, SMS…)

Enhancements

  • New information available in Node Lookup (Connection Type, SSID, 802.1X User-Name, …)
  • FreeRADIUS module improvements (#1034) and major revamping
  • Easier installation process using yum groupinstall (#1089)
  • Faster Web Services layer running under mod_perl
  • Refactoring of the pf::vlan method names for more meaningful ones
  • Removed unnecessary database connections and duplicated code
  • 802.1X improvements (#995, #1002)
  • General code base improvements, refactoring (#914, #977, #1001, #973)
  • Usability improvements (#1006, #820, #1075)
  • Migrated to the new Emerging Threats rules for snort and added rules for botnets, malware, shellcode, trojan and worm by default (#1102)
  • New DHCP fingerprints (HP ProCurve Wireless, Ricoh MFP, Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, Trendnet, Belkin Home Wireless Routers, Sony Ericsson, Android, Aruba Access Point, Avaya IP Phone, Gentoo Linux and Fedora Linux 13)
  • pfcmd_vlan’s logging is now consistent with the rest of the system (#874)
  • configurator.pl now handles DNS and DHCP basic configuration (#1112)

Documentation

  • Merged Installation and Administration guides into a more coherent document
  • New documentation about DHCP and DNS services. Now easier to manage! (#1113)
  • New documentation about running in a routed environment
  • Improved documentation about Snort, Oinkmaster, and log rotation in Admin Guide
  • Improved documentation on violations (external remediation pages and redirect_url) in the Administration Guide

Bug fixes

  • Captive Portal remediation pages can be hosted externally again! (#1024)
  • Fixes to the SMC TigerStack 8824M and 8848M modules (see UPGRADE)
  • No error reporting when trying to change configuration files with bad rights (#1088)
  • Violation priorities are now enforced according to documentation (1 = highest)
  • Wrong URL in the provided oinkmaster.conf (#1101)
  • MAC addresses of format xxxx.xxxx.xxxx properly recognized in pf::util

… and more. See the ChangeLog file for the complete list of changes and the UPGRADE file for notes about upgrading. Both files are in the PacketFence

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