Release notes/1.7

MediaWiki 1.7.3
February 20, 2007

This is a security and bug-fix update to the Summer 2006 quarterly release.

An XSS injection vulnerability based on Microsoft Internet Explorer's UTF-7 charset autodetection was located in the AJAX support module, affecting MSIE users on MediaWiki 1.6.x and up when the optional setting $wgUseAjax is enabled.

If you are using an extension based on the optional Ajax module, either disable it or upgrade to a version containing the fix:


 * 1.9: fixed in 1.9.3
 * 1.8: fixed in 1.8.4
 * 1.7: fixed in 1.7.3
 * 1.6: fixed in 1.6.10

There is no known danger in the default configuration, with $wgUseAjax off.


 * Add 'charset' to Content-Type headers on various HTTP error responses to forestall additional UTF-7-autodetect XSS issues. PHP sends only 'text/html' by default when the script didn't specify more details, which some inconsiderate browsers consider a license to autodetect the deadly, hard-to-escape UTF-7. This fixes an issue with the Ajax interface error message on MSIE when $wgUseAjax is enabled (not default configuration); this UTF-7 variant on a previously fixed attack vector was discovered by Moshe BA from BugSec: http://www.bugsec.com/articles.php?Security=24
 * Trackback responses now specify XML content type

MediaWiki 1.7.2
January 9, 2007


 * Note about $wgUploadSizeWarning using byte
 * Update to German bookstore list (de)
 * (bug 6680) Added localisation for Dutch bookstore list (nl)
 * (bug 6708) Minor updates to Russian translation (ru)
 * (bug 6730) Clearer usage of message 'titlematch' in German translation (de)
 * Added direction mark to Special:Listredirects
 * XSS fix in AJAX module

An XSS injection vulnerability was located in the AJAX support module, affecting MediaWiki 1.6.x and up when the optional setting $wgUseAjax is enabled.

There is no danger in the default configuration, with $wgUseAjax off.

If you are using an extension based on the optional AJAX module, either disable it or upgrade to a version containing the fix:


 * 1.9: fixed in 1.9.0rc2
 * 1.8: fixed in 1.8.3
 * 1.7: fixed in 1.7.2
 * 1.6: fixed in 1.6.9

MediaWiki 1.7.1
July 8, 2006

MediaWiki 1.7.1 is a security and bugfix maintenance release of the Summer 2006 snapshot:

A potential HTML/JavaScript-injection vulnerability in a debugging script has been fixed. Only versions and configurations of PHP vulnerable to the $GLOBALS overwrite vulnerability are affected.

As a workaround for existing installs, profileinfo.php may simply be deleted if it's not being used.


 * Fix for 'emailconfirmed' implicit user group
 * Fix for upgrades on some versions of MySQL 4.0.x
 * Fixed potential XSS in profileinfo.php
 * Installer now shows clear error message about old PHP versions rather than a confusing parse error

MediaWiki 1.7.0
July 6, 2006

This is the quarterly release snapshot for Summer 2006. While the code has been running on Wikipedia for some time, installation and upgrade bits may be less well tested. Bug fix releases may follow in the coming days or weeks.

MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.

Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.

Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain it from source control: Download from SVN

Compatibility
MediaWiki 1.7 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.

If you are unable to run PHP 5, you may have to stick with 1.6 for now.

MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade. At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.

Experimental Oracle support has been dropped as it is unmaintained.

Upgrading
Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6:


 * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links
 * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files
 * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates

To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after the upgrade.

If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!

See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.

Configuration changes
Some configuration options have changed:
 * $wgAllowExternalImages now defaults to off for increased security.
 * $wgLocalTZoffset was in hours, it is now using minutes.
 * Extensions may register special pages via the $wgSpecialPages array without forcing an early load of the SpecialPage.php class file.

Major new features

 * Deleted files can now be archived and undeleted, if you set up an appropriate non-web-accessible directory. Set $wgSaveDeletedFiles on and an appropriate directory path in $wgFileStore['deleted']['directory']
 * Experimental PostgreSQL support has been updated. It may or may not be in usable shape; those interested in PostgreSQL are encouraged to follow 1.8 development.

Caveats
Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)

For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.

Online documentation
Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License:


 * Documentation

Mailing list
A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia wikitech-l list:


 * mediawiki-l

A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:


 * mediawiki-announce

It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.

IRC help
There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net