What's new in Encryption Wizard 3.4.11
Aug 29, 2016
- New logo!
- As the Software Protection Initiative program comes to a close, its strongest products -- some in the form of software, some in the form of concepts and practices -- are moving to a new home. As before, Encryption Wizard will continue to be included inside our most well-known software: the bootable LPS, now called Trusted End Node Security, or TENS.
- Changed some internal support libraries. Users on 64-bit operating systems should see a speedup in long-running operations.
- This should be the final normal release of the 3.4 series. The next EW release will be 3.5.0, but we will of course create additional 3.4.x releases if any bugs or weaknesses in 3.4.11 or the Java platform are found to threaten users' security.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.10 (Mar 11, 2016)
- Fixed:
- corrupting or deleting Keychains while saving them with default passphrases under Java 7u21 or later.
- NEW:
- Changed the GUI startup scan for Keychain files to a a new search order:
- Any -y/--keychain files.
- Any Keychains in the current working directory.
- Any Keychains in the same location as the JAR file.
- Any Keychains in the application data location. This can be easily accessed via "Tools -> Platform Support -> Open Application Data Location".
- Note that (2) is rarely useful for most Windows users. Note that (3) is not useful when running the Encryption Wizard JAR while "browsing" inside its own zip file (which is not recommended).
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.9 (Mar 11, 2016)
- Fixed directories/folders are properly tracked and displayed in addition to their files.
- The correction of directory/folder tracking can potentially cause an odd situation. Specifically, if this version of Encryption Wizard is used to create an archive that contains directories which are empty, then expanding that archive with older (pre-bugfix) versions may create zero-length files instead of recreating the empty directory.
- The safest way to avoid this situation is by updating the "receiving/extracting" copy of EW to 3.4.9 or later. If doing so is infeasible, then putting a placeholder file into an otherwise empty directory is also an option. (We recommend automating that to reduce the chance of making mistakes.)
- New performance enhancements. The exact changes visible to end users will depend strongly on platform characteristics and the kind of workload presented.
- New methods of launching file managers on Linux. This support is somewhat experimental. If the defaults for your platform do not work, contact the ATSPI office. The currently active method may be tested via "Tools -> Platform Support -> Open Application Data Location" or by clicking the Location link on any File Info dialog.
- Changed More stringent safety/permission checks while adding files to the main window.
- Changed Improved decryption of certain unusual file types.
- Changed Be more aggressive when trying to recover from system provider errors, as we can in some cases avoid third-party bugs.
- Fixed More robustness when running in nonstandard environments.
- Fixed The output of -H/--hash with fewer than two -v/--verbose flags no longer strips partial paths down to only the filename.
- Changed Smarter security when handling and encrypting passwords.
- Changed Improved diagnostics reporting in GUI mode.
- Changed Improvements to command-line archive name handling and option parsing, including new options --pass-file and -M/--match added along with @file "command file" support; see the User Manual or the output of "-v -h" for a description.
- Fixed Unusual filenames archived on certain platforms and then expanded on more restrictive platforms should no longer cause errors; instead the filenames will be manipulated into a safer local form (and the user alerted).
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.8 (Jun 11, 2015)
- Fixed secure deletion triggered automatically after crypto operations when the OS has not yet finished closing the file. (One workaround is to disable the secure deletion option; another is to not delete input files during crypto operations, and then manually use secure deletion on the file afterwards.)
- Changed the command-line mode interaction when an option prompt is cancelled. Now a final line will be displayed reflecting the user's decision.
- Changed the password generator to reduce the potential for back-to-back repeated characters.
- New log control unique-name capabilities.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.7 (Jun 11, 2015)
- Fixed locking/buffering on temporary files on certain platform/JRE combinations. Ciphering operations under those conditions should no longer be abysmally slow. (Users of 3.4.6 experiencing this problem who cannot upgrade to 3.4.7 should contact ATSPI for workaround instructions.)
- Changed installation steps on Microsoft Windows platforms with restrictive security policies. Files copied into the user's own application data folder should no longer become unreadable.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.6 (Jun 11, 2015)
- New page in the builtin help, summarizing best practices from the User Manual.
- New --run-platform option adapts most of the Platform Support submenu to the command line. The exact syntax is described in the usual -vh listing.
- New MIME wrapping and unwrapping of arbitrary files via the File and popup menus. This produces RFC 2045 output with some surrounding optional text.
- Changed expansion/parsing of file paths passed during startup. This should result in fewer surprises when launching the GUI with initial filenames.
- Changed the primary cryptography actions to do as many file-related safety and sanity checks as possible before any actual crypto steps. Permission problems, questions about overwriting files, and the like should now all be done before any potentially time-consuming tasks. Also, if the user chooses to overwrite only some existing files and skip others, confirmation will be sought before starting.
- As part of the above work, changed when and how output files are created. If you are processing many files at a time, you might experience problems related to running out of file descriptors. (In practice this depends on operating system and administrative policies.) Should this occur, contact ATSPI.
- Changed how files in a folder tree are individually encrypted. Previously the tree would be "flattened" to save all .wzd files into the same folder. Now the folder tree is duplicated in the output, which should cause fewer surprises.
- Fixed temporary files being left behind, a bug in the JRE on Windows. If EW cannot work around the bug when it occurs, EW will do so when exiting. A warning to the user will be displayed, as a reminder to close the program.
- Fixed cancelling decryptions on very large files.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.5 (Jun 11, 2015)
- Changed the "restart with full logging" capability to pull in additional, previously unavailable, debugging text.
- Changed the reading of smart cards to provide a modest speedup when reading large numbers of certificates/identities from a card.
- Changed default password length in the generator to 12.
- Fixed a bug with the command-line parser when calculating file hashes.
- Fixed a bug where certain environments could prevent proper loading and migration of saved options.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.4 (Jun 11, 2015)
- New command-line password generator capability.
- New During cipher operations, if the source is a temporary file, behave as if "ask for output locations" is always on, using a safe starting destination. This should help when opening files directly out of other software (for example, encrypted email attachments won't be decrypted into some obscure location buried in the filesystem).
- Changed the logging subsystem; the Log window and similar outputs should be much less cluttered and noisy now.
- Changed minor improvements to the graphical UI: link directly to the local application data folder (buried and hidden by default on some platforms), improved messages during Windows install/uninstall, much faster password generation under unusual criteria, try to catch accidental uses of "Decrypt" on archive files.
- Fixed the various smartcard windows to not explode if an access check is done without a card, but a card is inserted before the check times out. (The card should be properly detected in such a case.)
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.3 (Jun 11, 2015)
- New for the File Info dialog:
- A 'Location' line with the full path to the file in question (good for finding output files after encrypting/decrypting, if you forget where the original file was)
- Clicking the 'Location' opens a file manager in that path, with the file in question selected if possible
- Double-clicking a file in the main GUI opens the File Info dialog
- Fixed the Password Generator to give up if it cannot create a passphrase within a time limit; particularly stringent creation parameters can take excessively long.
- Fixed the Password Generator in those custom builds which require password complexity to be enforced. During encryption, the generator tab's "Add" button will once again not become clickable until a password is generated which meets the same requirements as one typed in by the user. To see which parameters have not been met by a given generated password, hover the mouse over the grayed-out "Add" button. (The "Copy" button remains active for all generated passwords regardless of complexity requirements.)
- Changed the various tests performed during startup. More errors in unusual situations should be handled properly, and users on some platforms should see faster startup times when using the GUI.
- New check for Keychain files (*.wzk) in the Data Path during startup. Users will be prompted to open or skip any Keychains found in that folder, just as they have been for Keychains found in the current directory at startup. To find the exact Data Path for your system, see the System Info window in GUI mode, or use --sys-info on the command line. (Windows users may not have an existing Data Path until performing the optional install step under the Tools menu.)
- Internal changes to code supporting custom build configurations. This has no visible effect on standard EW-Govt or EW-Public editions.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.2 (Jun 11, 2015)
- Fixed a bug where users of the Government FIPS edition storing public keys in their Keychains, or using a CAC/private key to encrypt their Keychains, could find themselves unable to re-open the stored Keychain file. Version 3.4.2 can re-open such Keychains and will automatically correct them to be usable again with older (or non-Government) versions.
- Changed keytool wrapper utility will store public certificates in Base64 encoded PEM format instead of binary DER format, to be accessible to more tools, and will display its command line for users who need access to options beyond what the wrapper utility offers at any given time.
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.1 (Jun 11, 2015)
- New keytool wrapper utility for interactively creating a public/private keypair, reachable under the Tools menu.
- New command-line capability to extract metadata into a file during decryption operations. The file can be edited by hand, and can be used to apply metadata during subsequent encryption operations.
- Fixed stored options to use a portable file rather than the native Java Preferences system. Air Force users of certain SDC versions should no longer encounter problems with stored options. (The file is in the 'Data Path' location shown in System Info.)
- Fixed startup issues when trying to run EW when the JAR file is on specific kinds of network storage. Air Force users of certain SDC versions will see warnings and instructions at the very beginning rather than eventually running into problems later.
- Fixed some startup and logging problems occasionally seen when running in a text-only environment.
- Fixed restarting with JVM options inherited from the environment which also contain unprotected whitespace. Air Force users of certain SDC versions should no longer see the restarted window vanish.
- Fixed temporary files handling on Windows systems with unusual temporary folder settings. Air Force SDC users should no longer see temporary files left behind after exiting (which were being cleaned up on the next run anyway but took up space in the meantime).
New in Encryption Wizard 3.4.0 (Jun 11, 2015)
- Move to Java 7 as minimum JRE version
- Store and restore file attributes inside archives
- Support for 256-bit AES
- New command-line interface
- Secure erasure and checksum/hashing without running the main GUI
- Lots of under-the-hood improvements
New in Encryption Wizard 3.3.7 (Jun 11, 2015)
- To reduce duplication, everything prior to the most recent major release is viewable from the builtin help.