Planet Jabber News

Vincent has given a conference in french last week, on the 2nd June.

• Download video in webm
• Download video in ogv
• Download video in mp4
• Download slideshow in odp
• Download slideshow in pdf

We are also pleased to announce that the PSES2013 (Pas Sage en Seine 2013, in Paris) has invited us to present Movim at this event!
=> You can meet us on the saturday 22th June from 6.30PM to 7.30PM

Xiph.org has just posted the second in its series of videos on digital media concepts and techniques. It's packed with information and demonstrations, and you're sure to learn a huge amount. As an added bonus, it's hosted by Monty, the creator of Ogg Vorbis (and many other amazing things). You couldn't ask for a more qualified teacher.

Watch below, or on Xiph.org.

There is also a detailed write up.

We have re-opened account registration at https://register.jabber.org/

Version 1.1 of the jabber.org service policy is now in effect.

Timothée Jaussoin (Edhelas) and Guillaume Pasquet (Etenil) has given a conference in french on the Tuesday, 10th July.

• Download in .webm
• Download in .mp4
• Download slideshow in .odp

We want to offer a transcript in the conference for the visually impaired and its translation to English. To do this, we need volunteers to make this work incredibly long and boring, that is impossible for a single person to achieve this goal.

Here is the full transcript produced by Clement, and here is the beginning of the timing of the transcription in SRT format. I advise you to open the video in Audacity, which you can listen to the soundtrack and note the time very precisely. Each sentence should be cut to stick on the sound.

The SRT file will be translated after. You could find all the others podcasts on the Wiki.

Recently the jabber.org IM service has been the victim of massive and repeated denial of service attacks. The admin team strongly suspects that these attacks are related to the widespread and abusive use of jabber.org accounts by "customers" of KBot, a program for cheating at the DarkOrbit game. Even if the DoS attacks prove to be unrelated to KBot, the admin team has decided that use of jabber.org to communicate with KBot violates the jabber.org service policy. Although we are in the process of updating the service policy to more clearly define how this kind of usage is abusive, the dire nature of the current threat has forced us to take more immediate action. Therefore, we are disabling the accounts of every jabber.org user who communicates with KBot, and we have disabled new account registration to prevent further communication between jabber.org users and KBot. We do not take this step lightly, but given the current circumstances we have no other choice.

As part of our defensive measures against repeated DoS attacks, we have disabled new account registration until further notice.

The previous DDoS attack has started again. As before, fallback measures are in place, but if your IM client doesn't handle DNS SRV records correctly then you might not be able to connect.

We have posted proposed changes to the policy that governs use of the jabber.org IM service. Details, links, and instructions for providing feedback can be found in our post to the juser@jabber.org email list, see http://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/juser/2012-August/006869.html.

We were able to completely restore service today. However, it is quite possible that the denial of service attack could be launched again at any time. If you were unable to connect during the outage, we recommend that you consider using a different IM client or reporting a bug to the developers of the IM client you use, since standard DNS fallback and XMPP reconnection methods should have been sufficient to keep you online after the first few hours of the attack.

Today we have experienced a distributed denial of service attack against the jabber.org IM service. Although the web server and email server are running fine, we have been forced to take the IM service offline until your (volunteer!) admin team has time to determine appropriate countermeasures. UPDATE 2012-08-12: We've made some DNS fixes and some clients are now able to connect.

The security certificate that we installed in December used a SHA-256 fingerprint, which theoretically is more secure but which some existing software can't handle yet. Therefore we have installed a corrected certificate using a SHA-1 fingerprint. If you've been receiving a certificate warning for the last few months, you shouldn't receive those anymore.

In response to several recent instances of abuse, we have disallowed non-ASCII characters in new accounts registered at the jabber.org IM service. This policy does not apply to existing accounts.

ejabberd 2.1.10, 3.0.0-alpha-5 and exmpp 0.9.9 have been released, after several months of development. They contain a few bugfixes.

ejabberd 2.1.10

These are the major bugfixes:

• Erlang/OTP compatibility
  • Support Erlang/OTP R15B regexp and drivers (EJAB-1521)
  • Fix modules update in R14B04 and higher
  • Fix modules update of stripped beams (EJAB-1520)
• XMPP Core

read more

ejabberd 2.1.9, ejabberd 3.0.0-alpha-4, and exmpp 0.9.8 have been released, after several months of development. They contain a lot of bugfixes, improvements and some new features.

ejabberd 2.1.9

This release includes a lot of bugfixes and improvements. This is just a short list of them:

• New SASL SCRAM-SHA-1 authentication mechanism (EJAB-1196)
• New option: resource_conflict (EJAB-650)

read more

ejabberd 2.1.7, and ejabberd 3.0.0-alpha-3, and exmpp 0.9.7 have been released, after a few months of development. They contain a lot of bugfixes, improvements and some new features.

If you have ejabberd running in a public server, please update it immediately: those releases contain a security fix that disables entity expansion completely to prevent billion laughs DoS attack (CVE-2011-1753).

ejabberd 2.1.7

This release contains many bugfixes, improvements and a few new features.

A short list of changes:

read more

ejabberd 2.1.6 has been released, after four months of development. It contains a lot of bugfixes, improvements and some new features.

This is a small list of changes:

• BOSH: Fix rare loop, support vhosts, allow module restart
• Config: Default configuration allows registrations only from localhost
• Config: Support to change loglevel per module at runtime
• Erlang/OTP: Fix compatibility from R10B-9 to R14B01
• ODBC: Compatibility with PostgreSQL 9.0
• Privacy lists: Fix to allow block by group and subscription again

read more

ejabberd gets 8 years old. But no party yet, Yozhik is bugfixing 2.1.6 and testing 3.0.0-alpha-2.

The source and more photographs of hedgehogs pets.

read more

Here comes another short update on my Google Summer of Code project.

Stanza acknowledgement is finally done, including representation in the GUI. You can see a short demonstration of the feature in the video below where I'm chatting with Matthew Wild, one of Prosody's main developers. He developed a module for Prosody that implements parts of Stream Management. This made my client side implementation much more easier to test.

The idea is simple: the status icon in the top left corner is replaced with a throbber animation, known to users from recent OSes and browsers, as long as there are messages that haven't been acked by the server.
Psi will at least request an ack after half a minute. However only if there's something to acknowledge for the server.

This week is mid-term evaluation of the Google Summer of Code projects. SCRAM support and stanza acknowledgement, which is the most important part of the Stream Management XEP, are both finished including GUI.

After many months of planning, ejabberd and exmpp have been fully migrated to Git.

During the last 7 years, ejabberd source code was hosted at:

• CVS at Jabber.Ru
• CVS at JabberStudio.org
• SVN at ProcessOne
• Git preliminarly built with git-svn, at Github

Starting now, ejabberd source code is natively in Git, and hosted at:

• https://git.process-one.net/ejabberd
• http://github.com/processone/ejabberd

The minimal instructions to start using it are mentioned in:
http://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads

read more

Yes, ejabberd is already 7 years old.

Let's celebrate with a timeline of ejabberd, Erlang/OTP, XMPP/Jabber protocol, and Tkabber:

If you find any mistake, please comment. I built the graph using EasyTimeLine.pl, if you want the datafile, please comment.

read more

Version 0.3 of XEP-0227: Portable Import/Export Format for XMPP-IM Servers has been released.

This document specifies a file format for importing and exporting user data to and from XMPP-IM servers.

The changelog is:

Modified to include feedback received during the initial Last Call. Added sections for privacy lists and incoming subscriptions, as well as text on XInclude security. (wh)

Version 0.9 of XEP-0186: Invisible Command has been released.

This document specifies an XMPP-compatible protocol for user invisibility.

The changelog is:

Further clarified server and client handling of stanzas during an invisibility session. (psa)

Version 0.2 of XEP-0225: Component Connections has been released.

This document specifies a standards-track XMPP protocol extension that enables server components to connect to XMPP servers.

The changelog is:

Modified namespace to incorporate namespace versioning; clarified that the value of the element can be either or resource>. (psa)<p>

Version 0.3 of XEP-0152: Reachability Addresses has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating reachability information related to non-XMPP devices.

The changelog is:

[See revision history] (psa)

Version 0.2 of XEP-0251: Jingle Session Transfer has been released.

This specification defines an extension to XMPP Jingle for transferring a session (such as a voice call) from one person to another.

The changelog is:

Updated examples; added reference to RFC 5359; added security considerations regarding unattended transfer. (psa)

Version 0.12 of XEP-0181: Jingle DTMF has been released.

This specification defines an XML format for encapsulating Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) events in informational messages sent within the context of Jingle audio sessions, e.g. to be used in the context of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. Note

The changelog is:

Corrected definitions and schema to make it clear that the code attribute contains one and only one character representing a DTMF tone. (psa)

Version 1.0 of XEP-0270: XMPP Compliance Suites 2010 has been released.

This document defines XMPP protocol compliance levels for 2010.

The changelog is:

Per a vote of the XMPP Council, advanced specification from Experimental to Draft. (psa)

Version 1.2 of XEP-0175: Best Practices for Use of SASL ANONYMOUS has been released.

This document specifies best practices for use of the SASL ANONYMOUS mechanism in the context of client authentication with an XMPP server.

The changelog is:

Provided more detailed recommendations regarding usage restrictions for anonymous users, including the concept of different deployment types; added note about the user/anonymous service discovery identity. (psa)

Version 0.7 of XEP-0168: Resource Application Priority has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension to indicate the presence priority of XMPP resources for applications other than standard XMPP messaging.

The changelog is:

[See revision history] (psa)

Version 0.3 of XEP-0197: User Viewing has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating information about the television shows, movies, or other videos that a user watches.

The changelog is:

Modified namespace in accordance with protocol versioning policies. (psa)

Version 0.3 of XEP-0196: User Gaming has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating information about the games a user plays.

The changelog is:

Modified namespace in accordance with protocol versioning policies. (psa)

Version 0.3 of XEP-0195: User Browsing has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating information about the web pages a user visits.

The changelog is:

Modified namespace in accordance with protocol versioning policies. (psa)

Version 0.3 of XEP-0194: User Chatting has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating information about the chatrooms a user visits.

The changelog is:

Modified namespace in accordance with protocol versioning policies. (psa)

Version 1.1 of XEP-0136: Message Archiving has been released.

This document defines mechanisms and preferences for the server-side archiving and retrieval of XMPP messages.

The changelog is:

Moved JID matching text to a dedicated section and clarified matching rules; described implementation notes regarding server interpretation of archiving preferences and conversation tracking. (at/psa)

Version 2.1 of XEP-0085: Chat State Notifications has been released.

This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating the status of a user in a chat session, thus indicating whether a chat partner is actively engaged in the chat, composing a message, temporarily paused, inactive, or gone. The protocol can

The changelog is:

Clarified that any state change is allowed. (psa)

Version 0.1 of XEP-0274: Design Considerations for Digital Signatures in XMPP has been released.

This document discusses considerations for the design of Digital Signatures in XMPP, including use cases and requirements. The document also discusses various ways XML Digital Signatures could be used in XMPP.

The changelog is:

Initial published version as accepted for publication by the XMPP Council. (psa)

Version 0.1 of XEP-0273: Stanza Interception and Filtering Technology has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension that enables a client to exercise control over the XML stanzas it will receive from the server by instructing the server to intercept and filter inbound stanzas.

The changelog is:

Initial published version as accepted for publication by the XMPP Council. (psa)

Version 1.7 of XEP-0080: User Location has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating information about the current geographical or physical location of an entity.

The changelog is:

Added element. (psa)

Version 1.1 of XEP-0256: Last Activity in Presence has been released.

This specification defines a way to use the Last Activity extension in XMPP presence notifications.

The changelog is:

Added use case for initial presence. (psa)

Version 2.0 of XEP-0203: Delayed Delivery has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating the fact that an XML stanza has been delivered with a delay, for example because a message has been stored on a server while the intended recipient was offline or because a message is

The changelog is:

Per a vote of the XMPP Council, advanced specification from Draft to Final; also addressed a security concern about forged timestamps that was provided during the Call for Experience. (psa)

Version 2.3 of XEP-0077: In-Band Registration has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for in-band registration with XMPP-based instant messaging servers and other services hosted on an XMPP network (such as groupchat rooms and gateways to non-XMPP IM services). The protocol is extensibl

The changelog is:

Clarified that fields for "first" and "last" in fact always represent given name and family name, respectively. (psa)

Version 1.3 of XEP-0055: Jabber Search has been released.

This specification provides canonical documentation of the jabber:iq:search namespace currently in use within the Jabber community.

The changelog is:

Clarified that and elements in fact always represent given name and family name, respectively. (psa)

Version 0.1 of XEP-0272: Multiparty Jingle (Muji) has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for initiating and managing multiparty voice and video conferences within an XMPP MUC

The changelog is:

Initial published version as accepted for publication by the XMPP Council. (psa)

Version 2.0 of XEP-0202: Entity Time has been released.

This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating the local time of an entity, including the time in UTC according to the entity as well as the offset from UTC. The time format itself conforms to the dateTime profile of ISO 8601 defi

The changelog is:

Per a vote of the XMPP Council, advanced specification from Draft to Final. (psa)

Version 0.4 of XEP-0220: Server Dialback has been released.

This specification defines the Server Dialback protocol, which is used between XMPP servers to provide identity verification. Server Dialback uses the Domain Name System (DNS) as the basis for verifying identity; the basic approach is that when a receivin

The changelog is:

[See revision history] (ph/psa)

Version 0.4 of XEP-0258: Security Labels in XMPP has been released.

This document describes the use of security labels in XMPP. The document specifies how security label metadata is carried in XMPP, when this metadata should or should not be provided, and how the metadata is to be processed.

The changelog is:

Update label catalogs to include user input selector. (kdz)

Version 0.3 of XEP-0260: Jingle SOCKS5 Bytestreams Transport Method has been released.

This specification defines a Jingle transport method that results in sending data via the SOCKS5 Bytestreams (S5B) protocol defined in XEP-0065. Essentially this transport method reuses XEP-0065 semantics for sending the data and defines native Jingle met

The changelog is:

Major update to make Jingle S5B inherit more features from ICE and ICE-TCP. Added priorities and candidate identifiers. Renamed streamhost element to candidate element. Updated candidate selection to use priorities, and it is now required for both clients to send a candidate-used or candidate-error notification. Defined type attribute to differentiate between various kinds of candidates. More clearly described how S5B negotiation is completed, including an activated notification from responder to initiator when the candidate used is a proxy. Noted reuse of fast-mode methodology from S5B optimization specification. Because of incompatibilities with the previous version, changed the namespace to urn:xmpp:jingle:transports:s5b:1. (dm/psa/jk)