Software update: phpBB 3.2.1

Version 3.2.1 of phpBB has been released. With this program it is possible to set up a web forum. PhpBB is made available under the gpl license and uses PHP and a database program to store messages. Besides MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite are also supported as database software. Version 3.2 includes support for php 7, recaptcha 2.0 and Symfony 2.8. Furthermore, the update process has been improved, more information is shown in quoted text and more emojis can be used. The following improvements have also been made in version 3.2.1:

phpBB 3.2.1 Release – Please Update

We are pleased to announce the release of phpBB 3.2.1 “War for the Planet of the Berties”. This version is a maintenance & security release of the 3.2.x branch which fixes three security issues, as well as adding more hardening and fixes for various bugs reported in previous versions.

A server-side request forgery (SSRF) exploit was discovered in the remote avatar functionality which could be used to perform service discovery on internal and external networks as well as retrieve images which are usually restricted to local access (thanks to SEC Consult for the report ). Additionally, a cross-site scripting vulnerability via version check files was discovered internally (thanks Derk Ruitenbeek). This could have been used to trick users into clicking on javascript: links. The third fixed issue concerned potential high load scenarios that could be caused by specially crafted search queries while using MySQL fulltext search.

The bugfixes address issues with migration dependencies preventing updates from phpBB 3.0.6 or older, multiple issues with the new text formatter, make the FTP update method functional again, as well as issues with updating from earlier versions using PostgreSQL. Notable changes include new, higher resolution images for the imageset icons, pagination for IP tables and post info, and added search indexing for topics after splitting a topic. The version check now also supports branches which will result in more helpful information about new versions on other branches.

The full list of changes is available in the changelog file within the docs folder contained in the release package. You can find the key highlights of this release on the wiki and a list of all issues fixed on our tracker.