This month, the OpenWrt Community announced the release of OpenWrt 18.06.4, the fourth service release of the stable OpenWrt 18.06 series. This release comes with a number of bug fixes in the network and system and brings updates to the kernel and base packages.
The official page reads, “Note that the OpenWrt 18.06.3 release was skipped in favor to 18.06.4 due to a last-minute 4.14 kernel update fixing TCP connectivity problems which were introduced with the first iteration of the Linux SACK (Selective Acknowledgement)vulnerability patches.”
What is the OpenWrt project?
The OpenWrt Project, a Linux operating system, targets embedded devices and is a replacement for the vendor-supplied firmware consisting of a wide range of wireless routers and non-network devices.
OpenWrt is an easily modifiable operating system for routers and is powered by a Linux kernel. It offers a fully writable filesystem with optional package management instead of creating a single, static firmware. It is useful for developers as OpenWrt provides a framework for building an application without having to create a complete firmware image and distribution around it. It also gives freedom of full customization to the users that allows them to use an embedded device in many ways.
What’s new in OpenWrt 18.06.4?
- In this release, Linux kernel has been updated to versions 4.9.184/4.14.131 from 4.9.152/4.14.95 in v18.06.2.
- It also comes with SACK (Selective Acknowledgement) security fixes for the Linux kernel and WPA3 security fixes in hostapd.
- It further offers security fixes for Curl and the Linux kernel, and comes with MT76 wireless driver updates.
- In this release, there are many network and system service fixes.
Many users seem to be happy about this news and they choose routers based on the fact if they are supported by OpenWrt or not. A user commented on HackerNews, “I choose my routers based on if they are supported or not by OpenWrt. And for everybody that asks my opinion, too. Because they might not need/want/know/have a desire to install OpenWrt now, but it’s good to have the door open for the future.”
Users are also happy with OpenWrt’s interface, a user commented, “For people asking about the user interface of OpenWrt. I think it is very well dun. I get a long with it just fine and I am blind and have to use a screen reader. A11y in Luci is grate. All the pages make sence to most people you do not have to be a networking expert.”
To know more about this news, check out OpenWrt’s official page.
Read Next
OpenWrt 18.06.2 released with major bug fixes, updated Linux kernel and more!
Linux use-after-free vulnerability found in Linux 2.6 through 4.20.11
