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title: "FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE Release Notes"
sidenav: download
---

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= FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE Release Notes

== Abstract

The release notes for FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE contain a summary of the changes made to the FreeBSD base system on the 11.4-STABLE development line. This document lists applicable security advisories that were issued since the last release, as well as significant changes to the FreeBSD kernel and userland. Some brief remarks on upgrading are also presented.

== Table of Contents

* <<intro,Introduction>>
* <<upgrade,Upgrading from Previous Releases of FreeBSD>>
* <<security-errata,Security and Errata>>
** <<security,Security Advisories>>
** <<errata,Errata Notices>>
* <<userland,Userland>>
** <<userland-config,Userland Configuration Changes>>
** <<userland-programs,Userland Application Changes>>
** <<userland-contrib,Contributed Software>>
* <<drivers,Devices and Drivers>>
** <<drivers-device,Device Drivers>>
** <<drivers-storage,Storage Drivers>>
** <<drivers-network,Network Drivers>>
* <<hardware,Hardware Support>>
** <<hardware-support,Hardware Support>>
* <<storage,Storage>>
** <<storage-zfs,ZFS>>
* <<network,Networking>>
** <<network-protocols,Network Protocols>>
* <<ports,Ports Collection and Package Infrastructure>>
** <<ports-packages,Packaging Changes>>

[[intro]]
== Introduction

This document contains the release notes for FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE. It describes recently added, changed, or deleted features of FreeBSD. It also provides some notes on upgrading from previous versions of FreeBSD.

This distribution of FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE is a release distribution. It can be found at `https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/` or any of its mirrors. More information on obtaining this (or other) release distributions of FreeBSD can be found in the link:{handbook}#mirrors[Obtaining FreeBSD' appendix] to the link:{handbook}[FreeBSD Handbook].

All users are encouraged to consult the release errata before installing FreeBSD. The errata document is updated with "late-breaking" information discovered late in the release cycle or after the release. Typically, it contains information on known bugs, security advisories, and corrections to documentation. An up-to-date copy of the errata for FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE can be found on the FreeBSD Web site.

This document describes the most user-visible new or changed features in FreeBSD since 11.3-RELEASE. In general, changes described here are unique to the 11.4-STABLE branch unless specifically marked as MERGED features.

Typical release note items document recent security advisories issued after 11.3-RELEASE, new drivers or hardware support, new commands or options, major bug fixes, or contributed software upgrades. They may also list changes to major ports/packages or release engineering practices. Clearly the release notes cannot list every single change made to FreeBSD between releases; this document focuses primarily on security advisories, user-visible changes, and major architectural improvements.

[[upgrade]]
== Upgrading from Previous Releases of FreeBSD

[amd64,i386] Binary upgrades between RELEASE versions (and snapshots of the various security branches) are supported using the  man:freebsd-update[8] utility. The binary upgrade procedure will update unmodified userland utilities, as well as unmodified GENERIC kernels distributed as a part of an official FreeBSD release. The  man:freebsd-update[8] utility requires that the host being upgraded have Internet connectivity.

Source-based upgrades (those based on recompiling the FreeBSD base system from source code) from previous versions are supported, according to the instructions in `/usr/src/UPDATING`.

[IMPORTANT]
====
Upgrading FreeBSD should only be attempted after backing up _all_ data and configuration files.
====

[[security-errata]]
== Security and Errata

This section lists the various Security Advisories and Errata Notices since 11.3-RELEASE.

[[security]]
== Security Advisories

[width="100%",cols="40%,30%,30%",options="header",]
|===
|Advisory |Date |Topic
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:12.telnet.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:12.telnet] |24 July 2019 |Multiple vulnerabilities
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:13.pts.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:13.pts] |24 July 2019 |Write-after-free vulnerability
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:14.freebsd32.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:14.freebsd32] |24 July 2019 |Kernel memory disclosure
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:15.mqueuefs.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:15.mqueuefs] |24 July 2019 |Reference count overflow
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:16.bhyve.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:16.bhyve] |24 July 2019 |man:xhci[4] out-of-bounds read
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:17.fd.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:17.fd] |24 July 2019 |Reference count leak
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:18.bzip2.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:18.bzip2] |6 August 2019 |Multiple vulnerabilities
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:19.mldv2.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:19.mldv2] |6 August 2019 |Out-of-bounds memory access
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:20.bsnmp.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:20.bsnmp] |6 August 2019 |Insufficient message length validation
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:21.bhyve.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:21.bhyve] |6 August 2019 |Insufficient validation of guest-supplied data
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:22.mbuf.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:22.mbuf] |20 August 2019 |IPv6 remove denial-of-service
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:23.midi.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:23.midi] |20 August 2019 |Kernel memory disclosure
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:24.mqueuefs.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:24.mqueuefs] |20 August 2019 |Reference count overflow
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:25.mcepsc.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:25.mcepce] |12 November 2019 |Machine Check Exception on Page Size Change
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-19:26.mcu.asc[FreeBSD-SA-19:26.mcu] |12 November 2019 |Intel CPU Microcode Update
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:01.libfetch.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:01.libfetch] |28 January 2020 |man:fetch[3] buffer overflow
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:03.thrmisc.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:03.thrmisc] |28 January 2020 |Kernel stack data disclosure
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:04.tcp.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:04.tcp] |18 March 2020 |TCP IPv6 SYN cache kernel information disclosure
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:05.if_oce_ioctl.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:05.if_oce_ioctl] |18 March 2020 |Insufficient man:ioctl[2] privilege checking
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:07.epair.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:07.epair] |18 March 2020 |Incorrect user-controlled pointer use
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:08.jail.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:08.jail] |18 March 2020 |Kernel memory disclosure with nested jails
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:09.ntp.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:09.ntp] |18 March 2020 |Multiple denial of service
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:10.ipfw.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:10.ipfw] |21 April 2020 |Invalid man:mbuf[9] handling
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:12.libalias.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:12.libalias] |12 May 2020 |Insufficient packet length validation
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:13.libalias.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:13.libalias] |12 May 2020 |Memory disclosure vulnerability
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-20:17.usb.asc[FreeBSD-SA-20:17.usb] |9 June 2020 |HID descriptor parsing error
|===

[[errata]]
== Errata Notices

[width="100%",cols="40%,30%,30%",options="header",]
|===
|Errata |Date |Topic
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-19:13.mds.asc[FreeBSD-EN-19:13.mds] |24 July 2019 |System crash from Intel CPU vulnerability mitigation
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-19:15.libunwind.asc[FreeBSD-EN-19:15.libunwind] |6 August 2019 |Incorrect exception handling
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-19:16.bhyve.asc[FreeBSD-EN-19:16.bhyve] |20 August 2019 |Instruction emulation improvements
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-19:17.ipfw.asc[FreeBSD-EN-19:17.ipfw] |20 August 2019 |"jail" keyword fix
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-19:18.tzdata.asc[FreeBSD-EN-19:18.tzdata] |23 October 2019 |Timezone database information update
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-20:01.ssp.asc[FreeBSD-EN-20:01.ssp] |28 January 2020 |Imprecise ordering of canary initialization
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-20:02.nmount.asc[FreeBSD-EN-20:02.nmount] |28 January 2020 |Invalid pointer dereference
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-20:04.pfctl.asc[FreeBSD-EN-20:04.pfctl] |18 March 2020 |Missing man:pfctl[8] tunable
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-20:06.ipv6.asc[FreeBSD-EN-20:06.ipv6] |18 March 2020 |Incorrect checksum calculations
|https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-EN-20:07.quotad.asc[FreeBSD-EN-20:07.quotad] |21 April 2020 |Regression with certain NFS servers
|===

[[userland]]
== Userland

This section covers changes and additions to userland applications, contributed software, and system utilities.

[[userland-config]]
==  Userland Configuration Changes

The netatalk protocol has been removed from  man:services[5]. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=358903[r358903]

[[userland-programs]]
==  Userland Application Changes

The  man:camcontrol[8] utility has been updated to include support for Accessible Max Address Configuration (AMA). http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=350801[r350801](Sponsored by iXsystems)

The  man:camcontrol[8] utility has been updated to support block descriptors with the `modepage` subcommand. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351582[r351582]

The  man:yp[8] subsystem has been updated to increase the value of `YPMAXRECORD` from 1M to 16M for compatibility with Linux®. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351694[r351694](Sponsored by Mellanox Technologies)

The  man:usbconfig[8] utility has been updated to include the `detach_kernel_driver` command. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351843[r351843]

The  man:jot[1] utility has been updated to allow an endless stream of random data within the specified bounds. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351873[r351873]

The  man:freebsd-update[8] utility has been updated to include two new commands, `updatesready` and `showconfig`. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=352758[r352758]

The  man:cron[8] utility has been updated to support two new flags in  man:crontab[5], `-n` and `-q`, which suppress mail on successful runs and suppress logging of command execution, respectively. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=353134[r353134]

The  man:zfs[8] utility has been updated to support renaming bookmarks. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=353759[r353759]

The  man:usbconfig[8] utility has been updated to include the `dump_stats` command. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356401[r356401]

The  man:fsck_ffs[8] and  man:newfs[8] utilities has been updated to fix recovery information with sector sizes up to 64k. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356905[r356905]

The  man:certctl[8] utility has been added. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=357082[r357082]

The  man:env[1] utility has been updated to include the `-L` and `-U` options, which are used to set the environment of the specified user from `login.conf` and `~/.login_conf`, respectively. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=357791[r357791]

The  man:syslogd[8] utility has been updated to add property-based filters. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359740[r359740]

[[userland-contrib]]
== Contributed Software

The  man:bzip2[1] utility has been updated to version 1.0.8. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351007[r351007]

The WPA utilities have been updated to version 2.9. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351611[r351611]

The  man:tcsh[1] utility has been updated to version 6.21.0. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=354195[r354195]

The  man:less[1] utility has been updated to version 551. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=355504[r355504]

The  man:libbsdxml[3] library has been updated to version 2.2.9. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=355604[r355604]

OpenSSL has been update to version 1.0.2u. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356290[r356290]

The  man:pcap[3] library has been updated to version 1.9.1. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356341[r356341]

The  man:tcpdump[1] utility has been updated to version 4.9.3. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356341[r356341]

The  man:unbound[8] utility has been updated to version 1.9.6. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356345[r356345]

The  man:mtree[8] utility has been updated to include several bug fixes. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=356533[r356533]

The  man:archive[3] library has been updated to version 3.4.2. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=358088[r358088]

The  man:ntpd[8] utilities have been updated to version 4.2.8p14. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=358659[r358659]

The timezone database files have been updated to version 2020a. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=360362[r360362]

The  man:file[1] utility has been updated to version 5.38. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=360521[r360521]

The  man:xz[1] utility has been updated to version 5.2.5. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=360523[r360523]

The clang, llvm, lld, lldb, libunwind, openmp, compiler-rt utilities and libc++ have been updated to version 10.0.0. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=360822[r360822]

A fix to correctly link DTrace-enabled ports with lld has been added. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=361217[r361217]

[[drivers]]
==  Devices and Drivers

This section covers changes and additions to devices and device drivers since 11.3-RELEASE.

[[drivers-device]] 
== Device Drivers

The Kerberos GSS API has been updated to emit deprecation warnings for algorithms marked as "SHOULD NOT" be used in RFCs 6649 and 8429. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351243[r351243]

The  man:crypto[4] driver has been updated to emit deprecation warnings when the ARC4, Blowfish, CAST128, DES, 3DES, MD5-HMAC, and Skipjack algorithms are used. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=351246[r351246]

The  man:ubsec[4] driver has been marked as deprecated, and will be removed in FreeBSD 13.0. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=361049[r361049]

[[drivers-storage]]
== Storage Drivers

The  man:aacraid[4] driver has been updated to version 3.2.10. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=354965[r354965]

Support for JMicron® JMB582 and JMB585 AHCI controllers has been added. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359971[r359971]

[[drivers-network]]
== Network Drivers

Support for the D-Link® DWM-222 LTE dongle has been added. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359258[r359258]

The  man:ng_nat[4] driver has been updated to allow attaching to an ethernet interface. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359698[r359698]

The  man:ena[4] driver has been updated to version 2.2.0. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=361539[r361539] (Sponsored by Amazon, Inc.)

[[hardware]]
== Hardware Support

This section covers general hardware support for physical machines, hypervisors, and virtualization environments, as well as hardware changes and updates that do not otherwise fit in other sections of this document.

[[hardware-support]]
== Hardware Support

Support for Intel® Cannon Lake PCH has been added to  man:snd_hda[4]. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359114[r359114]

[[storage]]
== Storage

This section covers changes and additions to file systems and other storage subsystems, both local and networked.

[[storage-zfs]]
== ZFS

Latency of synchronous 128KB writes has been improved. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=353583[r353583]

Support for renaming ZFS bookmarks has been added. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=353759[r353759]

The ZFS ZIL (ZFS intent log) maximum block size is now tunable. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359554[r359554]

[[network]]
== Networking

This section describes changes that affect networking in FreeBSD.

[[network-protocols]]
== Network Protocols

The  man:libalias[3] library and  man:ipfw[4] packet filter have been updated to add support for RFC 6598/Carrier Grade NAT subnets. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base?view=revision&revision=359695[r359695]

[[ports]]
== Ports Collection and Package Infrastructure

This section covers changes to the FreeBSD Ports Collection, package infrastructure, and package maintenance and installation tools.

[[ports-packages]] 
== Packaging Changes

The man:pkg[8] utility has been updated to version 1.13.2.

The GNOME desktop environment has been updated to version 3.28.

The KDE desktop environment has been updated to version 5.8.4.1.19.12.3.
