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This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible.
New features
We disabled the Unsafe Browser by default and clarified that the Unsafe Browser can be used to deanonymize you.
An attacker could exploit a security vulnerability in another application in Tails to start an invisible Unsafe Browser and reveal your IP address, even if you are not using the Unsafe Browser.
For example, an attacker could exploit a security vulnerability in Thunderbird by sending you a phishing email that could start an invisible Unsafe Browser and reveal them your IP address.
Such an attack is very unlikely but could be performed by a strong attacker, such as a government or a hacking firm.
This is why we recommend that you:
- Only enable the Unsafe Browser if you need to log in to a captive portal.
- Always upgrade to the latest version of Tails to fix known vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
We added a new feature of the Persistent Storage to save the settings from the Welcome Screen.
This feature is beta and only the additional setting to enable the Unsafe Browser is made persistent. The other settings (language, keyboard, and other additional settings) will be made persistent in Tails 4.9 (July 28).
Changes and updates
Update Tor Browser to 9.5.1.
Update Thunderbird to 68.9.0.
Update Linux to 5.6.0. This should improve the support for newer hardware (graphics, Wi-Fi, etc.).
Fixed problems
Fix the Find in page feature of Thunderbird. (#17328)
Fix shutting down automatically the laptop when resuming from suspend with the Tails USB stick removed. (#16787)
Notify always when MAC address spoofing fails and the network interface is disabled. (#17779)
Fix the import of OpenPGP public keys in binary format (non armored) from the Files browser.
For more details, read our changelog.
Known issues
Only use the following characters in the administration password:
- a–z
- A–Z
- 1–9
- _@%+=:,./-
If you use spaces or other accentuated characters, like àéïøů, your will not be able to type your administration password again in your Tails session, unless you type single quotes ' around it.
For example, if you set the administration password: née entrepôt über señor, you would have to type 'née entrepôt über señor'. (#17792)
The keyboard layout is not updated automatically when setting the language. For example, setting the language to French doesn't change the keyboard layout to French (AZERTY). (#17794)
Tails fails to start with the toram boot option. (#17800)
See the list of long-standing issues.
Get Tails 4.8
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.2 or later to 4.8.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.
To download only
If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.8 directly:
What's coming up?
Tails 4.9 is scheduled for July 28.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
We stand in solidarity with Black people around the world. No justice, no peace. Please be safe while protesting and also when communicating online.
Releases
Tails 4.8 is scheduled for June 30.
The following changes were introduced in Tails:
Update Tor Browser to 9.0.10.
Add support for Universal 2nd Factor USB security keys.
Configure persistent volume, Tails documentation, WhisperBack Error Reporting, and Tails Installer are now in the submenu of Favorites applications.
Change the input method for Japanese from Anthy to Mozc.
Code
Onboarded a new maintainer for our Debian packages. Welcome nodens!
Fixed a bug that often broke the Additional Software feature.
Documentation and website
Published a job offer for a technical writer. This is a paid offer for self-employed freelancers.
Released new Home and About pages. Drawings are by Andrés Fernández Cordón.
Documented how to include screenshots when reporting an error.
Documented how to import OpenPGP keys from the Files browser. (#17183)
User experience
Discussed the UX implications of dropping our time sync hacks.
Discussed possible strategies around the degrading state of the Passwords and Keys utility.
Hot topics on our help desk
We saw more problems for Mac computers this month, some users could not use their keyboard and touchpad, and others could not start Tails. If you plan to use a laptop for Tails, try to test it before buying it.
Many Electrum users had to restore their wallet as explained in our documentation.
Some ATI Radeon cards have problems to start Tails 4.7.
Infrastructure
Completed our migration to GitLab.
Onboarded kibi and emmapeel in the team maintaining our pool of mirrors.
Funding
Received an invitation to submit a full proposal to the OTF Core Infrastructure Fund to improve the user experience of connecting to Tor and using Tails to circumvent censorship.
Improved how corporate donation matching programs and Benevity are explained on our Donate page. (#17698)
Outreach
We are discussing a proposal to make Tails' presence in the Fediverse official.
On-going discussions
We are sharing feedback and tips about using GitLab.
Translations
All the website
- de: 30% (1988) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy
- es: 47% (3072) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
- fa: 22% (1474) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy
- fr: 84% (5415) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
- it: 28% (1808) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- pt: 22% (1418) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy
Core pages of the website
- de: 50% (1041) strings translated, 21% strings fuzzy
- es: 77% (1585) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- fa: 20% (415) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy
- fr: 83% (1709) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- it: 50% (1043) strings translated, 20% strings fuzzy
- pt: 39% (815) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
Metrics
- Tails has been started more than 981 624 times this month. This makes 31 665 boots a day on average.
This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible.
Changes and updates
Fixed problems
Make the installation of Additional Software more robust. (#17278)
Clarify the error message when entering an incorrect password to unlock a VeraCrypt volume: Wrong passphrase or parameters instead of Error unlocking volume. (#17668)
Clean up confusing comments in
/etc/tor/torrc. (#17706)
For more details, read our changelog.
Known issues
None specific to this release.
See the list of long-standing issues.
Get Tails 4.7
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.2 or later to 4.7.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost.
To download only
If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.7 directly:
What's coming up?
Tails 4.8 is scheduled for June 30.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
Releases
Tails 4.7 is scheduled for June 2.
The following changes were introduced in Tails 4.5:
Tails now starts on computers with Secure Boot enabled.
Update Tor Browser to 9.0.9.
This update fixes several vulnerabilities in Firefox, including some critical ones.
Documentation and website
Installation instructions
Updated our installation instructions to the support of Secure Boot: (#17492)
Added a link to try downloading from another mirror in case the download fails. (#15754)
Click on Download USB image and the link below it changes.
Fixed a buggy content reuse on the cloning instructions for PC and Mac. (#17502)
Added shortcuts to download for DVDs and virtual machines from install. (#17609)
Added a Skip download link on the download only pages. (#17549)
Terminology
Implemented the terminology Persistent Storage consistently in all our documentation. (#8948)
Renamed Tails Greeter into Welcome Screen. (#15122)
Known issues
Documented that importing OpenPGP public keys using the Passwords and Keys utility is broken since Tails 4.0 (October 2019). (#17183)
Documented that opening VeraCrypt volumes fails if the passphrase is more than 64 characters long. (#17474)
Removed warnings about Electrum not working in Tails (#17581)
User experience
Andrés Fernández Cordón finished the illustrations for the new ?Home and ?About pages.
sajolida finished writing and testing the written content and most of the responsive web design.
Changed our sidebar to a top bar. (#15112)
It has a better contrast for accessibility, prevents right-rail blindess, and is more visible on mobile.
Funding
Sent 2 grant applications:
To the OTF Core Infrastructure Fund to improve the user experience of connecting to Tor and using Tails to circumvent censorship.
To Reset to integrate mobile messaging applications (Signal, Telegram, Wire, Matrix, etc.).
Redesigned our Donate button to fit in the top bar, even on mobile.
Added ourselves to a list of non-profits who accept lumens.
Translations
All the website
- fr: 85% (5541) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
- es: 49% (3172) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
- de: 32% (2087) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy
- it: 29% (1878) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy
- fa: 23% (1551) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy
- pt: 22% (1479) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy
Core pages of the website
- fr: 85% (1577) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- es: 83% (1538) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- it: 55% (1023) strings translated, 21% strings fuzzy
- de: 55% (1012) strings translated, 22% strings fuzzy
- pt: 41% (772) strings translated, 17% strings fuzzy
- fa: 28% (524) strings translated, 19% strings fuzzy
Core pages of the website for languages not activated on the website yet
- zh_TW: 28% (427) strings translated, 12% strings fuzzy
- zh: 14% (225) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy
- ru: 10% (160) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy
- pl: 8% (133) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy
- tr: 8% (133) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy
- ar: 7% (119) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy
- ca: 7% (115) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy
- id: 5% (91) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- sr_Latn: 4% (62) strings translated, 1% strings fuzzy
Metrics
Tails has been started more than 936 560 times this month. This makes 31 219 boots a day on average.
That's 8.7% more than in March and the biggest increase in usage since 2015. It's most likely due to the COVID-19 quarantine and people staying at home but it might also be a good sign from the support of Secure Boot and an easier adoption by new users.
This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible.
Changes and updates
Update Tor Browser to 9.0.10.
Add support for Universal 2nd Factor USB security keys.
Update the list of applications in the Favorites applications submenu.
To make it easier for new users to discover some of the core features of Tails, we added Configure persistent volume, Tails documentation, WhisperBack Error Reporting, and Tails Installer and removed Terminal.
Change the input method for Japanese from Anthy to Mozc. (#16719)
Known issues
None specific to this release.
See the list of long-standing issues.
Get Tails 4.6
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.2 or later to 4.6.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost.
To download only
If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.6 directly:
What's coming up?
Tails 4.7 is scheduled for June 2.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
Releases
Tails 4.4 was released on March 12 (bugfix release).
Tails 4.4.1 was released on March 23 (bugfix release).
Tails 4.5~rc1 was released on March 27 (release candidate).
Tails 4.6 is scheduled for May 5.
The following changes were introduced in Tails 4.4:
- Tentatively fix Wi-Fi interfaces with Realtek RTL8822BE and RTL8822CE chipsets. (#17323)
The following changes were introduced in Tails 4.5~rc1:
Secure Boot
Tails 4.5~rc1 should start on computers in UEFI mode and with Secure Boot enabled.
Code
Secure Boot support was merged (#6560).
Our test suite does not require Sikuli anymore (#15460), which allows running it on recent Debian systems.
We prepared for upgrading po4a (#17005), which on the long term will lower translators' workfload.
Documentation and website
Replaced Stefano Zacchiroli's key, which was expired, by Chris Lamb's key in our installation instructions from Debian using the command line and GnuPG. (#17524)
Agreed on the renaming of some core features:
User experience
Did a lot of progress on the design of the new Home and About pages:
Finalized the texts of both pages.
Finalized draft illustrations for both pages.
Did 2 rounds of usability tests: 1 on paper and 1 on screen.
Designed a replacement of our current sidebar to be on top.
Started coding responsive HTML and CSS using CSS Flexbox
Translated both pages in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and German.
You can see our ongoing work on:
Agreed on a new set of favorites application for our Applications menu. (#16990)
Discussed the security and UX implications of persisting all settings from the Welcome Screen. (#17136#note-24)
Hot topics on our help desk
Lots of issues with various Nvidia graphics cards, we need to chase down for details.
A bit of pointing to documentation
Secure Boot — we heard this will soon be solved.
Infrastructure
- We kept preparing our upcoming migration to GitLab.
Funding
Analyzed the results of our last donation campaign.
We raised 81 842 € (+10%) from 2006 donations (-10%).
Sent a full proposal to DRL for our joint proposal with Tor and the Guardian Project.
Submitted a proposal to the Prototype Fund to fund usability improvements.
Signed a contract with The ISC Project for our work on the new Home and About pages and printed outreach material.
Sent a thank you email to people who donated during the last donation campaign (1283 emails).
Added Domains4Bitcoins to our list of partners.
On-going discussions
- What our current changelog is useful for, and how we could get the same benefits with less manual work: https://lists.autistici.org/message/20200322.084523.51704520.en.html
Translations
All the website
- de: 35% (2283) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- es: 55% (3557) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- fa: 26% (1715) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
- fr: 93% (5989) strings translated, 0% strings fuzzy
- it: 32% (2056) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
- pt: 24% (1552) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
Core pages of the website
- de: 64% (1167) strings translated, 16% strings fuzzy
- es: 95% (1747) strings translated, 1% strings fuzzy
- fa: 34% (620) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
- fr: 98% (1792) strings translated, 0% strings fuzzy
- it: 64% (1173) strings translated, 16% strings fuzzy
- pt: 45% (823) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
Core pages of the website for languages not activated on the website yet
- ar: 6% (120) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- ca: 6% (116) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- id: 3% (62) strings translated, 0% strings fuzzy
- pl: 6% (124) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- ru: 8% (151) strings translated, 3% strings fuzzy
- sr_Latn: 2% (41) strings translated, 0% strings fuzzy
- tr: 6% (119) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy
- zh: 14% (271) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy
- zh_TW: 33% (609) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy
Metrics
- Tails has been started more than 890 226 times this month. This makes 28 717 boots a day on average.
This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible.
New features
Secure Boot
Tails now starts on computers with Secure Boot enabled.
If your Mac displays the following error:
Security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk.
Then you have to change the settings of the Startup Security Utility of your Mac to authorize starting from Tails.
Changes and updates
Update Tor Browser to 9.0.9.
This update fixes several vulnerabilities in Firefox, including some critical ones.
Mozilla is aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing these vulnerabilities.
Known issues
None specific to this release.
See the list of long-standing issues.
Get Tails 4.5
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.2 or later to 4.5.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost.
To download only
If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.5 directly:
What's coming up?
Tails 4.6 is scheduled for May 5.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
Tails 4.5, scheduled for April 7, will be the first version of Tails to support Secure Boot.
You can help Tails by testing the release candidate for Tails 4.5 now.
Secure Boot
Tails 4.5~rc1 should start on computers in UEFI mode and with Secure Boot enabled.
Known issues
If your Mac displays the following error:
Security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk.
Then you have to change the change the settings of the Startup Security Utility of your Mac to authorize starting from Tails.
Read our instructions on how to authorize starting from Tails on your Mac.
To open Startup Security Utility:
Turn on your Mac, then press and hold Command(⌘)+R immediately after you see the Apple logo. Your Mac starts up from macOS Recovery.
When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities ▸ Startup Security Utility from the menu bar.
When you are asked to authenticate, click Enter macOS Password, then choose an administrator account and enter its password.
In the Startup Security Utility:
Choose No Security in the Secure Boot section.
Choose Allow booting from external media in the External Boot.
To still protect your Mac from starting on untrusted external media, you can set a firmware password, available on macOS Mountain Lion or later. A firmware password prevents users who do not have the password from starting up from any media other than the designated startup disk.
If you forget your firmware password it will require an in-person service appointment with an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Read more on Apple Support about:
See the list of long-standing issues.
How to test Tails 4.5~rc1?
Keep in mind that this is a test image. We tested that it is not broken in obvious ways, but it might still contain undiscovered issues.
Please, report any new problem to tails-testers@boum.org (public mailing list).
Get Tails 4.5~rc1
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from 4.2 or later to 4.5~rc1.
To do an automatic upgrade to Tails 4.5~rc1:
Start Tails 4.2 or later and set an administration password.
Run this command in a Terminal:
echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" | sudo tee -a /etc/os-release && \ tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapperEnter the administration password when asked for the "password for amnesia".
After the upgrade is applied, restart Tails and choose Applications ▸ Tails ▸ About Tails to verify that you are running Tails 4.5~rc1.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To download 4.5~rc1
Direct download
For USB sticks (USB image) (?OpenPGP signature)
For DVDs and virtual machines (ISO image) (?OpenPGP signature)
BitTorrent download
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost.
What's coming up?
Tails 4.5 is scheduled for April 7.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
This release is an emergency release to fix security vulnerabilities in Tor Browser and Tor.
You should upgrade as soon as possible.
Included software
Update Tor Browser to 9.0.7, which prevents JavaScript from sometimes being enabled in the Safest security level of Tor Browser.
Update Tor to 0.4.2.7, which fixes TROVE-2020-002, a major denial-of-service vulnerability that affects both Tor relays and clients. Using this vulnerability, an attacker could cause Tor to consume a huge amount of CPU, disrupting its operations for several seconds or minutes, and create patterns that could aid in traffic analysis.
Update Thunderbird to 68.6.0.
Known issues
None specific to this release.
See the list of long-standing issues.
Get Tails 4.4.1
To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage
Automatic upgrades are available from 4.2, 4.2.2, 4.3, and 4.4 to 4.4.1.
If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.
To install Tails on a new USB stick
Follow our installation instructions:
All the data on this USB stick will be lost.
To download only
If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.4.1 directly:
What's coming up?
Tails 4.5 is scheduled for April 7.
Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.
We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!
Tor is aware of a technical issue that allows JavaScript execution in the Safest security level of Tor Browser in some situations.
Until then, do the following to completely disable JavaScript instead of setting the security level:
Open the address about:config in Tor Browser.
Click the I accept the risk! button.
At the top of the page, search for javascript.enabled.
Double-click on the javascript.enabled line in the results to set its value to false.
This issue will be fixed in the next release of Tails.