Release Notes

What's New

Access Control

• Encryption passphrase (--key): for reading — share with trusted friends
• Remote management (--allow-manage on server): enables send/channel management — disabled by default
• If --allow-manage not set on server, send and admin features are completely disabled
• Client --password now protects ALL web endpoints with global HTTP Basic Auth

Channel Management

• Add/remove Telegram channels remotely via admin commands through DNS
• Channel management UI in the web frontend (requires --allow-manage)
• List/refresh channel configuration from the browser

Send Messages

• Send messages to Telegram channels and private chats through the DNS tunnel
• Full-stack implementation: client web UI → DNS query → server → Telegram API
• GCM-encrypted message data split into DNS labels
• Telegram RandomID fix — sending to own channels now works correctly

Message Compression

• Deflate compression reduces the number of DNS queries needed
• Backward compatible — clients auto-detect compressed vs raw data
• 1-byte compression header (0x00=raw, 0x01=deflate)

Web UI Password

• Protect the web UI with --password flag
• HTTP Basic Auth on all endpoints (constant-time comparison)
• Empty password = no authentication (default)

Web UI Overhaul

• Channel type badges (Private / Public)
• New message indicator badges
• Next-fetch countdown timer
• Send message panel (when Telegram is connected)
• Media type tag highlighting ([IMAGE], [VIDEO], [DOCUMENT])
• Channels grouped by type in sidebar
• Telegram connection warning banner
• Debug mode enabled by default
• Footer with GitHub link

Android Support

• android/arm64 build target for Termux
• UPX compression for smaller binaries

Edit Detection

• Detects message edits even when message count stays the same
• CRC32 content hash per channel transmitted in metadata
• Client skips refresh only when both message ID and content hash match

No-Telegram Mode

• Server --no-telegram flag for users who can't or don't want to sign in to Telegram
• Reads public channels without needing Telegram API credentials or phone number
• Safer: no credentials stored on the server
• Install script supports no-Telegram setup (recommended by default)

Install Script Improvements

• Telegram mode selection during install (no-Telegram recommended by default)
• Update flow: option to switch between Telegram and no-Telegram modes
• Easy one-liner curl commands for update and uninstall
• Passphrase sharing warning: anyone with your passphrase can read your messages

Protocol Improvements

• Variable block sizes (400-700 bytes) for anti-DPI
• DNS noise queries at random intervals (10-30s)
• Metadata expansion: NextFetch, TelegramLoggedIn, ChatType, CanSend
• Block retry on transient DNS failures

Security Hardening

• HTTP server timeouts (read: 30s, write: 60s, idle: 120s)
• DNS query name length validation for send messages
• Generic error responses (no internal error leakage)
• Constant-time password comparison
• ⚠️ Never share your passphrase publicly — anyone with it can run their own client and read all your messages. --password only protects the web UI on your machine

Other Improvements

• Auto-open browser on client start
• Server next-fetch timer in protocol metadata
• Skip refresh when no new messages
• Prevent duplicate channel fetches
• Handle invalid passphrase errors gracefully
• Default rate limit: 5 QPS
• Configurable DNS timeout
• Persian README (README-FA.md)

Full Changelog: v0.0.17...v0.0.18