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# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

## [Unreleased]
<!-- This changes the project to: -->
- Add `COOKIE_SECURE` option to set the cookie [Secure flag](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Guides/Cookies#block_access_to_your_cookies)
- Sets cookie defaults to use [SameSite: None](https://web.dev/articles/samesite-cookies-explained)

- Determine the `BIND_NETWORK`/`--bind-network` value from the bind address ([#677](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/677)).
- Implement localization system. Find locale files in lib/localization/locales/.
- Implement a [development container](https://containers.dev/) manifest to make contributions easier.
- Fix dynamic cookie domains functionality ([#731](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/731)).
- Add option for custom cookie prefix ([#732](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/732)).
- Remove the "Success" interstitial after a proof of work challenge is concluded.

## v1.20.0: Thancred Waters

The big ticket items are as follows:

- Implement a no-JS challenge method: [`metarefresh`](./admin/configuration/challenges/metarefresh.mdx) ([#95](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/95))
- Implement request "weight", allowing administrators to customize the behaviour of Anubis based on specific criteria
- Implement GeoIP and ASN based checks via [Thoth](https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/thoth) ([#206](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/206))
- Add [custom weight thresholds](./admin/configuration/thresholds.mdx) via CEL ([#688](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/688))
- Move Open Graph configuration [to the policy file](./admin/configuration/open-graph.mdx)
- Enable support for Open Graph metadata to be returned by default instead of doing lookups against the target
- Add `robots2policy` CLI utility to convert robots.txt files to Anubis challenge policies using CEL expressions ([#409](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/409))
- Refactor challenge presentation logic to use a challenge registry
- Allow challenge implementations to register HTTP routes
- [Imprint/Impressum support](./admin/configuration/impressum.mdx) ([#362](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/362))
- Fix "invalid response" after "Success!" in Chromium ([#564](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/564))

A lot of performance improvements have been made:

- Replace internal SHA256 hashing with xxhash for 4-6x performance improvement in policy evaluation and cache operations
- Optimized the OGTags subsystem with reduced allocations and runtime per request by up to 66%
- Replace cidranger with bart for IP range checking, improving IP matching performance by 3-20x with zero heap
  allocations

And some cleanups/refactors were added:

- Fix OpenGraph passthrough ([#717](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/717))
- Remove the unused `/test-error` endpoint and update the testing endpoint `/make-challenge` to only be enabled in
  development
- Add `--xff-strip-private` flag/envvar to toggle skipping X-Forwarded-For private addresses or not
- Bump AI-robots.txt to version 1.37
- Make progress bar styling more compatible (UXP, etc)
- Add `--strip-base-prefix` flag/envvar to strip the base prefix from request paths when forwarding to target servers
- Fix an off-by-one in the default threshold config
- Add functionality for HS512 JWT algorithm
- Add support for dynamic cookie domains with the `--cookie-dynamic-domain`/`COOKIE_DYNAMIC_DOMAIN` flag/envvar

Request weight is one of the biggest ticket features in Anubis. This enables Anubis to be much closer to a Web Application Firewall and when combined with custom thresholds allows administrators to have Anubis take advanced reactions. For more information about request weight, see [the request weight section](./admin/policies.mdx#request-weight) of the policy file documentation.

TL;DR when you have one or more WEIGHT rules like this:

```yaml
bots:
  - name: gitea-session-token
    action: WEIGH
    expression:
      all:
        - '"Cookie" in headers'
        - headers["Cookie"].contains("i_love_gitea=")
    # Remove 5 weight points
    weight:
      adjust: -5
```

You can configure custom thresholds like this:

```yaml
thresholds:
  - name: minimal-suspicion # This client is likely fine, its soul is lighter than a feather
    expression: weight < 0 # a feather weighs zero units
    action: ALLOW # Allow the traffic through

  # For clients that had some weight reduced through custom rules, give them a
  # lightweight challenge.
  - name: mild-suspicion
    expression:
      all:
        - weight >= 0
        - weight < 10
    action: CHALLENGE
    challenge:
      # https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challenges/metarefresh
      algorithm: metarefresh
      difficulty: 1
      report_as: 1

  # For clients that are browser-like but have either gained points from custom
  # rules or report as a standard browser.
  - name: moderate-suspicion
    expression:
      all:
        - weight >= 10
        - weight < 20
    action: CHALLENGE
    challenge:
      # https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challenges/proof-of-work
      algorithm: fast
      difficulty: 2 # two leading zeros, very fast for most clients
      report_as: 2

  # For clients that are browser like and have gained many points from custom
  # rules
  - name: extreme-suspicion
    expression: weight >= 20
    action: CHALLENGE
    challenge:
      # https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challenges/proof-of-work
      algorithm: fast
      difficulty: 4
      report_as: 4
```

These thresholds apply when no other `ALLOW`, `DENY`, or `CHALLENGE` rule matches the request. `WEIGHT` rules add and remove request weight as needed:

```yaml
bots:
  - name: gitea-session-token
    action: WEIGH
    expression:
      all:
        - '"Cookie" in headers'
        - headers["Cookie"].contains("i_love_gitea=")
    # Remove 5 weight points
    weight:
      adjust: -5

  - name: bot-like-user-agent
    action: WEIGH
    expression: '"Bot" in userAgent'
    # Add 5 weight points
    weight:
      adjust: 5
```

Of note: the default "generic browser" rule assigns 10 weight points:

```yaml
# Generic catchall rule
- name: generic-browser
  user_agent_regex: >-
    Mozilla|Opera
  action: WEIGH
  weight:
    adjust: 10
```

Adjust this as you see fit.

## v1.19.1: Jenomis cen Lexentale - Echo 1

- Return `data/bots/ai-robots-txt.yaml` to avoid breaking configs [#599](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/599)

## v1.19.0: Jenomis cen Lexentale

Mostly a bunch of small features, no big ticket things this time.

- Record if challenges were issued via the API or via embedded JSON in the challenge page HTML ([#531](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/531))
- Ensure that clients that are shown a challenge support storing cookies
- Imprint the version number into challenge pages
- Encode challenge pages with gzip level 1
- Add PowerPC 64 bit little-endian builds (`GOARCH=ppc64le`)
- Add `check-spelling` for spell checking
- Add `--target-insecure-skip-verify` flag/envvar to allow Anubis to hit a self-signed HTTPS backend
- Minor adjustments to FreeBSD rc.d script to allow for more flexible configuration.
- Added Podman and Docker support for running Playwright tests
- Add a default rule to throw challenges when a request with the `X-Firefox-Ai` header is set
- Updated the nonce value in the challenge JWT cookie to be a string instead of a number
- Rename cookies in response to user feedback
- Ensure cookie renaming is consistent across configuration options
- Add Bookstack app in data
- Truncate everything but the first five characters of Accept-Language headers when making challenges
- Ensure client JavaScript is served with Content-Type text/javascript.
- Add `--target-host` flag/envvar to allow changing the value of the Host header in requests forwarded to the target service
- Bump AI-robots.txt to version 1.31
- Add `RuntimeDirectory` to systemd unit settings so native packages can listen over unix sockets
- Added SearXNG instance tracker whitelist policy
- Added Qualys SSL Labs whitelist policy
- Fixed cookie deletion logic ([#520](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/520), [#522](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/522))
- Add `--target-sni` flag/envvar to allow changing the value of the TLS handshake hostname in requests forwarded to the target service
- Fixed CEL expression matching validator to now properly error out when it receives empty expressions
- Added OpenRC init.d script
- Added `--version` flag
- Added `anubis_proxied_requests_total` metric to count proxied requests
- Add `Applebot` as "good" web crawler
- Reorganize AI/LLM crawler blocking into three separate stances, maintaining existing status quo as default
- Split out AI/LLM user agent blocking policies, adding documentation for each

## v1.18.0: Varis zos Galvus

The big ticket feature in this release is [CEL expression matching support](https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/expressions). This allows you to tailor your approach for the individual services you are protecting.

These can be as simple as:

```yaml
- name: allow-api-requests
  action: ALLOW
  expression:
    all:
      - '"Accept" in headers'
      - 'headers["Accept"] == "application/json"'
      - 'path.startsWith("/api/")'
```

Or as complicated as:

```yaml
- name: allow-git-clients
  action: ALLOW
  expression:
    all:
      - >-
        (
          userAgent.startsWith("git/") ||
          userAgent.contains("libgit") ||
          userAgent.startsWith("go-git") ||
          userAgent.startsWith("JGit/") ||
          userAgent.startsWith("JGit-")
        )
      - '"Git-Protocol" in headers'
      - headers["Git-Protocol"] == "version=2"
```

The docs have more information, but here's a tl;dr of the variables you have access to in expressions:

| Name            | Type                  | Explanation                                                                                                                               | Example                                                      |
| :-------------- | :-------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------- |
| `headers`       | `map[string, string]` | The [headers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers) of the request being processed.                        | `{"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 Gecko/20100101 Firefox/137.0"}` |
| `host`          | `string`              | The [HTTP hostname](https://web.dev/articles/url-parts#host) the request is targeted to.                                                  | `anubis.techaro.lol`                                         |
| `method`        | `string`              | The [HTTP method](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Methods) in the request being processed.                    | `GET`, `POST`, `DELETE`, etc.                                |
| `path`          | `string`              | The [path](https://web.dev/articles/url-parts#pathname) of the request being processed.                                                   | `/`, `/api/memes/create`                                     |
| `query`         | `map[string, string]` | The [query parameters](https://web.dev/articles/url-parts#query) of the request being processed.                                          | `?foo=bar` -> `{"foo": "bar"}`                               |
| `remoteAddress` | `string`              | The IP address of the client.                                                                                                             | `1.1.1.1`                                                    |
| `userAgent`     | `string`              | The [`User-Agent`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/User-Agent) string in the request being processed. | `Mozilla/5.0 Gecko/20100101 Firefox/137.0`                   |

This will be made more elaborate in the future. Give me time. This is a [simple, lovable, and complete](https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/) implementation of this feature so that administrators can get hacking ASAP.

Other changes:

- Use CSS variables to deduplicate styles
- Fixed native packages not containing the stdlib and botPolicies.yaml
- Change import syntax to allow multi-level imports
- Changed the startup logging to use JSON formatting as all the other logs do
- Added the ability to do [expression matching with CEL](./admin/configuration/expressions.mdx)
- Add a warning for clients that don't store cookies
- Disable Open Graph passthrough by default ([#435](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/435))
- Clarify the license of the mascot images ([#442](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/442))
- Started Suppressing 'Context canceled' errors from http in the logs ([#446](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/446))

## v1.17.1: Asahi sas Brutus: Echo 1

- Added customization of authorization cookie expiration time with `--cookie-expiration-time` flag or envvar
- Updated the `OG_PASSTHROUGH` to be true by default, thereby allowing Open Graph tags to be passed through by default
- Added the ability to [customize Anubis' HTTP status codes](./admin/configuration/custom-status-codes.mdx) ([#355](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/355))

## v1.17.0: Asahi sas Brutus

- Ensure regexes can't end in newlines ([#372](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/372))
- Add documentation for default allow behavior (implicit rule)
- Enable [importing configuration snippets](./admin/configuration/import.mdx) ([#321](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/321))
- Refactor check logic to be more generic and work on a Checker type
- Add more AI user agents based on the [ai.robots.txt](https://github.com/ai-robots-txt/ai.robots.txt) project
- Embedded challenge data in initial HTML response to improve performance
- Added support to use Nginx' `auth_request` directive with Anubis
- Added support to allow to restrict the allowed redirect domains
- Whitelisted [DuckDuckBot](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot/) in botPolicies
- Improvements to build scripts to make them less independent of the build host
- Improved the Open Graph error logging
- Added `Opera` to the `generic-browser` bot policy rule
- Added FreeBSD rc.d script so can be run as a FreeBSD daemon
- Allow requests from the Internet Archive
- Added example nginx configuration to documentation
- Added example Apache configuration to the documentation [#277](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/277)
- Move per-environment configuration details into their own pages
- Added support for running anubis behind a prefix (e.g. `/myapp`)
- Added headers support to bot policy rules
- Moved configuration file from JSON to YAML by default
- Added documentation on how to use Anubis with Traefik in Docker
- Improved error handling in some edge cases
- Disable `generic-bot-catchall` rule because of its high false positive rate in real-world scenarios
- Moved all CSS inline to the Xess package, changed colors to be CSS variables
- Set or append to `X-Forwarded-For` header unless the remote connects over a loopback address [#328](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/328)
- Fixed mojeekbot user agent regex
- Reduce Anubis' paranoia with user cookies ([#365](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/365))
- Added support for Open Graph passthrough while using unix sockets
- The Open Graph subsystem now passes the HTTP `HOST` header through to the origin
- Updated the `OG_PASSTHROUGH` to be true by default, thereby allowing Open Graph tags to be passed through by default

## v1.16.0

Fordola rem Lupis

> I want to make them pay! All of them! Everyone who ever mocked or looked down on me -- I want the power to make them pay!

The following features are the "big ticket" items:

- Added support for native Debian, Red Hat, and tarball packaging strategies including installation and use directions
- A prebaked tarball has been added, allowing distros to build Anubis like they could in v1.15.x
- The placeholder Anubis mascot has been replaced with a design by [CELPHASE](https://bsky.app/profile/celphase.bsky.social)
- Verification page now shows hash rate and a progress bar for completion probability
- Added support for [Open Graph tags](https://ogp.me/) when rendering the challenge page. This allows for social previews to be generated when sharing the challenge page on social media platforms ([#195](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/195))
- Added support for passing the ed25519 signing key in a file with `-ed25519-private-key-hex-file` or `ED25519_PRIVATE_KEY_HEX_FILE`

The other small fixes have been made:

- Added a periodic cleanup routine for the decaymap that removes expired entries, ensuring stale data is properly pruned
- Added a no-store Cache-Control header to the challenge page
- Hide the directory listings for Anubis' internal static content
- Changed `--debug-x-real-ip-default` to `--use-remote-address`, getting the IP address from the request's socket address instead
- DroneBL lookups have been disabled by default
- Static asset builds are now done on demand instead of the results being committed to source control
- The Dockerfile has been removed as it is no longer in use
- Developer documentation has been added to the docs site
- Show more errors when some predictable challenge page errors happen ([#150](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/150))
- Added the `--debug-benchmark-js` flag for testing proof-of-work performance during development
- Use `TrimSuffix` instead of `TrimRight` on containerbuild
- Fix the startup logs to correctly show the address and port the server is listening on
- Add [LibreJS](https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/) banner to Anubis JavaScript to allow LibreJS users to run the challenge
- Added a wait with button continue + 30 second auto continue after 30s if you click "Why am I seeing this?"
- Fixed a typo in the challenge page title
- Disabled running integration tests on Windows hosts due to it's reliance on posix features (see [#133](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/133#issuecomment-2764732309))
- Fixed minor typos
- Added a Makefile to enable comfortable workflows for downstream packagers
- Added `zizmor` for GitHub Actions static analysis
- Fixed most `zizmor` findings
- Enabled Dependabot
- Added an air config for autoreload support in development ([#195](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/195))
- Added an `--extract-resources` flag to extract static resources to a local folder
- Add noindex flag to all Anubis pages ([#227](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/227))
- Added `WEBMASTER_EMAIL` variable, if it is present then display that email address on error pages ([#235](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/235), [#115](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/115))
- Hash pinned all GitHub Actions

## v1.15.1

Zenos yae Galvus: Echo 1

Fixes a recurrence of [CVE-2025-24369](https://github.com/Xe/x/security/advisories/GHSA-56w8-8ppj-2p4f)
due to an incorrect logic change in a refactor. This allows an attacker to mint a valid
access token by passing any SHA-256 hash instead of one that matches the proof-of-work
test.

This case has been added as a regression test. It was not when CVE-2025-24369 was released
due to the project not having the maturity required to enable this kind of regression testing.

## v1.15.0

Zenos yae Galvus

> Yes...the coming days promise to be most interesting. Most interesting.

Headline changes:

- ed25519 signing keys for Anubis can be stored in the flag `--ed25519-private-key-hex` or envvar `ED25519_PRIVATE_KEY_HEX`; if one is not provided when Anubis starts, a new one is generated and logged
- Add the ability to set the cookie domain with the envvar `COOKIE_DOMAIN=techaro.lol` for all domains under `techaro.lol`
- Add the ability to set the cookie partitioned flag with the envvar `COOKIE_PARTITIONED=true`

Many other small changes were made, including but not limited to:

- Fixed and clarified installation instructions
- Introduced integration tests using Playwright
- Refactor & Split up Anubis into cmd and lib.go
- Fixed bot check to only apply if address range matches
- Fix default difficulty setting that was broken in a refactor
- Linting fixes
- Make dark mode diff lines readable in the documentation
- Fix CI based browser smoke test

Users running Anubis' test suite may run into issues with the integration tests on Windows hosts. This is a known issue and will be fixed at some point in the future. In the meantime, use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

## v1.14.2

Livia sas Junius: Echo 2

- Remove default RSS reader rule as it may allow for a targeted attack against rails apps
  [#67](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/67)
- Whitelist MojeekBot in botPolicies [#47](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/47)
- botPolicies regex has been cleaned up [#66](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/66)

## v1.14.1

Livia sas Junius: Echo 1

- Set the `X-Real-Ip` header based on the contents of `X-Forwarded-For`
  [#62](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/62)

## v1.14.0

Livia sas Junius

> Fail to do as my lord commands...and I will spare him the trouble of blocking you.

- Add explanation of what Anubis is doing to the challenge page [#25](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/issues/25)
- Administrators can now define artificially hard challenges using the "slow" algorithm:

  ```json
  {
    "name": "generic-bot-catchall",
    "user_agent_regex": "(?i:bot|crawler)",
    "action": "CHALLENGE",
    "challenge": {
      "difficulty": 16,
      "report_as": 4,
      "algorithm": "slow"
    }
  }
  ```

  This allows administrators to cause particularly malicious clients to use unreasonable amounts of CPU. The UI will also lie to the client about the difficulty.

- Docker images now explicitly call `docker.io/library/<thing>` to increase compatibility with Podman et. al
  [#21](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/21)
- Don't overflow the image when browser windows are small (eg. on phones)
  [#27](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/27)
- Lower the default difficulty to 5 from 4
- Don't duplicate work across multiple threads [#36](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/36)
- Documentation has been moved to https://anubis.techaro.lol/ with sources in docs/
- Removed several visible AI artifacts (e.g., 6 fingers) [#37](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/37)
- [KagiBot](https://kagi.com/bot) is allowed through the filter [#44](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/44)
- Fixed hang when navigator.hardwareConcurrency is undefined
- Support Unix domain sockets [#45](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/45)
- Allow filtering by remote addresses:

  ```json
  {
    "name": "qwantbot",
    "user_agent_regex": "\\+https\\:\\/\\/help\\.qwant\\.com/bot/",
    "action": "ALLOW",
    "remote_addresses": ["91.242.162.0/24"]
  }
  ```

  This also works at an IP range level:

  ```json
  {
    "name": "internal-network",
    "action": "ALLOW",
    "remote_addresses": ["100.64.0.0/10"]
  }
  ```

## 1.13.0

- Proof-of-work challenges are drastically sped up [#19](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/19)
- Docker images are now built with the timestamp set to the commit timestamp
- The README now points to TecharoHQ/anubis instead of Xe/x
- Images are built using ko instead of `docker buildx build`
  [#13](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/pull/13)

## 1.12.1

- Phrasing in the `<noscript>` warning was replaced from its original placeholder text to
  something more suitable for general consumption
  ([fd6903a](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/commit/fd6903aeed315b8fddee32890d7458a9271e4798)).
- Footer links on the check page now point to Techaro's brand
  ([4ebccb1](https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/commit/4ebccb197ec20d024328d7f92cad39bbbe4d6359))
- Anubis was imported from [Xe/x](https://github.com/Xe/x)
