Shibboleth Service Provider V2.5.0 Released

[Cantor, Scott]

I'm pleased to announce the release of V2.5.0 of the Shibboleth Service
Provider software, along with V2.5.0 of the OpenSAML-C library stack.

Source code is now available on the download site[1] and the new Windows
installers are available[2][3]. Note that with this release, the 64-bit
installer is mandatory for 64-bit Windows systems and includes both 32-
and 64-bit files.

I will be starting the build process for the RPMs this evening, but expect
it will take until sometime tomorrow my time to get them finished and
published.

This release is the culmination of over a year of work and includes many
new features and bug fixes, including Apache 2.4 support.

Issues addressed and features added (see last row of table):

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/DEV/SPRoadmap

Important information related to upgrades and changes that may affect
existing installations can be found here:

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/NativeSPConfigurationC
hanges

Linux users should especially note the changes noted on that page, as
shibd now installs with a non-root user account, and if your system
includes key/certificate files with other than the default names, you may
need to review file permissions after upgrading.

Documentation updates are still in progress, but notes regarding the new
Windows installer can be found on:

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/NativeSPWindowsInstall

The Solaris build notes have been updated extensively to reflect changes
in this release.

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/NativeSPSolarisSourceB
uild

Finally, I will note that because of the significant changes in this
upgrade, and the installation-related changes, I will be leaving the
previous SP release (V2.4.3) in the category of "previous stable release"
for some period of time to be determined shortly. This means it will
receive at least source-level security fixes for a period of time if any
issues arise deemed important enough to fix. I don't expect this to be a
long period of time, but through the end of the year is likely.

-- Scott

[1] http://shibboleth.net/downloads/service-provider/2.5.0/
[2] http://shibboleth.net/downloads/service-provider/2.5.0/win32/
[3] http://shibboleth.net/downloads/service-provider/2.5.0/win64/