ICS V9.3

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Changes in ICS V9.3 include:

  1. V9.3 continues the simplification of use of ICS components by consolidating many types and constants into the OverbyteIcsTypes unit, avoiding projects needing to find and add specific units before they will build. For XE2 and later, OverbyteIcsTypes and OverbyteIcsSslBase will be added automatically when components needing them are dropped on a form, or that form accessed for existing projects. One benefit of this change is removing dependence on several units for many components and applications, it should be possible to remove OverbyteIcsWinsock, OverbyteIcsLIBEAY, OverbyteIcsSSLEAY and OverbyteIcsLogger from most applications, and also other units. See https://wiki.overbyte.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Updating_projects_to_V9.3 for more information.
  2. Previously, the Windows Certificate Store was supported on Windows for all components and samples, despite it not always being required. There are three new defines {$DEFINE MSCRYPT_Clients}, {$DEFINE MSCRYPT_Servers} and {$DEFINE MSCRYPT_Tools) that determine which components can use the store, at least one must be set or applications that need the store will fail. Although these new defines all default to enabled in the OverbyteIcsDefs.inc supplied with V9.3 and later, unless this file is installed, Windows Certificate Store will be unavailable. These defines are disabled for non-Windows platforms and for C++ Builder which has bugs.
  3. Added new application independent monitoring, comprising a client component and server sample. The ICS Application Monitor TIcsAppMonCli client component is designed to report to an ICS Application Monitor server, which will ensure the main application remains running. The ICS Application Monitor server IcsAppMon.exe is designed to monitor ICS applications using the TIcsAppMonCli client component, and ensure they remain running, restarting the application if it stops or becomes non-responsive, or on demand. Primarily to keep ICS server Windows services running non-stop, but may also be used for network wide monitoring of ICS applications. Client and server both use the TIcsIpStrmLog component with a simple TCP protocol. More information at https://wiki.overbyte.eu/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ_ICS_Application_Monitoring
  4. The HTTP client components TSslHttpCli and TSslHttpRest have new RespMimeType and RespCharset response properties parsed from the Content-Type header to avoid applications needing to parse this headers. Fixed a problem in V9.2 where a missing / was added to the start of the request path, but was not needed for absolute paths used for proxies.
  5. The TIcsIpStrmLog streaming log component has improvements for TCP Server mode when multiple remote clients connect. Previously the same data was sent to all remote clients (the original concept being remote logging), but now applications can send data to specific remote clients, and more easily check which remote client is receiving data. This change means TIcsIpStrmLog can be used as the core of many TCP servers with different protocols, such as the new IcsAppMon sample, see above.
  6. The TSslHttpRest and component has a new way for applications to check SSL certificate chains themselves, ignoring OpenSSL bundle checks, usually for self signed private certificates, maybe checking certificate serials, names or public key. If LogSslVerMethod = logSslVerOwnEvent, a new event OnSslCertVerifyEvent is called so the application can check the chain and change the verify result appropriately.
  7. Improved the ability to customise SSL ciphers if the ICS defaults need to be changed. TSslContext and TIcsHosts have three properties, SslCipherList for TLSv12 ciphers, SslCipherList13 for TLSv13 ciphers, and SslCryptoGroups sets the cipher curve groups allowed (like P-256 or X25519). Beware old SslContexts may include group P-512 which must be corrected to T-521. SSL handshake responses now show the curve group used for OpenSSL 3.2 and later. The OverbyteIcsHttpsTst client sample may be used to test the new cipher options, and they will be read from IcsHosts INI files for servers.
  8. Added a new web server sample OverbyteIcsBasicWebServer1.dpr which is a simplified version of OverbyteIcsSslMultiWebServ ignoring configuration INI files, security features, session data, most demo pages and most logging, and settings for localhost set in code, search for IcsHosts to change IP addresses, etc. This sample should be easier to use as a basis for new web server applications. The existing samples OverbyteIcsSslMultiWebServ and OverbyteIcsDDWebService have a new index.html template page, and default to localhost 127.0.0.1 with an internal localhost SSL certificate, so should always response to https://localhost/ without any INI file changes.
  9. Fixed an HTTP web server problem in V9.2 to avoid repeated redirection for virtual default page /, was adding /// etc.
  10. Updated OpenSSL binary and resource files to releases 3.3.2, 3.2.3 and 3.0.15, only one of which will be linked according to defines.
  11. Restored the sample OverbyteIcsConHttp.dpr which is a console example, now supports SSL by replacing THttpCli with TSslHttpRest, no longer needs any events or a message loop for a single sync request, so a less code than without SSL. Now contacts https://wiki.overbyte.eu/wiki.
  12. A lot of changes have been made preparing ICS for Linux. Corrected loading OpenSSL on Posix, now loads the system supplied OpenSSL 3 DLLs on Ubuntu 22.04. The Linux package now builds correctly, but beware WSocket is not yet supported on Linux so no protocols will work. There is a new IcsPemTest FMX sample that works on Ubuntu 22.04 and which will create ICS signed SSL certificates. Note, MacOS support is disabled pending the new Posix implementation.