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SoftEther VPN

INFRA · APIS
Velocity0.0

Multi-protocol VPN server and client software

www.softether.org ↗

Post-quantum key exchange landed, then the release train went quiet.

post-quantumvpnci-modernizationmaintenanceopen-source
◆Current state
SoftEther's 5.x line ships infrequently — six tags spread across 2023 to 2025, most of them merge-commit version bumps with no release notes. The one substantive entry in this window, 5.2.5188, folded liboqs and oqs-provider submodule updates in to add X25519MLKEM768, the NIST hybrid post-quantum key exchange. Everything around it is build plumbing: FreeBSD and macOS CI images, Linux artifact publishing, Docker machinery moved into the main repo.
◆Where it's heading
The work is drifting from protocol features toward build and supply-chain hygiene, and the crypto addition arrived through submodule updates rather than in-house design. Release notes are thin enough that several tags credit contributors without describing what changed. With the newest entry now over a year old, this reads as a maintenance-paced project carried by a small group of contributors.
◆Prediction
If the pattern holds, the next tag is another accumulation of CI and dependency work, with post-quantum defaults tightening as liboqs moves upstream. The entries give no signal of a new protocol or management-plane direction.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1y ago

    5.2.5188 adds X25519MLKEM768 post-quantum key exchange

    ⚡ SPARK

    The only release here with protocol impact: liboqs and oqs-provider submodule updates bring X25519MLKEM768 hybrid key exchange into the tunnel. The rest of the entry is the hygiene work that defines this window — CI runners, Linux artifact publishing, Docker build machinery moved in-tree.

    View source ↗
  2. 1y ago

    5.02.5187: version bump ahead of the 5187 release

    A release-pipeline version bump with no described user-facing change. Its only value is as a marker that the 5187 cut happened.

    View source ↗
  3. 1y ago

    5.02.5186 bumps webpack in the admin web UI

    A Dependabot webpack upgrade from 5.76.0 to 5.94.0 in the admin console assets. Supply-chain housekeeping, consistent with where most of this project's recent effort goes.

    View source ↗
  4. 2y ago

    5.02.5185 fixes DHCP handling and a UDP amplification report

    DHCP handling fixes plus a reported UDP traffic amplification issue, credited to an external reporter. Operationally meaningful for anyone running SoftEther internet-facing, but corrective work rather than new capability.

    View source ↗
  5. 2y ago

    5.02.5184: contributor credits, no release notes

    The entry carries only contributor acknowledgements; what shipped is not described anywhere in the changelog. Typical of how thin this feed's notes are outside the 5188 tag.

    View source ↗
  6. 2y ago

    5.02.5182 corrects a hamcore path separator

    A single path-separator fix for hamcore file access. Internal correctness work, invisible to anyone not already hitting the bug.

    View source ↗