GroupWise Messenger 18 Release Notes

May 2023

1.0 What’s New

Reference the sections below for What’s New information specific to each version.

1.1 GroupWise Messenger 18.5

The following enhancements were made in this release:

Updated database: GroupWise Messenger 18.5 has an updated database and migration instructions are included in the release image. If you are upgrading Messenger to 18.5, reference the GroupWise Messenger 18.5 Database Migration Details before you upgrade. Migration is mandatory if you are upgrading to 18.5 from Messenger 18.1.x or earlier versions.

Updated default cipher string: In keeping with maintaining the highest security standards, GroupWise and Messenger 18.5 include an updated default cipher string. If you need to modify the default string based on the current version that you have, you can override it using the cipher string switch sslCipherSuite in the agent startup files after upgrading to 18.5. For information, see applicable “startup switch” sections for the agents in the GroupWise 18 Administration Guide.

1.2 GroupWise Messenger 18.4.2

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.4.2, see the Messenger 18.4.2 Bug Fix List.

1.3 GroupWise Messenger 18.4.1

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.4.1, see the Messenger 18.4.1 Bug Fix List.

1.4 GroupWise Messenger 18.4.0

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.4.0, see the Messenger 18.4 Bug Fix List.

1.5 GroupWise Messenger 18.3.1

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.3.1, see the Messenger 18.3 SP1 Bug Fix List.

1.6 GroupWise Messenger 18.3

The following enhancement was made in this release:

Advanced Authentication: GroupWise Messenger 18.3 supports Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) through NetIQ Advanced Authentication. Multi-Factor Authentication adds an additional layer of security to your GroupWise login. For more information on MFA, see Using Multi-Factor Authentication in the GroupWise Messenger 18 Administration Guide.

1.7 GroupWise Messenger 18.2.1

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.2.1, see the Messenger 18.2 Support Pack 1 Bug Fix List.

1.8 GroupWise Messenger 18.2 P1

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.2 P1, see the Messenger 18.2 P1 Bug Fix List.

1.9 GroupWise Messenger 18.2

  • File transfer has been added to Messenger. You can share files on your desktop, tablet, and phone. You can enable File transfer on your policies’ General tab.

  • If you are using iOS 13 and/or macOS 10.15 devices in your GroupWise system, your certificates also need to meet the increased security requirements released by Apple. The requirements can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT210176.

1.10 GroupWise Messenger 18.1.1

  • File transfer settings have been added to the GroupWise Admin Console on Messenger policies and users. The settings are disabled, but will be enabled for an upcoming release of Messenger.

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.1.1, see the Messenger 18.1 Support Pack 1 Bug Fix List.

1.11 GroupWise Messenger 18.1

1.12 GroupWise Messenger 18.0.3

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.0.3, see the Messenger 18 Support Pack 3 Bug Fix List

1.13 GroupWise Messenger 18.0.2

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.0.2, see the Messenger 18 Support Pack 2 Bug Fix List.

1.14 GroupWise Messenger 18.0.1

Messenger utilities have been enhanced to provide better error checking and error messages.

For a list of bugs fixed in Messenger 18.0.1, see the Messenger 18 Support Pack 1 Bug Fix List.

1.15 GroupWise Messenger 18

ConsoleOne is no longer used to administer Messenger. Administration is now done through the GroupWise Admin console.

2.0 System Requirements

GroupWise Messenger 18 system requirements (including requirements for mobile devices) are listed in GroupWise Messenger Hardware and Software Requirements in the GroupWise Messenger 18 Installation Guide.

3.0 Installation Instructions

Complete installation instructions are available in the GroupWise Messenger 18 Installation Guide.

3.1 GroupWise Messenger 18.5 Database Migration Details

GroupWise Messenger stores data that includes settings, configurations, user-contact lists, policies, and other information in two ArangoDB databases on the Messenger system machine. Older versions of ArangoDB supported two types of database formats: mmfiles (memory-mapped files) and rocksdb.

The original version of ArangoDB used by GroupWise Messenger 18.0.x and 18.1.x was ArangoDB 3.3, and by default the underlying database format chosen for new instances was mmfiles. With ArangoDB 3.4, the default format for new instances changed to rocksdb, and with ArangoDB 3.7 it is no longer possible to use mmfiles as the database format.

GroupWise Messenger 18.2.x - 18.4.x uses ArangoDB 3.4, which supports both formats, but defaults to rocksdb for new instances.

GroupWise Messenger 18.5 uses ArangoDB 3.10, which only supports the rocksdb format. We have made this change for security reasons; the older versions of ArangoDB have some critical and high-level security issues.

If you originally created your Messenger system(s) using a version older than GroupWise Messenger 18.2.0, your databases are using the mmfiles format. GroupWise Messenger 18.5 will not run against these old databases. The install.sh script in the 18.5 image will detect this case and will terminate the installation if the databases are in the older format. We have added the file migrate.txt to the image with instructions for migrating old format databases to the new, rocksdb format so that GroupWise Messenger can be installed.

If the databases are very large (the Archive database can get quite large), the migration procedure could take a long time and use up a large amount of disk space. For this reason, we decided not to do an automated migration at this time.

4.0 Known Issues

The following known issues have been identified. Where applicable workarounds and versions found in are also provided.

4.1 Potential issue with OpenSSL encryption keys after upgrading to GroupWise Messenger 18.5

GroupWise Messenger agents now use OpenSSL version 3.0.8, which is an upgrade from OpenSSL 1.1.1 that was used in 18.4.2 and earlier versions of GroupWise. This new version of OpenSSL does not support encrypted keys that used the DES-CBC algorithm (des); keys encrypted this way need to be re-encrypted using a later algorithm, such as DES-EDE3-CBC (des3).

Older keys encrypted in the PKCS#5 format will have the following at the top of the file:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: DES-CBC,6555BB78F9C56E96

Notice the old, unsupported algorithm DES-CBC in the DEK-Info line for PKCS#5. Unfortunately, keys encrypted in the PKCS#8 format will only show the following line, which does not show if the problem exists:

-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----

GroupWise Messenger 18.5 agents and GroupWise 18.5 agents will not run and will give SSL misconfiguration errors if their keys were encrypted using the old algorithm. GroupWise Administration, WebAccessNG, and MARS are not affected by this issue.

Resolution: The following procedure can be used to convert a key encrypted with des to des3. This requires access to the openssl command-line utility. Before you begin, you need to identify if you have a problem and which key(s) needs to be re-encrypted by using the information provided above. The path to the certificate folder where the key files are maintained on the Messenger Server is shown below:

/opt/novell/messenger/certs

File name substitutions for command strings:

  • withpassword.key - Substitute key file name that needs to be re-encrypted.

  • nopassword.key - Substitute key file name that represents the temporary file.

  • withdes3pw.key - Substitute key file name that represents the correctly encrypted key file.

Procedure:

  1. Run this command to convert the password-encrypted key file to a key file without a password:

    openssl rsa -in withpassword.key -out nopassword.key

    NOTE:If the original key file was created without a password and that is available, you can skip this step and start with Step 2.

  2. With the no password key, run this command to add a password using des3:

    openssl rsa -in nopassword.key -des3 -out withdes3pw.key

  3. Backup the original key file and then replace it with the newly generated key file, using the same name as the original.

  4. Relaunch the agents.

4.2 AVX and SSE4.2 installation errors prevent upgrade to Messenger 18.5

GroupWise Messenger 18.5 has an updated database that requires processor support for SSE4.2 and AVX instruction sets. If your Messenger system runs on devices with CPUs that do not support SSE4.2 or AVX, you should keep Messenger running on an earlier version (for example, v18.4.x) until you have upgraded your hardware.

To see if your Messenger server CPU(s), supports SSE4.2 and AVX, run the following commands:

  • cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep sse4_2 > /dev/null 2>&1

  • cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep avx > /dev/null 2>&1

If a command returns nothing, the instruction set is not supported.

4.3 GroupWise Administration Console displays a “PKIX path error” when managing Messenger System objects (18.4.2)

The GroupWise Admin Console displays a "PKIX path error" when trying to manage objects for a Messenger System.

Resolution: Restart the GroupWise Administration Service.

4.4 Badging Issues on Messenger iOS App (Messenger 18.2.1)

The 18.2.1 Messenger iOS app has inconsistencies with badging notifications.

4.5 Messenger default number of user UI bug

Due to a UI bug in GW 18.0 and 18.1, the Maximum number of users field for the Messaging Agent and the Archive Agent defaults to 100. The default setting in Messenger is still 5120 unless you save the Agent setting page on either agent. If you make any changes to the Agents Settings page on either agent and save the changes, the number in the Maximum number of users field is saved to Messenger. The maximum number of users that you can set because of the UI in GW 18.0 or 18.1 is 5000. This UI bug will be fixed in 18.1.1.

4.6 Deleting Messenger system from GroupWise and reconfiguring resets default LDAP server

If you delete the Messenger system from the GroupWise Admin Console and run the configure on the Messenger system, Messenger resets the default LDAP server to the first LDAP server in your GroupWise system instead of what it was set previously. You can set your default LDAP server setting in the GroupWise Admin Console > Messenger > MessengerService > Settings > Account Management > Default LDAP server.

4.7 Trust issue to GroupWise LDAP causing sync to fail

In order to connect to GroupWise to sync users, Messenger uses GroupWise LDAP which is configured on the MTA. If the certificate specified for GroupWise LDAP uses the same CA as GroupWise, there are no issues with syncing users. If the CA is not the same, Messenger will not trust it, users will not sync, and users will not be able to authenticate. To fix this issues, append the GroupWise LDAP’s CA certificate to the end of the /etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem file on the Messenger server.

4.8 Display issue with underscore in user name when using IE 11 on Windows 8

If you are using Windows 8 and IE 11 to create a Messenger user in the GroupWise Admin console and the user contains an underscore and extended characters in the name, the underscore appears to disappear after the user is created. This is a display issue with IE 11 on Windows 8. If you change your zoom setting (zoom in or out) the underscore reappears.

4.9 MobileIron not passing parameters

When using MobileIron to install Messenger on mobile devices, the server, port, username, and password parameters are not being passed down to the device. This will be fixed in a future release.

4.10 File dependency missing on some versions of SLES

Some versions of SLES are missing the required glibc-32bit rpm dependency. When you attempt to install the Messenger rpms, you receive a dependency error. Installing the glibc-32bit before running the install/upgrade fixes the issue.

5.0 Compatibility with Other Instant Messaging Systems (on Linux and Mac)

IMPORTANT:The third-party messenger systems discussed in this section do not support the simultaneous client connections available with Messenger 18.

The Adium instant messaging application for Mac OS X is available at the Adium website.

The Pidgin (formerly Gaim) open source instant messaging connector is available at the Pidgin website.

The Kopete open source instant messaging plug-in is available at the Kopete website.

6.0 Messenger Documentation

The following sources provide information about GroupWise Messenger 18:

  • Online product documentation: GroupWise Messenger 18 Documentation website .

  • Product documentation included within GroupWise Messenger:

    • Help System: Click the Help menu in the upper-right corner of the Messenger client.

7.0 Legal Notices

© Copyright 1996 - 2023 Micro Focus or one of its affiliates.

The only warranties for products and services of Micro Focus and its affiliates and licensors (“Micro Focus”) are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Micro Focus shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.