Tor 0.2.8.9 is here three weeks after the release of Tor 0.2.8.8 in an attempt to backport a fix for a security flaw discovered in previous versions of the software, which could have allowed a remote attacker to crash the Tor client, authority, relay, and hidden service. It appears to be an important security fix, so you’re urged to update your Tor installation to version 0.2.8.9 as we speak. Patches will be available soon for older versions of Tor as well. Apart from patching the security hole mentioned above, the Tor 0.2.8.9 maintenance release updates the GeoIP and GeoIP6 databases to the October 4, 2016, Maxmind GeoLite2 Country database. In related news, Tor Project released the Tor 0.2.9.4 Alpha pre-release to early adopters and those willing to help the development team polish the final release of the upcoming Tor 0.2.9.x series.