InfoConnect Desktop 16.2 Release Notes

2.1 Security Improvements

Added support to encrypt TLS connections with elliptic curve cryptography with 3270, 5250, VT, UTS, T27, and FTP sessions. Currently, only prime curves are supported for Elliptic Curve Cryptography.

Minimized access to the SSL 3.0 encryption standard, which is no longer secure. The new Permissions Manager Security.access settings allow you to lock down the SSL/TLS version setting. (You can also set access for this setting with Group Policy.)

Added support to send a complete certificate chain when the client identity is in the SystemStore. Added support to send intermediate CAs along with the user certificate (RFC6187). This feature allows the client to send a complete Certificate chain (if available) when the client identity is in the SystemStore and the algorithms from RFC6187 are being attempted. The two supported algorithms are x509v3-ssh-rsa and x509v3-rsa2048-sha256.

Added a new setting to the SSH config file that allows an administrator to configure public key algorithms used by the client. This feature adds a new setting to the SSH config file that allows you to configure the actual Public Key Algorithms used during PubKey authentication. See Configuration File Keyword Reference - Secure Shell Settings

Enhanced performance of Unisys file transfers through improved shut down process for TLS connections.

Enhanced the usability of logging to include the Negotiated Host Key Algorithm and the Key Exchange method name.

Added capability to lock down Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security settings for IBM and VT Terminals in Group Policy and Permissions Manager. See Control Access to Settings and Controls .

Improved support for ActivClient 7.1 when configured for Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS)#11.

The latest ActivClient 7.X driver, which uses a new file location, has been added to the .pki search path.

Improved support for using Public Key Infrastructure challenge (PKIc) for automated sign-on with SSH sessions that are managed in Management and Security Server (MSS). Using PKIc for automated sign-on previously failed when InfoConnect sessions were managed by MSS.

Made improvements to the PKI search abilities to differentiate similar certificates with the same certificate name (CN) and expiration (EXP) date. An SSL error occurred on the first connection attempt when two Intermediate certificates had the same CN and EXP Date. Added the certificate chain to a PKI search in order to better utilize PKI's abilities to determine the correct certificate path to validate the given certificate.

Fixed timing issues on IBM (3270 and 5250) connections configured with end-to-end encryption. Timing issues and Reflection IBM’s use of asynchronous connections (i.e. multiple threads), caused it to incorrectly set a Winsock error during tracing.

Improved the ability for SFTP logging to write large file listings when the connection is closed. Previously, the SFTP command line wrote only the end of a large file listing when the connection was closed.

Added support for " " when using the FTP command client around a target directory. SFTP commands failed when using quotes around a target directory.

Modified the SFTP command line so that SFTP batch jobs can run in Windows Task Scheduler. Previously, users were unable to run SFTP batch jobs in Windows Task Scheduler as "SYSTEM" user because the client displayed a message box. It now writes the statement that was in the message box to the log.

Improved functionality of the multiple delete (mdel) command in the SFTP command line. SFTP 'ls' and 'mdel' commands access the home directory when used with an asterisk and a filter (such as .txt). Adjusted the wildcard functionality in SFTP to include the current directory and then remove the path from the file listing (the server side file list view). These changes affect the "filter" functionality in SFTP and Reflection FTP Client.

Added support for using PKIc for automated sign-on with multiple card readers. Using PKIc for automated sign-on failed when multiple card readers were present.

Improved support for multiple PKCS#11 providers. Added a list to enable notification to as many providers as configured. Previously, when multiple PKCS#11 Providers were specified in Reflection's pki config, removal of the card failed to disconnect.

Improved support for the FTP Client running in an App-V 5.1 environment. FTP Clients running in App-V 5.1 were unable to connect to a host.

Enhanced the user experience for messages related to password changes. Messages from the host related to a password change were not displayed in the terminal window.

Changed registry key versioning to improve the startup experience of the FTP client. Previously, the Reflection FTP client application crashed on load if the "Migrated" registry key used by older versions of the FTP client was missing.

Resolved an intermittent connection issue that occurred when connecting to UTS hosts via TLS in FIPS mode.

2.2 Enhancements for IT Administrators

This release supports the latest Windows 10 “Windows as a Service” update and includes a number of new features designed for IT administrators.

Added the ability to use Automated Sign-On with the Micro Focus Host Access Management and Security Server (MSS) to authenticate InfoConnect Desktop sessions even when they are not centrally managed and controlled. In previous releases of InfoConnect Desktop, this feature was available only for sessions that were centrally controlled and managed with MSS. Automated Sign-On allows users to log on to IBM z/OS mainframe applications using a modern authentication method instead of using traditional, less secure methods typically required for those applications. See Set up Automated Sign-On for Mainframe Sessions.

Added two different approaches to centrally control and manage InfoConnect Desktop IBM and VT VBA macros. You can use two new ways to centrally control macros:

For more, see Centrally Manage VBA Macros.

Added the ability to change and deploy specific workspace settings without changing other settings on users’ desktops. This allows you to change a global setting after you deploy InfoConnect without the risk of overwriting other settings that users have configured. See Update Only Specific Workspace Settings.

Added detailed information about the cause of the failure when the "Could not read file…" error message is displayed. The message now has more information and instructions for taking a Workspace Log.

Added support for X.509 certificates on smart cards when using MSS and Micro Focus Advanced Authentication.

Added new capabilities to configure actions. These include:

Remove the requirement for CASL “chain” and “do” statements fully-qualified macro path

2.3 User Experience Enhancements

End users will benefit from a number of improvements.

Improved startup performance. Startup performance was significantly improved by modifying the installation process to pre-compile native images when InfoConnect Desktop is installed instead of compiling them at runtime.

Added a Multiple Print Screens utility that can be used to capture a list of host screens and then specify how many screens to print on a page. See Print More Than One Screen Per Page.

Added custom templates that you can use to print from an IBM host screen or from an IBM printer emulation session to a form.

Added a new look and feel that is similar to Microsoft Office 2016.

Added a status bar indicator that indicates progress when starting sessions and importing legacy session files.

Added several enhancements in the Classic mode UI, including the ability to save session layouts, and search the active session document.

Added the ability to use Windows credentials to authenticate to IBM i Systems (AS/400) with FTP.

Improved IBM green screen modernization with the Micro Focus Plus drag and drop development tool. The complete Plus tool is now included with the InfoConnect Desktop product.

Added several copy and paste enhancements. These enhancements allow users to:

Added the ability to select multiple QuickPads from the QuickPads dialog.

Added an action that can be used to show or hide the status bar.

4.1 The following issues may occur on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 systems that do not have recent Microsoft Windows updates installed.

The installation fails with an error message that indicates “Windows updates from Microsoft required to install this product are not available on this computer.”

To resolve this issue, download and install the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows from Microsoft.

The installation fails due to problems with installing Windows .Net 4.7.1

To resolve this issue, download and install the December 12, 2017—KB4054518 (Monthly Rollup) from Microsoft.

When you try to open a session in InfoConnect, an error message indicates “api-ms-win-crt runtime is missing from the computer”

To resolve this issue, download and install the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows from Microsoft.

4.2 You may experience longer installation times due to optimization of product performance.

When installing the product with an MSI directly, the installation will require more time at the end of the process than with previous versions.

This additional time at the end of the process is used to optimize product performance.

When installing an update (msp patch file) directly, the MSI interface may incorrectly indicate that time is required at the end of the process.

This additional time at the end of the process is used to optimize product performance.

When applying an MSI patch with the Setup tool, the tool may revert to Repair mode.

This is due to recent features added to the tool to improve product performance.

4.3 The installed Help for some InfoConnect products is not supported in Windows 10.

The installed Help for the InfoConnect Print and Transaction Router (PTR) products and the InfoConnect Airlines Gateway NG product does not work in Windows 10.

For the following Print and Transaction Router products, see Print and Transaction Router (PTR) in the online InfoConnect Help.

For the InfoConnect Airlines Gateway NG product, see the Product Guide on the InfoConnect Airlines Gateway NG - Documentation page.