On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community, I'm announcing the release of Python 2.3.6 (release candidate 1). Python 2.3.6 is a security bug-fix release. While Python 2.5 is the latest version of Python, we're making this release for people who are still running Python 2.3. Unlike the recently released 2.4.4, this release only contains a small handful of security-related bugfixes. See the website for more. * Python 2.3.6 contains a fix for PSF-2006-001, a buffer overrun * in repr() of unicode strings in wide unicode (UCS-4) builds. * See http://www.python.org/news/security/PSF-2006-001/ for more. This is a **source only** release. The Windows and Mac binaries of 2.3.5 were built with UCS-2 unicode, and are therefore not vulnerable to the problem outlined in PSF-2006-001. The PCRE fix is for a long-deprecated module (you should use the 're' module instead) and the email fix can be obtained by downloading the standalone version of the email package. Most vendors who ship Python should have already released a patched version of 2.3.5 with the above fixes, this release is for people who need or want to build their own release, but don't want to mess around with patch or svn. Assuming no major problems crop up, a final release of Python 2.3.6 will follow in about a week's time. Python 2.3.6 will complete python.org's response to PSF-2006-001. If you're still on Python 2.2 for some reason and need to work with UCS-4 unicode strings, please obtain the patch from the PSF-2006-001 security advisory page. Python 2.4.4 and Python 2.5 have both already been released and contain the fix for this security problem. For more information on Python 2.3.6, including download links for source archives, release notes, and known issues, please see: http://www.python.org/2.3.6 Highlights of this new release include: - A fix for PSF-2006-001, a bug in repr() for unicode strings on UCS-4 (wide unicode) builds. - Two other, less critical, security fixes. Enjoy this release, Anthony Anthony Baxter anthony@python.org Python Release Manager (on behalf of the entire python-dev team)