The Azure Sphere 20.08 OS quality release is now available in the Retail feed. This update includes enhancements and bug fixes in the Azure Sphere OS including a security update that represents a critical update to the OS. Because of this, the retail evaluation period has been shortened.
In addition, 20.08 includes new Sample applications; It does not include an updated SDK.
The following changes are included in the 20.08 OS release:
- Upgrades to incorporate a critical security patch from wolfSSL. This update fixes a vulnerability directly impacting TLS 1.3 client communication which is used by Azure Sphere. For more information see CVE-2020-24613.
- Resolution of a problem that caused Ethernet-enabled devices to receive a non-random MAC address after OS recovery to 20.07 (via the azsphere device recover command).
- Resolution of an issue with the system time not being maintained with RTC and battery.
- Changes to WifiConfig_GetNetworkDiagnostics to return AuthenticationFailed in a manner consistent with 20.06 and earlier. This change fixes the issue mentioned for the 20.07 release.
- Improvements to Networking_GetInterfaceConnectionStatus to more accurately reflect the ConnectedToInternet state.
- Updated the Linux kernel to 5.4.54.
For hardware manufacturers:
The 20.08 release also contains important improvements for hardware manufacturers. These changes support greater flexibility in the manufacturing process and improved stability for customers.
We've updated the EEPROM configuration file , which is used with the command-line FT_PROG tool, to:
- Disable Virtual COM ports to improve the stability of device-to-PC communications and reduce the number of PC crashes.
- Supply unique serial numbers that start with 'AS' to distinguish Azure Sphere devices from other USB Serial Converters that may be present on the same PC.
We strongly recommend that you use the updated configuration file to program your devices.
The documentation now also shows how to program the FTDI EEPROM on multiple boards in parallel. See the MCU programming and debugging interface topic for details.
Sample Applications
We released three new sample applications on Friday, 8/21/20.
- wolfSSL Sample for client-side TLS APIs – demonstrates using wolfSSL for SSL handshake in a high-level application.
- Low power MCU-to-cloud reference solution –demonstrates how you might connect an external MCU to an Azure Sphere device and send data to IoT Central. This reference solution is optimized for low power scenarios.
- Error reporting tutorial – demonstrates how to use error reporting features on the Azure Sphere platform.
Known issues in the 20.08 quality release:
See What’s new in the 20.08 quality release for information on known issues.
For more information
For more information on Azure Sphere OS feeds and setting up an evaluation device group, see Azure Sphere OS feeds.
If you encounter problems
For self-help technical inquiries, please visit Microsoft Q&A or Stack Overflow. If you require technical support and have a support plan, please submit a support ticket in Microsoft Azure Support or work with your Microsoft Technical Account Manager. If you would like to purchase a support plan, please explore the Azure support plans.
