v2.3 - March 4th, 2024 (Windows and MacOS)


Availability:

Supported OS: 

  • Windows 7, 10, 11

  • Mac MacOS 12.x (Monterey), 13.x (Ventura), 14.x (Sonoma)

    • Intel, ARM (M1, M2, M3)


New Features/Changes:

  • Reduced excessive notifications

    • Enabled notifications are now displayed only once per session

      • Once a notification is shown, it’s flagged and not shown again until user reboots

      • Allowed and Unfilterable notifications are now disabled by default  (see ‘Changed Show Notifications default settings’ point below)

  • Reduced Excessive logs

  • Reduced number of high count events sent to the server

    • Events that occur less than 7 times during 60 seconds will be sent to SafeConsole as normal, anything greater than 7 events in 60 seconds will be sent to a different queue for hourly uploading. A single pb_repeating_event action event will be sent within 60 seconds of generating the excessive logs.

  • Thunderbolt drive support (Mac only)

  • The new daemon is now able to detect and block drives that go to PCIe.

  • Limitations apply:

    • Thunderbolt device cannot be filtered by serial number

    • M1/M2 only - Thunderbolt devices can be erased in Disk Utility while PortBlocker is set to ‘Block All Devices’

  • Changed ‘Show Notifications’ default settings

  • Allowed and Unfilterable (Windows only) notifications are now disabled by default for fresh installs.

  • Note: Allowed and Unfilterable notifications setting remains unchanged for upgraded PortBlocker. E.g. if these notifications were enabled before the upgrade, they will remain enabled after the upgrade.

  • Added a check for policy updates

  • ‘Check for Updates; option has been added back to the PortBlocker icon menu (note: this applies to policy updates only, software update check was removed in v2.1 Mac/2.2 Windows)

  • Command line argument to refresh the policy: PortBlocker.exe --refreshPolicy


  • Mac OS Sonoma 14.x support

    • PortBlocker v2.1 and v2.3 are now officially supported on MacOS Sonoma

  • HID Mode support for Sentry 5/5-M and D500 devices

    • Sentry5/5-M and D500 were added to the list of devicesWithHid to support PID changes

  • [Internal] Removed SafeSync code

Notable Bug Fixes:

  • Notifications and logs are not displayed after upgrading from 1.5/1.6 without a reboot. Improvements to the health check feature.

  • Status not changed after upgrade. Workaround: user command line argument PortBlocker.exe --refreshPolicy

  • EULA checkbox might remain checked and grayed out after reset from SafeConsole.

  • ‘Error Auto Register’ might be displayed during JAMF deployment if Admin Approval is enabled. Workaround: it is recommended to disable admin approval for JAMF deployment. If enabled and error occurs, approval in Safeconsole and log out/log in or reboot resolves the issue.

Notable Known Issues:

  • Manual installs may require full disk access to be set

  • Mac M1/M2 Thunderbolt devices can be erased while PortBlocker is set to ‘deny all’

  • Thunderbolt devices cannot be filtered by serial number


v2.2 - November 9th, 2023 (Windows OS Only)


What's New


PortBlocker service regular health check

  • PortBlocker now performs regular health checks to validate all devices that are connected. Logs are sent to SafeConsole. If an anomaly is detected, SafeConsole is notified.


New systray menu option - Reconnect All 

  • Select “Reconnect All” for a manual reconnection of all devices / refreshing the policy by the end-user
  • A log item of the “Reconnect All” action is sent to SafeConsole





Reboot is no longer required during PortBlocker software upgrades

  • Requires the installer to be executed with admin privileges, for example via elevated privileges command prompt. Otherwise a reboot may be required


Improved user interface and behavior

  • The settings window is no longer shown on startup, but can be opened from the PortBlocker systray icon
  • The ‘UI visible on startup’ checkbox has been removed



Reviewed Log option

  • Removed ‘Open Client Log’ from systray icon Help section
  • Added ‘Open driver log’ option to systray icon Help section to view driver level logging




v2.1 - February 11th, 2023 (macOS Only)


Availability:

macOS 11.x, 12.x, 13.x

Intel, ARM (M1, M2)

*Note that the latest Windows version is 2.0 (See below)*


What’s New

  • Added support for M1 and M2 (ARM processors)

  • Optimizations for JAMF mass deployment

  • Improved user interface and behavior

    • Setting window no longer shown on startup, can be opened from the PortBlocker icon menu

    • ‘UI visible on startup’ checkbox has been removed

    • Fewer notifications on repeating events


  • Improved debug logging

    • Added Daemon Log option to the PortBlocker menu bar icon

    • Removed Client Log option from the PortBlocker menu bar icon

    • Debug logs in Daemon log are displayed after the ‘Enable debug logging’ option is enabled and computer is rebooted

    • Reboot is needed to enable driver level logging


  • Removed check for new versions

    • Check for Updates option has been removed from the PortBlocker icon menu (policy update functionality is not affected)





v2.0 - February 11th, 2023 (Windows)


What’s New

  • Improved scalability and performance for mass deployments

  • Support for larger policies with thousands of devices

  • Enhanced deployment statistics and command line switch for manual policy refresh - PortBlocker.exe --refreshPolicy

  • New MSI Installer switch for language selection - LANGUAGE=en-EN | ko-KR | de-DE | fr-FR | pl=PL | zh-CN

  • User-configurable desktop notifications and event log improvements

  • Driver logging for better support work and proxy customization (driver logging not supported on Windows 7)

  • Numerous bug fixes for better compatibility and user experience



Notable Bug Fixes:

  • If “Set unlisted devices to read-only” option is enabled in the policy, allowed DataLocker devices will also be mounted in read only mode

  • Better support for software licensing security dongles

  • Excessive logs generated by laptop docking

  • Updated Windows driver to resolve Read-Only mode for composite subdevices

  • Fixed Windows Registry limit for 65K characters

  • Fixed Windows installation error when using Korean language



v1.6.2 - October 15th, 2021 (macOS)


What's New

  • Added an alert message to inform the user to restart their Mac after installation
  • Updated Mac kernel extension driver to correct Read-only device filtering



v1.6.1 - Jun 15th, 2021 (Windows & macOS)


What's New

  • Network proxy support for macOS
  • Background stealth mode - No visible GUI
    • Can be configured by SafeConsole Admin through policy     
          (Requires SafeConsole v5.9.2)
    • Optional switch during MSI install - HIDE_CLIENT_UI=1
  • Disable show UI on startup during deployment 
    • Optional switch during MSI install - DISABLE_UI_SYS_STARTUP=1
  • Added additional device filters (SmartCard and PKI Devices)
  • Minor improvements and bug fixes


v1.5.0 - Jan 14th, 2021 (Windows & macOS)


What's New

  • Unified release for both Windows and macOS operating systems
  • Improved low-level driver security and tampering
  • Compatibility with macOS BigSur
  • Added support for Automatic Updates controlled by SafeConsole policy (SC v5.8)
  • Minor UI improvements and bug fixes


v1.4.3 - Sep 24th, 2020 (Windows Only)


What's New

  • Added support for Uninstall Password controlled by SafeConsole policy (SC v5.7)
  • Automatic Application Updates support
  • Added new option in uninstaller UI to clean up all leftovers (logs, configs, etc)
  • PortBlocker Service Manager component has been re-written to provide more security and application level validation



v1.4.2 - July 6th, 2020 (macOS Only)


What's New

  • Initial macOS release

v1.3.5 - Mar 17th, 2020


What's New

  • Fixed driver loading issues with several Dell computer models

v1.3.4 - Mar 17th, 2020


What's New

  • New changes for Mass Deployment


v1.3.3 - Mar 17th, 2020


What's New

  • Fixed system stability issues when switched to Allow All Devices In Read-Only mode status

v1.3.2 - Mar 11th, 2020


What's New

  • Fixed issues with service handling new statuses

v1.3.1 - Feb 23rd, 2020


What's New

  • Removed proxy verification URL for network compatibility 

v1.3 - Jan 24th, 2020


What's New

  • Added new PortBlocker action to set all devices to Read-Only (*Requires SafeConsole v5.6+).
  • Added a new server policy to hide all notifications.
  • Added support for Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD)
    • PortBlocker is now compatible with networks that utilize WPAD proxies. Proxy settings must be configured through the machine’s service account.
  • Prevent accidental uninstallation of PortBlocker by requiring a password.

v1.2 - Sept 17th, 2019


What's New

  • Support for Class06 devices (USB cameras and other imaging devices)
  • Fixed notification bug when connected to a docking station

v1.1.1 - Aug 20th, 2019


What's New

  • MSI Installer release

v1.1 - Jul 23rd, 2019


What's New

  • Read-Only Access Mode: Write-protection for supported USB storage devices can now be managed.
  • Improved Activity Audit Reporting: Additional events and device data are now sent to the SafeConsole server. 
  • Improved Desktop Notifications: More information for filtered devices are now available to the notification pop up.
  • USB SCSI Storage (UASP) device support: Added support for a new class of USB storage devices.

v1.0 - Dec 19th, 2018


What's New

  • Prevents data transfer to/and from USB storage devices
  • Using SafeConsole, the administrator can create a policy to manage the PortBlocker endpoints
    • Whitelist devices based on the Vendor ID, product ID and serial number
    • Audit Logs
    • GeoFence
  • When the user plugs in a device that is not whitelisted
  •     The drive does not mount (or the phone cannot access its files)
    • The user is notified that an unauthorized device was detected
    • SafeConsole is notified that the user has inserted an unauthorized device
  • Requires SafeConsole v5.4.0 or newer