Recently, encryption was implemented in the RCON system, but the command line initialization code wasn't adapted to this new logic. Code has now been adapted.
RCON lacked encryption, added AES-CTR encryption on RCON frames. Slightly adjusted protocol to take this into account (sending nonces, encrypted data itself, etc).
* Fix multiple issues related to threading, such as not locking the mutex when using thread-unsafe members or methods.
* Netconsole now logs its output to a file on the disk.
* Properly handle close events, to allow netconsole to shutdown properly, so stuff like log buffers could flush properly. Input is now ran in a separate thread so main thread could check if we need to shutdown, and do so if needed. This was needed as previously input was ran in the main thread and the issue is that its blocking until an input is given.
* Decoding and encoding is done into a single buffer, from raw buffers to avoid extraneous copies.
* Added base class holding all core logic for encoding, decoding, receiving and processing of the RCON protocol. This code was initially identical between all implementations of RCON, deduplicating this avoids bugs.
* Added more sophisticated error handling, stop right away when decoding for example fails.
* Added ability to have more than one active authenticated net console on the server. Controlled by cvar 'sv_rcon_maxconnections' (default 1).
* Max packet size for accepted, but not authenticated sockets is now controled by cvar 'sv_rcon_maxpacketsize' (default 1024).
RCON upgrade with additional logging system improvements:
* Netconsole's can now log received messages in color, even when the RCON server has ANSI colors disabled; logs are fully composed locally.
* RCON server now also sends the log type over the wire, along with the (already existing) context.
* SDK logging code is now shared with the standalone netconsole application.
* Improved logging readability for the standalone netconsole application.
* Use game's CNetAdr RCON and socket creator.
* Add support for constructing host from [ip]:port format in the netconsole client.
* Pass 'netadr_t' parameter by reference to 'CSocketCreator::OnSocketAccepted'.
* Used 'htonl'/'ntohl' for constructing the length prefix.
* Used static socket/address members instead of pointers.
* Used const qualifier where possible.
* Changed length prefix field type to 'u_long'.
* Removed extraneous include.
* Properly escaped percentage characters on the RCON game client for the ImGui console.
* Only run '_DownloadPlaylists_f()' in the main thread, schedule for next frame if we aren't in the main thread. (this should fix crash cases related to disconnecting from the game).
* Locked read/write to CBrowser members (thread for obtaining the server list is detached, but once the 'slow' post operation in this thread is complete, mutex lock is acquired (locking the render thread if the browser is active) to set the string members of CBrowser, this operation is very fast as we only set the string and the color after the http post operation (this never caused a crash, but the behavior without any lock mechanism is technically undefined regardless).
* Obtain the host name dynamically from the ConVar 'pylon_matchmaking_hostname' (atomic operation). Initial approach was deleting the whole master server pointer just to construct a new httpclient object..
* Implemented robust length-prefix framing logic for non-blocking sockets (previously used character sequences to determine length, but you cannot use character sequences on protocol buffers as its binary data. This logic should fix all problems regarding some commands not getting networked properly to the server and stuff not getting printed on the client).
* Increased buffer size to std::vector::max_size when netconsole is authenticated (MAX_NETCONSOLE_INPUT_LEN still remains enforced on accepted but not authenticated connections to prevent attackers from crashing the server).
* Process max 1024 bytes each recv buffer iteration.
* Additional optimizations and cleanup.
** SERVER **
* Close redundant connections if max sockets have been reached.
* Ban if client keeps spamming without authing first (ignoring message).
* Check for whitelisted address before issuing bans (whitelisted address in ConVar 'sv_rcon_whitelist_address' will never get banned or get its connection terminated.
* Transmit SQVM and DevMsg logs over the wire to the net console.
** NETCON **
* IPv6 support.
* Close connection properly after FIN request.
* Prompt user to reconnect after connection has been terminated instead of closing the application.
* Add proper quit command.
** SDKLAUNCHER **
* Rename to 'launcher.exe' to describe its purpose better. Our logo gets printed nice and large on the console during startup.
** SDK **
* Cleanup.
* Fully rewritten protocol agnostic CNetAdr class
* Fully rebuilded legacy CNetAdr class
* Fully rebuilded dual-stack CSocketCreator class
* New project "netconsole" added (lightweight netconsole for RCON)
RCON is still work in progress
