Editing BitchX

{{short description|Free IRC client}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = BitchX
| logo                   = BitchX logo - ACiD.png
| screenshot             =
| caption                = BitchX [[ANSI art|ANSI]] [[splash screen]] (one of several in rotation).
| developer              = Colten Edwards (panasync) and Kevin Easton (caf)
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q804092|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date    = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q804092|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}
| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q804092|P348|P548=Q51930650}}
| latest preview date    = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q804092|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}
| operating_system       = Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, Windows, OS X
| programming language   = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| genre                  = [[IRC client]]
| license                = [[3 clause BSD license|BSD-3-Clause]] [[GPLv2|GNU General Public License]]
| website                = {{URL|https://bitchx.sourceforge.net}}
}}
'''BitchX''' {{IPAc-en|'|b|I|tʃ|ɛ|k|s|}} is a [[free software|free]] [[IRC]] [[Client (computing)|client]]<ref name="cnn-1">{{cite news | url= http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/16/linux.idg/index.html | title=Opinion: Get online for (free) Linux support! | publisher=[[CNN]] | date=June 17, 1999 | access-date=Sep 29, 2009}} ("If you're already using Linux, then you have your choice of several (IRC) clients. BitchX is a popular one.")</ref> that has been regarded as the most popular [[ircII]]-based IRC client.<ref name="the book of irc">{{cite book |last       = Charalabidis
 |first      = Alex
 |title      = The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat
 |edition    = 1st
 |date       = 1999-12-15
 |publisher  = No Starch Press
 |location   = [[San Francisco, California]]
 |isbn       = 1-886411-29-8
 |pages      = [https://archive.org/details/bookofirc00char/page/44 44–45]
 |chapter    = Unix Clients: BitchX
 |chapter-url-access = registration
 |chapter-url        = https://archive.org/details/bookofirc00char/page/44
}}</ref> The initial implementation, written by "Trench" and "HappyCrappy", was a [[script (computer programming)|script]] for the IrcII chat client.<ref name="the book of irc" /> It was converted to a program in its own right by panasync (Colten Edwards). BitchX 1.1 final was released in 2004. It is written in [[C (programming language)|C]] and is a [[Text-based user interface|TUI application]] utilizing [[ncurses]]. [[GTK+]] toolkit support has been dropped. It works on all [[Unix-like]] operating systems, and is distributed under a [[BSD licenses|BSD license]]. It was originally based on ircII-EPIC,<ref name="the book of irc" /> and eventually it was merged into the [[Enhanced Programmable ircII Client|EPIC IRC client]]. It supports [[IPv6]],<ref>{{cite book |title=IPv6: Theory, Protocol, and Practice |author=Peter Loshin |year=2004 |publisher=Morgan Kaufmann |page=316 |isbn=9780080495873 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6dlixBQyP4C&dq=BitchX&pg=PA316}}</ref> multiple servers and [[Secure Sockets Layer|SSL]], and a subset of [[UTF-8]] (characters contained in [[ISO/IEC 8859-1|ISO-8859-1]]) with an [[unofficial patch]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3204631&group_id=217909&atid=1041465 |title=bitchx: Detail: 3204631 - Add UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1 conversion in output text |publisher=SourceForge.net |date=2011-03-09 |access-date=2011-07-09}}</ref>

On several occasions, BitchX has been noted to be a popular IRC client for Unix-like systems.<ref name="cnn-1"/><ref name="ircreviews">[http://www.ircreviews.org/clients/bitchx.html Review:BitchX (Amiga)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181207102937/http://www.ircreviews.org/clients/bitchx.html |date=2018-12-07 }}, IRCreviews.org, Retrieved 2009-09-29 ("BitchX is favoured by many more experienced IRC users")</ref><ref name="osdir-1">[http://www.osdir.com/Article4735.phtml A Day in the Life of #Apache] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316020332/http://www.osdir.com/Article4735.phtml |date=2016-03-16 }}, OSDir.com (March 25, 2005), Retrieved 2009-09-29 ("XChat, mIRC, and bitchx are several popular clients")</ref><ref name="overclockers">[http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/ircguide/ How to use IRC guide], Overclockersclub.com (Dec. 4, 2006), Retrieved 2009-09-29 ("There are many different clients available, some of the more popular ones include BitchX, XChat, Trillian, BeserIRC, Klient ....")</ref><ref name="broadbandreports">[http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/5165 What about P2P on *nix?], Broadbandreports.com (Sept. 13, 2002), Retrieved 2009-09-29 ("There are several IRC clients for Linux. Among the best are X-Chat and BitchX.")</ref><ref name="linuxhelp">[http://www.linuxhelp.net/guides/bitchx/ BitchX Configuration Guide], Linuxhelp.net (last updated Sept. 19, 2003), Retrieved 2009-09-29 ("BitchX is one of the most popular IRC Client available today for *nix systems.")</ref>

The latest official release is version 1.2.

BitchX does not yet support Unicode.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/BitchX/BitchX1.2/wiki#ansiutf8|title=BitchX wiki on GitHub: ANSI/UTF-8|website=[[GitHub]] |access-date=2016-05-13}}</ref>

== Security ==
It was known that early versions of BitchX were vulnerable to a [[denial-of-service attack]] in that they could be caused to crash by passing specially-crafted strings as arguments to certain IRC commands. This was before [[format string attack]]s became a well-known class of vulnerability.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hack Proofing Your Network |author=Ryan Russell |year=2002 |publisher=Syngress |page=329 |isbn=9781597496087 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v8bp4mvpYc4C&dq=BitchX&pg=RA2-PA329}}</ref>

The previous version of BitchX, released in 2004, has security problems allowing remote IRC servers to execute arbitrary code on the client's machine ([http://nvd.nist.gov/nvd.cfm?cvename=CVE-2007-3360 CVE-2007-3360], [http://nvd.nist.gov/nvd.cfm?cvename=CVE-2007-4584 CVE-2007-4584]).

On April 26, 2009, [[Slackware]] removed BitchX from its distribution, citing the numerous unresolved security issues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slackware.com/security/viewer.php?l=slackware-security&y=2009&m=slackware-security.285737 |title=The Slackware Linux Project: Slackware Security Advisories |publisher=Slackware.com |date=2009-04-26 |access-date=2011-07-09}}</ref>

The aforementioned vulnerabilities were fixed in the sources for the 1.2 release.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/bitchx/git/ci/a9267d071695f7baebc7ac0ede15806400314320/ |title=SourceForge.net Repository - [bitchx&#93; Revision 5 |publisher=sourceforge.net |access-date=2018-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/bitchx/git/ci/9beb1dcd55e9d4272622dd75bb8b7a4e0a147f8c |title=SourceForge.net Repository - [bitchx&#93; Revisions 6, 7 |publisher=sourceforge.net |access-date=2018-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/bitchx/git/ci/ee2fe058c20493749c99f641940ae5d3cbcdd8be |title=SourceForge.net Repository - [bitchx&#93; Revisions 11, 12, 13 |publisher=sourceforge.net |access-date=2018-01-24}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
*[[Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients]]
* [[Internet Relay Chat]]
* [[Internet Relay Chat client|Internet Relay Chat Client]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{SourceForge|bitchx|BitchX}}
* {{Freecode|bitchx|BitchX}}

{{IRC clients}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bitchx}}
[[Category:Unix IRC clients]]
[[Category:Free IRC clients]]
[[Category:IRC clients]]
[[Category:Free software programmed in C]]