In March 2023, 3CX release v18 Update 7 (stable). This version is widely known as the compromised version and in April of 2023 3CX released v18 Update 7A. This build is tagged as Alpha and 3CX states that Alpha builds should not be installed on production systems.
Following 7A, 3CX released another build, also known as 7A, this time marked Beta. Same advice to not install on production systems. In fact, 3CX continued to release Alpha and Beta (and RC) builds all the way until August 7th, when it released v18 Update 8 Final (stable).
This final build was short lived – about a day later it was pulled due to a show stopping bug for some users. On August 10th, 3CX released a hotfix build – marked as Alpha in the 3CX Management console.
On August 21st, users on the 3CX Forums reported that their servers, some running 3CX builds of Update 5, 6, and even 7 were not longer able to activate. 3CX support was quick to jump in and inform everyone that the activation server cert had been changed over the weekend, thereby preventing these builds from activating again. This means that the only non Alpha/Beta release that will activate as of August 20th was already pulled due a show stopping bug and the only solution is to install a newer Alpha version, one released 10 days before that.
The are many issues here, including not warning customers about this upcoming change, requiring customers to run an Alpha build, and not providing ample time for customers to update. But perhaps the biggest issue is that customers who cannot activate usually cannot install updates – instead they need to take a full backup and reinstall 3CX.
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