# Release Notes - v2.8.37

**Date**: 2026-02-14

## 📝 Executive Summary

```text
2.8.37 2026-02-14

- chore: bump version to 2.8.37.
- fix: resolve MariaDB socket authentication regression and restore automatic credential discovery (Issue #875).
- fix: remediate Prototype Pollution vulnerability in lodash (CVE-2021-23341) by forcing update to 4.17.23.
- test: add reproduction test for authentication discovery chain (tests/issue_875_regression.t).
- refactor: replace system calls (whoami, hostname, printenv) with native Core Perl functions.
```

## 📈 Diagnostic Growth Indicators

| Metric | Current | Progress | Status |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Total Indicators | 12 | 0 | 🛡️ |
| Efficiency Checks | 0 | 0 | 🛡️ |
| Risk Detections | 2 | 0 | 🛡️ |
| Information Points | 10 | 0 | 🛡️ |

## 🛠️ Internal Commit History

- feat(release): release 2.8.37 (17bdc40)

## ⚙️ Technical Evolutions

*Internal logic hardening (no interface or diagnostic changes).*

## ✅ Laboratory Verification Results

- [x] Automated TDD suite passed.
- [x] Multi-DB version laboratory execution validated.
- [x] Performance indicator delta analysis completed.
