If you use Akismet to battle comment spam, make sure it’s running version 3.1.5 as it patches a critical security vulnerability. Due to the nature of the bug, the Akismet team pushed out auto updates to sites that can accept them. According to Sucuri, sites using Akismet 3.1.4 and lower and that have the Convert…
If you’ve noticed an influx of brute force attacks on your site, you’re not the only one. Sucuri is reporting that brute force amplification attacks are targeting WordPress sites with XML-RPC enabled. In a nutshell, XML-RPC contains a system.multicall method which allows developers to execute multiple methods and commands inside a single request. What is…
The WordPress.tv team is requesting feedback on what features you’d like to see in a website redesign. Jerry Bates, volunteer moderator for WordPress.tv, says one of the goals for 2016 is to update the site to better showcase content from WordCamps around the world. While plans are underway, the team wants to know what you…
A few hours ago, Ryan McCue, one of the lead developers of the WordPress REST API project who recently received guest commit access for WordPress 4.4, committed a patch that adds the REST API infrastructure to WordPress core. In his commit message, McCue referred to the infrastructure as a baby API: REST API: Introduce baby…
In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I are joined by Drew Jaynes, WordPress core contributor. We discuss a wide range of topics, from Jaynes’ opinions on Scott Taylor’s work on WordPress 4.4 thus far to his trip to WordCamp Capetown Africa, 2015. We go in-depth on 10up’s investments in WordPress and discuss…
When the WordPress theme directory was redesigned earlier this year, a common request from readers was the ability to favorite themes as you can with plugins. This feature was also suggested by Mario Pesehv two years ago. On July 22nd, Dion Hulse committed a change with little fanfare to the WordPress theme directory that allows…
Just about every time we publish an article about Jetpack, one or more readers leaves a comment similar to the following, I don’t use Jetpack because it slows down my site. Many of the comments don’t link to or provide data that backs up their claim. Outside of the benchmarks produced by the BruteProtect team…
In the last two years, 10up, a web design and development agency has contributed to WordPress in significant ways. From sponsoring Helen Hou-Sandi to work full-time on WordPress core, to sponsoring Drew Jaynes to lead the WordPress 4.2 development cycle. In a post published on the company’s blog, 10up announced it will continue to invest…
At the end of 2014, Jetpack 3.3 introduced a centralized dashboard that enables users to manage Jetpack powered sites. At the time, you could only do the following: Plugin management: Turn plugins on or off with one click — per site or in bulk. Initiate plugin updates: Update plugins for a single site or all…
This post was contributed by Tom J Nowell. Tom is a VIP Wrangler at WordPress.com VIP, lead of the WP The Right Way project, blogger, and community moderator at WordPress Stack Exchange. Tom will be speaking at WordCamp New York later this month on escaping and security. This is a story about my job as…
Earlier this week, WordPress video training site WP101, founded by Shawn Hesketh, turned seven years old. Since launching in 2008, Hesketh’s videos have been viewed more than a million times by over 500k people. He’s also re-recorded the videos that make up the WP101 series 17 times. With seven years of experience under his belt,…
It was a warm, sunny afternoon in Tempe, AZ as I walked with a group of GoDaddy employees on our way to lunch during Pressnomics 3 earlier this year. It’s the first time I met Mendel Kurland, Christopher Carfi, and Kurt Payne in person. During lunch, we discussed a number of topics from the efforts…
Jetpack 3.7.2 is available for download and patches two security vulnerabilities. The first is a cross-site scripting vulnerability in the contact form due to improper input sanitation that affects Jetpack 3.7.0 and below. Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri is credited with responsibly disclosing the vulnerability. The second is an information disclosure vulnerability present in certain hosting…
In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I discuss the death of Alex King who was a pillar of the WordPress project. King passed away a few days ago from colon cancer. We share stories of meeting and discussing WordPress topics with King and describe his many contributions to WordPress. King will be…
Last week, I shared the lessons I learned and the drawbacks to moderating comments in WordPress. In this post, I highlight six plugins that solve a problem I encountered or enhance comments for both readers and site administrators. All of the plugins are free of charge and available from the WordPress plugin directory. Problem Solvers…