Behind the Scenes of WordPress 4.2.3 With Gary Pendergast

When WordPress 4.2.3 was released last week, not only did it patch a critical security vulnerability, but also adversely impacted a number of sites. Changes to the Shortcode API which were necessary as part of the patch caused some plugins that rely on the API to break. These changes were not immediately communicated to plugin developers. Nearly eight hours after its release, a post published on the Make WordPress Core blog explained the changes.

The release process of WordPress 4.2.3 left plugin authors and users scratching their heads. On one hand, point releases are not supposed to break anything. On the other, affected plugin authors were left in the dark for nearly eight hours wondering why a point release broke their plugins.

Gary Pendergast who works for Automattic, is a WordPress core contributor, and a member of the WordPress core security team, reached out to me for an interview. In the following conversation, we discuss what happened behind the scenes before 4.2.3 was released.

He clears up some confusion on when the changes to the Shortcode API were implemented. He also admits the team made some mistakes and has already implemented changes to improve the release process. One of those changes includes publishing a post on the Make WordPress Core blog as soon as the update is pushed out to sites.

I appreciate and thank Pendergast for reaching out to me to have this conversation. I look forward to similar collaborations with members of the core team in the future. A transcription of this interview is not available but if you have it transcribed and would like to make it available to the public, please contact me.

[powerpress]