WordPress 4.1.2 Security Release

WordPress 4.1.2 Security Release

Posted April 21, 2015 by Gary Pendergast. Filed under Releases, Security.

WordPress 4.1.2 is now available. This is a critical security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.
WordPress versions 4.1.1 and earlier are affected by a critical cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could enable anonymous users to compromise a site. This was reported by Cedric Van Bockhaven and fixed by Gary Pendergast, Mike Adams, and Andrew Nacin of the WordPress security team.
We also fixed three other security issues:

• In WordPress 4.1 and higher, files with invalid or unsafe names could be uploaded. Discovered by Michael Kapfer and Sebastian Kraemer of HSASec.
• In WordPress 3.9 and higher, a very limited cross-site scripting vulnerability could be used as part of a social engineering attack. Discovered by Jakub Zoczek.
• Some plugins were vulnerable to an SQL injection vulnerability. Discovered by Ben Bidner of the WordPress security team.

We also made four hardening changes, discovered by J.D. Grimes, Divyesh Prajapati, Allan Collins, Marc-Alexandre Montpas and Jeff Bowen.
We appreciated the responsible disclosure of these issues directly to our security team. For more information, see the release notes or consult the list of changes.
Download WordPress 4.1.2 or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and simply click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update to WordPress 4.1.2.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to 4.1.2: Allan Collins, Alex Concha, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Ozz, Ben Bidner, Boone Gorges, Dion Hulse, Dominik Schilling, Drew Jaynes, Gary Pendergast, Helen Hou-Sandí, John Blackbourn, and Mike Adams.
A number of plugins also released security fixes yesterday. Keep everything updated to stay secure. If you’re a plugin author, please read this post to confirm that your plugin is not affected by the same issue. Thank you to all of the plugin authors who worked closely with our security team to ensure a coordinated response.

WordPress 4.2 “Powell”

WordPress 4.2 “Powell”

 Version 4.2 of WordPress, named “Powell” in honor of jazz pianist Bud Powell, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.2 help you communicate and share, globally.

Clip it, edit it, publish it. Get familiar with the new and improved Press This. From the Tools menu, add Press This to your browser bookmark bar or your mobile device home screen. Once installed you can share your content with lightning speed. Sharing your favorite videos, images, and content has never been this fast or this easy.

Writing in WordPress, whatever your language, just got better. WordPress 4.2 supports a host of new characters out-of-the-box, including native Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters, musical and mathematical symbols, and hieroglyphs.

Don’t use any of those characters? You can still have fun — emoji are now available in WordPress! Get creative and decorate your content with , , , , and all the many other emoji.