A week after WordPress 5.0 was released a new update has been announced.
WordPress 5.0.1 is a security release which resolves several vulnerabilities found in all versions since WordPress 3.7.
As with any security release – it’s important that you update immediately.
As a “minor version” update – WordPress will automatically install the update (if automatically updates haven’t been disabled). But it’s advised to check that the update has installed and your site is still functioning.
What does it fix?
Issues fixed in the WordPress 5.0.1 Security Release:
- authors could alter meta data to delete files that they weren’t authorised to
- authors could create posts of unauthorised post types with specially crafted input
- contributors could craft meta data in a way that resulted in PHP object injection
- contributors could edit new comments from higher-privileged users, potentially leading to a cross-site scripting vulnerability
- specially crafted URL inputs could lead to a cross-site scripting vulnerability in some circumstances. WordPress itself was not affected, but plugins could be in some situations.
- the user activation screen could be indexed by search engines in some uncommon configurations, leading to exposure of email addresses, and in some rare cases, default generated passwords
- authors on Apache-hosted sites could upload specifically crafted files that bypass MIME verification, leading to a cross-site scripting vulnerability
What if you don’t want to use Gutenberg?
Many WordPress administrators had chosen to not install WordPress 5.0 to avoid the massive Gutenberg update.
With these vulnerabilities announced it’s important to update.
You could update to WordPress 5.0.1 and install the Classic Editor plugin to continue using WordPress mostly the same as before.
They’ve also released WordPress 4.9.9 – but you will need to manually update.
Either way – you really should update to patch these vulnerabilities.