WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release

This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.

WordPress versions 4.7 and earlier are affected by eight security issues:

  1. Remote code execution (RCE) in PHPMailer – No specific issue appears to affect WordPress or any of the major plugins we investigated but, out of an abundance of caution, we updated PHPMailer in this release. This issue was fixed in PHPMailer thanks to Dawid Golunski and Paul Buonopane.
  2. The REST API exposed user data for all users who had authored a post of a public post type. WordPress 4.7.1 limits this to only post types which have specified that they should be shown within the REST API. Reported by Krogsgard and Chris Jean.
  3. Cross-site scripting (XSS) via the plugin name or version header on update-core.php. Reported by Dominik Schilling of the WordPress Security Team.
  4. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) bypass via uploading a Flash file. Reported by Abdullah Hussam.
  5. Cross-site scripting (XSS) via theme name fallback. Reported by Mehmet Ince.
  6. Post via email checks mail.example.com if default settings aren’t changed. Reported by John Blackbourn of the WordPress Security Team.
  7. A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) was discovered in the accessibility mode of widget editing. Reported by Ronnie Skansing.
  8. Weak cryptographic security for multisite activation key. Reported by Jack.

Thank you to the reporters for practicing responsible disclosure.

In addition to the security issues above, WordPress 4.7.1 fixes 62 bugs from 4.7. For more information, see the release notes or consult the list of changes.

Download WordPress 4.7.1 or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and simply click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update to WordPress 4.7.1.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2017 at 4:35 pm. It is filed under Security, Updates, WordPress and tagged with , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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