WordPress 3.3.1 Security Update Available

A new version of the popular blogging software WordPress has just been released. WordPress admins should already see update notifications in the dashboards of the blogs that they administrate. The update is also already advertised on the official WordPress website.

It is as usually possible to update the blog right away from within the admin dashboard if it has been configured for that, or via file transfer clients if the former option is not available.

The blog post that announces the new version of WordPress mentions 15 maintenance related fixes and one security related fix that have been applied to the new version. It fails to go into detail but links to the bug tracker listing which details every fix except for the security issue.

At least one of the issues that have been fixed in WordPress 3.3.1 seem to have affected this site. I was recently noticing issues with the author biographies not being displayed anymore on article pages, and it took a whole day to find a working workaround. It appears now that this was a bug that got fixed with this new WordPress release.

The security vulnerability is only briefly mentioned in the blog post where it is described as a cross-site scripting vulnerability that is affecting WordPress version 3.3.

The WordPress Codex lists all files that have been revised in the new version. It is theoretically possible to only upload those files to the site to save time and bandwidth.

I have already updated several WordPress sites to version 3.3.1 and did not notice any odd behavior or issues with the updating or site operation.

WordPress admins are encouraged to update their blogs as soon as possible to protect it from the security vulnerability and to resolve the stability issues that have been fixed with the update.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2012. | Permalink |
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WordPress 3.3 Now Available

The developers of the popular blogging platform WordPress have released version 3.3 just a few minutes ago. WordPress 3.3 update notifications should appear right in the admin interface of the blog. Users can use the internal updater to update from within the admin interface, or by downloading the new version from the official site to update manually.

The What’s New page at the WordPress Codex highlights the – many – changes of the new version. WordPress admins will instantly notice several changes to the applications admin interface. A new toolbar is displayed on top of the dashboard that combines the features of the admin bar and the admin header.

The new bar links directly to plugin and theme updates, comments awaiting moderation and the New menu with options to create new content on the blog. (There is a function to remove some of the elements that are shown in the admin bar. Credits to Sergej Müller)

Another change are “fly-out” menus in the admin interface. All submenus of a menu are displayed when you hoover the mouse over the menu. This saves a click and improves the admin’s workflow.

WordPress editors will notice a new file uploader. The developers have done away with the four upload buttons for specific type of media, and replaced it with a single button. The new uploader supports drag and drop operations and file browsing to select files to upload. Support for rar and 7z files have been added to the file uploader.

WordPress admins who switch between themes regularly will notice that widgets are not lost anymore when they do that.

A video has been created that highlights several of the new features.

The WordPress backend has been updated as well with hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements. It is to early to tell if the improvements will have a significant impact on the blog’s server resource usage or loading times.

Have you updated your blog to WordPress 3.3 yet? If so, what do you think of the new version?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: blog, wordpress, wordpress update