WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release Now Available

Following the release of WordPress 4.7 on December 6, the WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release is now available to all WordPress users. According to a post by WordPress Core Contributor Aaron D. Campbell, “WordPress 4.7 has been downloaded over 10 million times since it’s release.” The WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release is a security release for all previous versions of WordPress and it is best you update your websites as soon as possible.

Apparently, 8 security issues were affecting WordPress 4.7:

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 reported to PHPMailer by 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.

Aaron thanked the reporters for practicing responsible disclosure.

Additionally, WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release fixes 62 bugs from WordPress 4.7. For more information, you can see the release notes or consult the list of changes.

You can download WordPress 4.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and simply click “Update Now.” Websites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update to WordPress 4.7.1.

Featured Image Credit: Rita Morais