WordPress Update: The Menace Series

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WordPress update

In a series of blunders, the WordPress development team pushed a flawed WordPress update. Under that update, it became impossible for users to install new WordPress sites. The fiasco did not just end here — in an attempt to fix the issue, and it triggered a series of menace. The development team paused the update to fix the disarray.

WordPress Update 5.5.2 — The Flawed Security Update

Under a routine update, where the critical security issues were to address, the whole mess began on October 29, 2020. Under the update, WordPress 5.5.2, problems like Cross-Site Request Forgeries, XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks and more were supposed to be worked over and prevented.

Things got worse when the update hosted a bug that caused all the new WordPress installations to fail.

Subsequently, WordPress stopped the circulation of the issues version to reach out to more sites. To make the situation more unfortunate, a rogue update pushed itself out automatically and things got out of control.

The Accidental Pushed Out Update: WordPress Alpha

There was an immediate stop put to all the WordPress updates of the version 5.5.2. Whilst the WordPress team was head over heels trying to fix the issues in the version and push out WordPress 5.5.3, and the automated WordPress system began pushing an update all over again.

When the WordPress 5.5.2 version began unavailable, WordPress auto-updates system selected an Alpha version of WordPress to be downloaded and installed. This Alpha version was not meant to be pushed out through auto-updates.

WordPress update

So, What Went Wrong?

There is no formal documentation available on the query on how to stop a WordPress update. Subsequently, when the WordPress team attempted to halt the update, it opened the route for the Alpha version to begin rolling out.

Now, the WordPress team has addressed the issue, and they commit that this situation will not repeat in the future.

WordPress 5.5.3 Alpha Bugs

After the WordPress Alpha installation, the primary issue was that the update introduced additional WordPress themes and installed Akismet.

There was nothing wrong with the availability of those themes; however, it may burden a few developers who will choose not to delete them. In the future, a failure to update those themes could trigger a security risk.

For the Alpha release, a web page was published which was labelled as WordPress Version 5.4.3. The updated 5.4.3 page seemed to be inaccurate as the document was identical to the information posted for WordPress Version 5.5.2.

WordPress 5.5.3

Put together all the expectations we hoped from the WordPress Version 5.5.2; you will find everything in Version 5.5.3. Yes and indeed excluding all the related problems.  The WordPress 5.5.3 version fixes all the glitches introduced in the previous 5.5.2 version.

Check Your WordPress Installation

There were security issues in the versions before 5.5.2, so it is highly recommended to all the publishers to perform WordPress update to Version 5.5.3 at earliest; the latest WordPress version. 

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