WordPress 3.1.4 and 3.2 RC3 have been released. WordPress 3.1.4 is primarily a security release which addresses one particular issue and “also incorporates several other security fixes and hardening measures.”
WordPress 3.2 RC3 is described as “about all that stood in the way of a final release of WordPress 3.2.” It contains a few minor fixes and the same security improvements from 3.1.4.
If you’re still on the 3.1 branch, update now to secure your blog. If you’re curious about 3.2, or you’re a theme or plugin developer, grab the Beta Tester plugin now to try it out.
WordPress 3.2 is almost here! Can you feel the excitement in the air?
James,
This is a test comment. I don’t think any of mine are getting through. Just had a question about whether or not this newest update provides any sort of protection against the compromised plugins you mentioned the other day. I think W3 Total Cache was one of those plugins. Just curious. Any feedback is appreciated.
I don’t see anything specific to that, but I’m also not 100% clear on the plugin exploits. As mentioned when the issue was reported, upgrading your plugins will be sufficient.
Great, thanks for the reply, James. I’ll be sure to update them ASAP.
The update for 3.1.4 seemed to go under the radar. My dashboard did not indicate that updates were available, but after I saw this post, I clicked on updates (even though there was no count) and saw that it was available
The Updates section of the Dashboard is not actually notified of updates. It checks on its own according to a set schedule and if you visit the page directly.
By now, most folks should see the update automatically.
James,does the 3.2 update just affect the backend in other words will it change the theme of my wordpress site? I’ve been hesitant to update because I dont want to take a chance of corrupting files
It shouldn’t affect your theme. If it does, that would mean that your theme was several years out of date and used discontinued functions, so it was probably time for a new theme anyway. 🙂
WordPress releases (major revision numbers) have become so frequent that I have lost track of what has changed. Is there a way to upgrade only minor revisions (security fixes) and ignore the messages for major revision updates? Just too many updates happening to be excited about, IMO. And then WP keeps on screaming to upgrade to the latest and greatest.
Well, staying on the latest and greatest is really the only way to stay secure. If things continue as they have before, security updates will stop being made to the 3.1 branch once 3.2 is release and so on.