ACF Plugin’s Reflected XSS Vulnerability Attracts Exploit Attempts Within 24 Hours of Public Announcement

On May 5, Patchstack published a security advisory about a high severity reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ACF (Advanced Custom Fields), potentially affecting more than 4.5 million users. WP Engine patched the vulnerability on May 4, but the Akamai Security Intelligence Group (SIG)  is reporting that attackers began attempting to exploit it within 24 hours of Patchstack’s publication. “Once …

Themeum Acquires Kirki Customizer Framework Plugin

Themeum, a WordPress theme and plugin company founded in 2013, has acquired the Kirki Customizer Framework plugin from its former developer, David Vongries. In April 2023, Vongries announced he was sunsetting the product and discontinuing development. He put the plugin up for sale for $30K and sold it for just under the asking price. “I met the Themeum team at WordCamp Europe …

11 Ways ChatGPT Can Help You As a WordPress Developer

With the evolution of AI technologies like ChatGPT, many questions linger about the future of WordPress development and how AI can actually help – not hurt – your job or business. Sophisticated artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can perform many tasks that previously required human intelligence. If you’re concerned about AI eventually replacing you and taking your job (we’ve written before …

Essential Addons for Elementor Patches Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Essential Addons for Elementor, a plugin with more than a million active installs, has patched an unauthenticated privilege escalation vulnerability in version 5.7.2. The vulnerability was discovered on May 8, 2023, and reported by Patchstack researcher Rafie Muhammad. It was given a 9.8 (Critical severity) CVSS 3.1 score and is not yet known to have been exploited. Muhammad outlined the vulnerability …

WordPress Community Team Evolves WordCamp Format to Promote Adoption, Training, and Networking for Professionals

WordPress’ Community Team hailed a new era of WordCamps in its recent announcement outlining a significant shift in the purpose for the events. In the past, WordCamps have had a mostly predictable format of presenting inspirational talks on exciting things people are doing with WordPress, business topics, and the latest trends, with short networking opportunities and a contributor day appended …

WordPress Contributors Discuss How Core Can Better Enable AI Innovation

As AI-powered technology is rapidly evolving to exponentially extend human capabilities, WordPress contributors do not want the platform to get left behind. AI-powered website creation could even become a threat to its existence, more than a competing CMS, if WordPress doesn’t ensure the platform is easily pluggable for AI-powered extensions. A new discussion on the Core developer’s blog asks what …