WordPress 2.8.5 Released

It was just announced yesterday that WordPress 2.8.5 has been released, which is considered a “security hardening” release. Here are some of the updates and fixes:

• A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.
• Removal of areas within the code where PHP code in variables was evaluated.
• Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including admins.
• Retiring of the two importers of tag data from old plugins.

If you’re wondering what the difference between a “hardening release” and a “security release” is, I don’t think there is any. The only difference to me seems that people don’t seem to complain as much about hardening releases as they do security releases.

Anyway, I’m sure you know the drill by now. Make sure you take a backup beforehand (which you should be doing regularly anyway, and use the automatic upgrader or upgrade manually if necessary.

I just upgraded to 2.8.5 yesterday with the automatic upgrader and everything seems to be running smoothly.