Dropbear

Tag: Security

  • WordPress 5.0.1

    While I missed the WordPress 5.0 release, it was only a few more days before there was a security release out.

    So WordPress 5.0.1 will be available in Debian soon. This is both a security update from 5.0.1 and a huge feature update from the 4.9.x versions to the 5.0 versions.

    The WordPress website, in their 5.0 announcement describe all the changes better, but one of the main things is the new editor (which I’m using as I write this).  It’s certainly cleaner, or perhaps more sparse. I’m not sure if I like it yet.

    The security fixes (there are 7) are the usual things you expect from a WordPress security update. The usual XSS and permission problems type stuff.

    I have also in the 5.0.1 Debian package removed the build dependency to libphp-phpmailer. The issue with that package is there won’t be any more security updates for the version in Debian. WordPress has an embedded version of it which *I hope* they maintain. There is an issue about the phpmailer in WordPress, so hopefully it gets fixed soon.

  • Securing WordPress with AppArmor

    WordPress is a very popular CMS. According to one report, 30% of websites use WordPress, which is an impressive feat.

    Despite this popularity, WordPress is built upon PHP which is often lacking in the security department. Add to this that the user that runs the webserver often has a fair bit of access and there is no distinguishing between the webserver code and the WordPress code and you set yourself up for troubles.

    So, let’s introduce something that not only can tell the difference between Apache running and WordPress running under it, but also limit what WordPress can access.

    As the AppArmor wiki says “AppArmor is Mandatory Access Control (MAC) like security system for Linux. AppArmor confines individual programs to a set of files, capabilities, network access and rlimits…”.  AppArmor also has this concept of hats, so your webserver code (e.g. apache) can be one hat with one policy but the WordPress PHP code has another hat and therefore another policy. For some reason, AppArmor calls a policy a profile, so wherever you see profile translate that to policy.

    The idea here is to limit what WordPress can access down to the files and directories it needs, and nothing more. What follows is how I have setup my system but you may need to tweak it, especially for some plugins.

    (more…)

  • WordPress 4.7.2

    When WordPress originally announced their latest security update, there were three security fixes. While all security updates can be serious, they didn’t seem too bad. Shortly after, they updated their announcement with a fourth and more serious security problem.

    I have looked after the Debian WordPress package for a while. This is the first time I have heard people actually having their sites hacked almost as soon as this vulnerability was announced.

    If you are running WordPress 4.7 or 4.7.1, your website is vulnerable and there are bots out there looking for it. You should immediately upgrade to 4.7.2 (or, if there is a later 4.7.x version to that).  There is now updated Debian wordpress version 4.7.2 packages for unstable, testing and stable backports.

    For stable, you are on a patched version 4.1 which doesn’t have this specific vulnerability (it was introduced in 4.7) but you should be using 4.1+dfsg-1+deb8u12 which has the fixes found in 4.7.1 ported back to 4.1 code.

  • WordPress 4.0.1 for Debian

    WordPress recently released an update that had multiple security patches for their (then) current version 4.0. This release is 4.0.1 and includes important security fixes.  The Debian packages got just uploaded, if you are running the Debian packaged wordpress, you should update to 4.0.1+dfsg-1 or later.

    I am going to look at these patches and see if they can and need to be backported to wordpress 3.6.1. Unfortunately I believe they will be. I’m also asking it to be unblocked into Jessie as it is a security fix.

    There was, at the time of writing, no CVE numbers.

  • WordPress update needed for stable too

    Yesterday I mentioned that wordpress had an important security update to 3.8.2  The particular security bugs also impact the stable Debian version of wordpress, so those patches have been backported.  I’ve uploaded the changes to the security team so hopefully there will new package soon.

    The version you are looking for will be 3.6.1+dfsg-1~deb7u2 and will be on the Debian security mirrors.

    Enhanced by Zemanta