WordPress 3.0.2 Security Release

Just a few minutes ago, the WordPress dev team released WordPress 3.0.2, a security release or security update that is mandatory for all self-hosted WordPress blogs.

WordPress 3.0.2 addresses a moderate security issue that could allow a malicious user with Author-level privileges to gain further access to the whole site/blog. This version also fixes several bugs and adds additional security enhancements.

WordPress 3.0.2 Bugs and Security Fixes

• Remove pingback/trackback blogroll whitelisting feature as it can easily be abused.
• Fix canonical redirection for permalinks containing %category% with nested categories and paging.
• Fix occasional irrelevant error messages on plugin activation.
• Minor XSS fixes in request_filesystem_credentials() and when deleting a plugin.
• Clarify the license in the readme
• Multisite: Fix the delete_user meta capability
• Multisite: Force current_user_can_for_blog() to run map_meta_cap() even for super admins
• Multisite: Fix ms-files.php content type headers when requesting a URL with a query string
• Multisite: Fix the usage of the SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL constant for upgraded WordPress MU installs

WordPress 3.0.2 List of Revised Files

• wp-includes/ms-files.php
• wp-includes/version.php
• wp-includes/comment.php
• wp-includes/functions.php
• wp-includes/load.php
• wp-includes/canonical.php
• wp-includes/capabilities.php
• readme.html
• wp-admin/includes/plugin.php
• wp-admin/includes/file.php
• wp-admin/includes/update-core.php
• wp-admin/plugins.php

If you have the time to do it now, don’t wait and immediately upgrade your WordPress installation to WordPress 3.0.2 especially if your blog has several author-level users. Although the WordPress dev team recommends that you upgrade immediately even if you don’t have other users or untrusted users.

You can download WordPress 3.0.2 manually from WordPress.org or do it automatically via the WordPress admin panel – Dashboard > Updates.