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WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

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Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#61
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where is the CVE? What risk is there continuing to use the original plugin? Here’s the diff showing what has changed: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?new=3167679%40a...

wow, they deleted 300 lines, many giving credit to others, just to replace it with > Security - ACF defined Post Type and Taxonomy metabox callbacks no longer have access to $_POST data. (Thanks to the Automattic Security Team for the disclosure) If I was on that security team, I would be livid they used my team's name on this behavior. If this was done by that security team, their ethics are disgusting, and likely n…

[deleted]

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#62

So, ACF injected notices into everyone's dashboards to push their own legal agenda. It’s a move that reeks of self-interest more than community benefit. While everyone’s ready to grab their pitchforks at Matt, this actually sounds somewhat reasonable. Still, given its impact, this could easily be seen as a breach of trust. Definitely a move that's going to stir the pot.

What notices were these?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#63

So, ACF injected notices into everyone's dashboards to push their own legal agenda. It’s a move that reeks of self-interest more than community benefit. While everyone’s ready to grab their pitchforks at Matt, this actually sounds somewhat reasonable. Still, given its impact, this could easily be seen as a breach of trust. Definitely a move that's going to stir the pot.

Where does this claim come from? The article doesn't include it. Matt hasn't made this claim either.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but pretty sure some of the employees/volunteers are in on it or "just following orders."

Yes, no one stopped the co-funder and it's unlikely he did the fork and the change of ownership only by himself. Other people at Automattic are responsible too.

Considering how many people stayed, it's clear that they've been brainwashed to think what he's doing is ok.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#65
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where is the CVE? What risk is there continuing to use the original plugin? Here’s the diff showing what has changed: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?new=3167679%40a...

I do see various security fixes in that patch, but most of the changes are removing references and code for a "pro" version of the plugin. I'm guessing the WP security team has been pentesting any WPEngine code they could get their hands on to find an excuse to make all of these changes. The security issues do look bad (once again proving that WordPress' worst vulnerabilities come from the plugins they install) but I…

WP Engine fixed the vulnerability about a week ago [0].

The WP security team may have just backported the fix, even using the same line in their changelog [1].

[0]: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/changelog/

[1]: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?new=3164480%40a...

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#66
post #43

I just cancelled my ACF subscription as it's up for renewal in 30 days. I'll wait and see how the dust settles.

My advice would be to make plans to move away from WordPress entirely. While I think that the “supply chain attack” is hyperbolic, if technically true, it’s indicative of an organization that cares about winning more than ensuring any form of stability whatsoever to their users and clients. Beware.

Good advice, but it's a subscription I'm paying on behalf of a customer for a website I made 5 years ago. It's one of the few Wordpress websites I made as I hate the development process and the bloat of it all.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#67

So, ACF injected notices into everyone's dashboards to push their own legal agenda. It’s a move that reeks of self-interest more than community benefit. While everyone’s ready to grab their pitchforks at Matt, this actually sounds somewhat reasonable. Still, given its impact, this could easily be seen as a breach of trust. Definitely a move that's going to stir the pot.

They should do that for all plugins that do it then, if it’s reasonable, right? Which is a lot of plugins.

PS: isn’t WooCommerce doing the exact same?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#68
post #31

The appropriate twist here would be to have WPEngine find a trusted third party (one or more), start a foundation together and successfully fork wordpress.

I think Matt would be quite happy with that. His issue is WP Engine not contributing to WordPress. If they decide to maintain a fork and infrastructure, they won't be freeloading anymore. Edit: That attracted a lot of downvotes. I was giving my option in response to the parent comment. In my option Automattic would be happy if they forked it.

WPE contributes to WordPress; Matt is just full of shit on this. It's an excuse, not a reason.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#69
post #31

The appropriate twist here would be to have WPEngine find a trusted third party (one or more), start a foundation together and successfully fork wordpress.

Didn't this whole thing start because Automattic was complaining that WPEngine wasn't contributing much to the Wordpress development but competing with them for free?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have the worst social media team I have ever seen: https://x.com/WordPress/status/1845121130207535524

Who is she, though?

1. It doesn't matter.

2. It takes one click to find out that she's the "founder of http://Client-Portal.io, a WP plugin for freelancers to use with their clients to keep track of all the deliverables in a centralized portal"

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