WordPress To Show Warnings on Servers Running Outdated PHP Versions (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @06:02AM from the enough-is-enough dept.

The WordPress open-source content management system (CMS) will show warnings in its backend admin panel if the site runs on top of an outdated PHP version. From a report: The current plan is to have the warnings appear for sites using a PHP version prior to the 5.6.x branch (5.6 or lower). The warnings will contain a link to a WordPress support page with information on how site owners can update their server's underlying PHP version. In instances where site owners are running their WordPress portals on top of tightly-controlled web hosting environments, the web host has the option to change this link with a custom URL pointing at its own support site. [...] Around 66.7 percent of all Internet sites run an unsupported PHP version, according to W3Techs. Almost a quarter of all internet sites run on top of a WordPress CMS.

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Higher noise floor by WoodstockJeff · 2019-01-15 08:49 · Score: 4, Informative

One of the things that pops up in regular security audits is that the version of PHP or SQL we use "has bugs", and we should update immediately. When pressed to tell us which bugs make it insecure, we get a list... which does not include any features we use. And when they try to exploit the vulnerability, they find that it doesn't work... since they can't trigger something that isn't there.
It doesn't mean we do not move forward - just that, if you write good code to begin with, the bugs are not a factor.
It also means that we do not use ANY outside libraries, because we cannot control how well THEY were written. Hence, no Wordpress on any of our servers!