10.31.13
Back Door (Automatic Update) in WordPress and What It Means to Techrights
Author: Ronny Siegel
Summary: Techrights is moving to Drupal now that WordPress introduces back doors as part of the core package
Techrights was always a WordPress-based Web site. I have been with the WordPress for nearly a decade and I met its co-founder (Mike Little) for coffee about 8 years ago, back when I was more actively involved in the development side. That was around the time this Web site started. It used WordPress 2.0 for quite a few years (and since the very start) because this version was a long-term support release (as required for inclusion in Debian GNU/Linux software respositories). Contrary to some smears and lies, Techrights never got cracked in any way whatsoever. It’s build very securely and only DDOS attacks took it down. Around 2009 there was an upgrade which resulted in very little change to the site’s appearance as consistency was a priority. In response to DDOS attacks it also added a cache proxy and more CPU cores. To the outsider (visitor), this site today looks very similar to how it looked 7 years ago. But this aging look makes it less suitable for its breadth. In fact, a blogging platform was outgrown when we added a Wiki (later in the same year) and now we deal with issues of organisational nature. WordPress has just had a release with automatic updates [1,2] (security risk in itself, but it’s toggled off by default, for now) and there is already a bugfix release [3], which in many cases will get installed automatically even though it has no security-related fixes. This can be risky if the update mechanism gets hijacked (as has happened before to other companies). Governments can compel companies to misuse this mechanism or secretly take over it* in order to install Trojan horses in the background (targeting particular sites). In any event, automatic updates come with risks that are backdoor-like; Drupal, a European project, does not have this issue, at least not yet. The front page of this site is now Drupal-powered and it is a sign of things to come. The plan is — one way or another — to make Drupal the primary component of the site without disrupting or even changing the old pages. The transition can be slow, but we’re determined to make it happen. █
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* The NSA is good at covert action and Automattic would be easy pickings for it, not just because it’s US-based (packets can be sniffed and decrypted for passwords). While I have enormous trust and respect for Matt Mullenweg, who is a charming man of integrity, I very much doubt he can challenge his government technically and legally. An intervention-free remote update mechanism is a trade-off between security and so-called ‘national security’ (the oppressors’ power). Remember that WordPress got backdoored once before (core — not plugins — in version 2.1.1). Linux too was a victim, a few years earlier (it was developed and hosted in the United States at the time). The very existence of backdoor-like mechanism is begging to be abused. Experience teaches that it does get abused, and far more often than most of us choose to believe. The more subversive sites become, the bigger a target they become for authorities’ ‘legalised’ cracking teams.
Related/contextual items from the news:
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WordPress 3.7 introduces automatic updates
The WordPress team has announced the release of version 3.7 which makes WordPress more secure. The release is named “Basie” in honor of Count Basie.
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WordPress 3.7 Debuts, Improving Security for Millions
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WordPress 3.7.1 Maintenance Release
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