[Security] WordPress 2.6.2 Released

Hot off the heels of a new exploit found in WordPress 2.6.1, the WordPress developers have released an update to WordPress, version 2.6.2. This release fixes an annoying security issue where a new user can register and have the password of an existing WordPress user changed to a random password.

From the WordPress release:

Stefan Esser recently warned developers of the dangers of SQL Column Truncation and the weakness of mt_rand(). With his help we worked around these problems and are now releasing WordPress 2.6.2. If you allow open registration on your blog, you should definitely upgrade. With open registration enabled, it is possible in WordPress versions 2.6.1 and earlier to craft a username such that it will allow resetting another user’s password to a randomly generated password. The randomly generated password is not disclosed to the attacker, so this problem by itself is annoying but not a security exploit. However, this attack coupled with a weakness in the random number seeding in mt_rand() could be used to predict the randomly generated password. Stefan Esser will release details of the complete attack shortly. The attack is difficult to accomplish, but its mere possibility means we recommend upgrading to 2.6.2.

I would recommend that all users, even those that are using WordPress 2.6.1 to update to WordPress 2.6.2 as soon as possible.

Scott