Weekly WordPress News: Vulnerabilities in Some Popular WordPress Plugins

Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, it was a bit quiet, though.

There’s a new Slack channel for full-time sponsored WordPress contributors, which generated some debate on Twitter and at WP Tavern.

Beyond that, there were some vulnerabilities in some popular WordPress plugins – always a good reminder to promptly apply updates for your extensions.

Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news…

WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES

• New Private Slack Channel Created for Full-Time Sponsored WordPress Contributors – what do you think about private channels?
• WordPress Vulnerability Report: March 2021, Part 3 – another report from iThemes.
• Eksell Portfolio Theme Now Available in WordPress Themes Directory – looks like a great new theme.
• Why You Should Use Cloudflare for All Your Websites – thoughts on the importance of Cloudflare.
• Extendify Acquires Editor Plus, Introduces Commercial Templates in Its Plan To Improve Block Editing – another WordPress acquisition.
• Recently Patched Vulnerability in Thrive Themes Actively Exploited in the Wild – if you’re using any Thrive Themes products, make sure to update ASAP.
• Two Vulnerabilities Patched in Facebook for WordPress Plugin – make sure to update if you’re using the official Facebook plugin.
• Astra Introduces Gutenberg Block Patterns in Starter Templates – the easiest way to design Gutenberg websites using block patterns.

TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS

• How to Create an Elementor Register Form for Free (and Customize It) – no need for Elementor Pro.
• PHP and cURL: How WordPress makes HTTP requests – learn how WordPress works.
• How to Add Star Rating Fields to Meta Box – as the title says.
• How to Automate Tasks with WordPress Cron Job – learn how to save time with Cron.
• Your Complete Guide to HTML Fonts (or Web Fonts) – learn about web fonts.
• Headless WordPress Use Cases: Who Should Use It and for What? – learn about headless WordPress.

RESOURCES

• Meta Box lifetime AppSumo deal ($49) – get lifetime access to Meta Box for one low price.
• Rootpal lifetime hosting AppSumo deal ($100) – get lifetime hosting for just $100. I would never recommend this for serious sites but it could be a useful testing environment.
• Choosing the best WordPress themes – a new episode of Matt Report.