WordPress hardens release

WordPress, maker of the popular blogging portal, announced Tuesday the availability of version 2.8.5, which is being termed a "hardening release." WordPress developer Peter Westwood said Tuesday on a company blog that engineers preparing the yet-to-be-released version 2.9 decided to "back-port" some of the security upgrades so users of 2.8 can utilize a product better immune to exploits. The changes include a fix for a live "trackback" denial-of-service attack, as well some coding and file upload functionality adjustments. WordPress has dealt with a number of security issues this year, most recently a worm that spread through unpatched, older versions. — DK