Webgazette.co.uk

Yet again it’s been a while since I last posted and I’m starting to feel a little embarrassed by my lack of updates. At the moment I’m lucky to post once a month!

I don’t want this to be yet another apologetic post for not posting, so maybe a little discussion of what could happen would be better.

In fact I’ve been giving the future of this website quite a bit of thought recently. I’ve never really been happy just abandoning it while I do my studies but the problem is my studies take up most of my spare time so there is little time left for blogging. There is certainly no time for web design or WordPress themes either at the moment. And, if that wasn’t enough, there’s that little thing called work that also seems to get in the way! So there you have it - I’ve no time and too busy to blog / design / make themes etc.

The other problem is that I’ve also lost a lot of the enthusiasm I used to have for blogging due to being so busy with other things. The question has got to be, what do I do with this site? Here’s a list of some things I’ve considered:

1. Ignore it and hope it goes away
2. Delete it and start again. Yes all of it, themes and all!
3. Sell it.
4. Change topic.

I’m not sure what will work. I think the root of the problem is that I have lost a lot of the enthusiasm for blogging and I am too busy to be bothered a lot of the time. On the other hand I don’t want to see it all thrown away.

Anybody got any advice or ideas?

If you have dropped round here before you will know that I have been a little quiet recently while I have been busy studying.

I’m now glad to say that I have done the first exam and passed. Yay! There is still a long way to go so I can’t see me getting back to blogging as much as I used to do but it’s one step along the way.

Ok that’s all for now

I was surprised to find WP-Multiflex-03 listed in the post ”Top 10 Vulnerable WP Themes“on Blogsecurity.

At first I was speechless as it was quite a shock. Especially as I couldn’t see how a theme could cause vulnerabilities such as cross site scripting as it was alleged in this case.

With further research it seems that the predefined PHP variable “PHP_SELF” when used incorrectly can allow cross site scripting. See “Common WP Theme Vulnerabilities” for more info.

I am sure that this is all correct, but from what I remember of the WP-Multiflex-03 theme files it shouldn’t have any vulnerabilities!

Fortunately the guys over at Blogsecurity have set up a WordPress scanner called wp-scanner that will check WordPress and consequently the theme in use for vulnerabilities. This gave me a way to test the theme.

I set up a fresh install of WordPress and installed WP-Multiflex-03 and ran the test and it passed - no vulnerabilities! I also checked the other 4 earlier versions I have and all passed the test without vulnerabilities.

I have informed Blogsecurity about this and they have marked the theme as fixed but as far as I can see there never was a vulnerability in WP-Multiflex-03 which leads me to think that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

All I can conclude is that something is causing a vulnerability but it isn’t the theme. Blogsecurity haven’t really got to the bottom of it as they have just concluded it is the theme without verifying their findings which is a bit sloppy and not very professional for people who set themselves up as an organization dealing with blog security!

Now is there any real experts out there can make any sense of this?

Here is something I have been working on, that I have called Modrel.

What do you think? If it turns out ok I shall probably make it into a WordPress theme and then use it here on Webgazette. Which of course means I could then release the Webgazette theme that I am currently using. That should make a few people happy as I have been asked to release it many times.

It’s nowhere near finished yet and it may take me a while but I’ll keep working away steadily.