The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.15 and 5.6.30 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
In addition, we’re now providing support for the PHP 7.1 series, so PHP 7.1.1 is also available in our control panel.
Finally, the PHP 7.0 series has been out long enough that all modern script software should be compatible with it, and the authors of the WordPress software recommend it specifically. Because of that, we’re making PHP 7.0 the default for new customers, and we recommend that all customers switch to PHP 7. It’s almost twice as fast as old versions of PHP.
If you’re not yet using PHP 7 but you’d like your WordPress or other PHP-based site to seem snappier, or be able to handle twice as many visitors per second, you can easily do so:
- First, update your site’s PHP scripts, including WordPress, Joomla, any plugins or themes you use, and so on
- Login to our My Account control panel
- Click PHP Settings
- Click PHP 7.0 series
- Click Save Settings
Then test your site to make sure it works properly. If it does: Great, you’ve just made your site much faster! If it doesn’t, it’s probably because you’re using older scripts that haven’t yet been updated, and you can simply set PHP back to an earlier version for now. (But be sure to contact the authors of your scripts and ask when they will be compatible with PHP 7.)
As always, if you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’re making a minor technical change to the SSH settings our servers use, removing obsolete and insecure ciphers like “3des-cbc”.
The changes are required to ensure that sites we host pass PCI compliance scans. The obsolete ciphers allowed SSH connections that appeared to be secure, but really weren’t.
This should not affect anything for our customers who use SSH, as long as you use modern, updated SSH software. We’re just documenting it in case anyone has difficulties with SSH connections.
If you do have any trouble, the solution is almost certainly to update your SSH client software, though — the program you’re using is probably pretty outdated and may also have trouble connecting to other servers, not just ours.
As always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble or questions.
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Many scripts that send e-mail include a file called PHPMailer. The file is distributed as part of WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and lots more software.
Recently, a security researcher discovered a security bug in PHPMailer. The bug could allow “hackers” to take over a website.
However, sites hosted on our servers are not vulnerable to this problem. (Despite that, you should always update your copy of WordPress, Joomla, or any other software when there’s a new version available.)
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The authors of the Joomla software announced that Joomla versions 1.6.0 through 3.6.4 have a critical security bug that allows “hackers” to take over a site (CVE-2016-9838).
The best solution for Joomla users is to update to version 3.6.5 immediately. However, we also added a security rule to our servers this evening to block this attack, based on an initial analysis.
The rule works by blocking attempts to register new Joomla users that contain certain kinds of invalid data; it allows only “expected” data. This could mean that if you’ve modified your Joomla user registration page in some unusual way, it might be incorrectly blocked. We’ll keep an eye out for this potential problem; don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released version 5.6.29 that fixes several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
This change should not be noticeable, but in the unlikely event you experience any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The PHP developers recently released version 7.0.14 that fixes several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 series on our servers as a result.
This change should not be noticeable, but in the unlikely event you experience any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
WordPress 4.7 was recently released, and as always, we’ve updated our WordPress one-click installer to automatically install the latest version for new WordPress sites.
If you’ve previously installed an older version of WordPress, you should update it from within your WordPress Dashboard.
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The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.13 and 5.6.28 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
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The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.12 and 5.6.27 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
For the PHP 5.6 and 7.0 series, we’ve also updated ionCube Loader to the current version 6.0.6, and SourceGuardian Loader to the current version 11.
These changes should not be noticeable, but in the unlikely event you experience any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The authors of the Joomla software announced that Joomla versions 3.4.4 through 3.6.3 have a critical security bug that allows “hackers” to take over a site by adding new administrative users (CVE-2016-8869).
The best solution for Joomla users is to update to version 3.6.4 immediately. However, we also added a rule to our servers this morning to block this attack. The rule should ensure that if you use our hosting service, hackers won’t be able to take advantage of this bug.
(And a tip o’ the hat to security researcher Melvin Lammerts, who published detailed technical information of the bug that allowed us to do this more quickly than usual.)
