Except that Wordpress is written in PHP and designed without security as a goal. True, security is all about probability, but Wordpress' odds are not that good.
Windows was originally built without security as a major focus, but has been improved vastly. So has WordPress. Except for a few rare cases where security was a primary goal, such as OpenBSD, most software will be discovered to have vulnerabilities at some point in time.
So it's a good example of software built with security as a primary focus that still has vulnerabilities. I can think of few examples of software that has never had vulnerabilities discovered. OpenSSH maybe?
Yes, however, perusing the history of vulnerability disclosures in popular software demonstrates that the degree of likelihood of a new issue being found varies to a considerable degree based on the software in question.
Given that, software with an exceedingly low historical defect rate could reasonably be considered 'secure'.
I felt the same, but after searching for a few minutes I wasn't able to find anything to contradict it. It looks like their hosted option may actually be significantly more secure than installing your own.
This is the way they advertise for their wordpress.com version obviously. Stick with us or you get compromised. Bad style. They rather should fix their buggy software.
They prefer new features over security. Have you noticed how with each major upgrade there are new holes in it?
WordPress is like Swiss cheese, full of holes. I'd prefer Swiss banks or watches instead.
Let me just rephrase that first paragraph a little. "When a WordPress security problem is found, they release a new version with the problem fixed and say everyone should upgrade to it. That's bad. Instead, they should release a new version with the problem fixed." Doesn't something about that seem a little ... odd ... to you?
WP 2.8, WP 2.7, WP 2.5 etc. each were compromised almost immediately and each time several security updates have been issued in the matter of days and weeks.
Nobody can keep up with it so no wonder WordPress blogs get hacked.
Why don't they just release stable and secure versions?
Why? Because security is hard to do unless you (1) build it in right from the start and (2) are good at it, and neither of those things appears to be true in the case of WordPress.
You appear to be suggesting -- I can't tell how seriously -- that WordPress is deliberately made insecure so that when Automattic (ugh, I hate that name) want people to upgrade they always have a security issue they can use to scare people into doing so. Sorry, but that's absolutely nuts.
(In case it isn't clear: I am not, in the least, defending WP's security record. I am pointing out that the things you're saying here are crazy.)
"You appear to be suggesting -- I can't tell how seriously -- that WordPress is deliberately made insecure so that when Automattic (ugh, I hate that name) want people to upgrade they always have a security issue they can use to scare people into doing so. Sorry, but that's absolutely nuts"
No, YOU said that. I just said they don't care enough for security. Otherwise they wouldn't spit out new versions with holes so often.
So there is no reason to insult me.
Also the WordPress people pointing out all the time how wordpress.com hasn't been hacked is just obvious advertising for their hosted services.
OK, so we're at cross purposes. It looks to me like (1) I misunderstood something you said but (2) it still (2a) doesn't make sense and (2b) is distinctly more than "I just said they don't care enough for security".
Specifically: you said "This is the way they advertise for their wordpress.com version obviously. Stick with us or you get compromised." So, my mistake: I interpreted "their wordpress.com version" as "the latest version" rather than "hosting your blog on wordpress.com". That was dumb of me; sorry.
On the other hand, even after fixing my brain in that respect, I still can't see any way to read that as just saying that "they don't care enough for security".
If in fact it's true that wordpress.com consistently gets updated immediately when a new version comes out that fixes a security problem, and that people hosting their own WordPress blogs tend to be sluggish about upgrading, then I don't see why one of the things they say when a compromise happens is "you'd be in much less danger on wordpress.com". Because, y'know, it's true. What would be improper would be if (1) they are deliberately putting out insecure code to make their hosted version more appealing, or (2) the only thing they say when a security problem comes up is "come and use our hosted version". #1 is what it still looks to me like you were saying, but seems immensely improbable, not least because I find it very hard to believe that their net gain in paying customers from an incident like this one is positive. #2 would be bad. indeed; is it true?
WP.com, to my knowledge, has never had a code or security breach.
There are communities (like Club Penguin) where they are quite promiscuous with their passwords and share login details with each other regularly, and then "hack" each others blogs.
I did the same search. In each of those cases it seems like being "hacked" means adding another admin and having them screw you over or having your password guessed. Though I'm no Wordpress fan, blaming them for things like that is rather absurd.
