The good people at WordPress issued the WP version 5.5.2 Security and Maintenance Release on October 29. Then, just one day later, issued version 5.5.3 Emergency Release. The Emergency Release corrects a flaw in the Maintenance release that made it very difficult to install WordPress on a new website. How the flaw escaped detection during pre-release testing has not been explained – at least that I can find.
Then, in an embarrassing double debacle, release of the Emergency version was initially flubbed too, causing many WP sites to be updated to version 5.5.3-alpha instead of the intended production version.
When I say “the good people at WP”, I do so without sarcasm. The WP team works hard to provide me with awesome software for free, and to keep it secure and well-maintained, with a consistent flow of new features. I’m sure they put in a lot of extra hours getting the Emergency Release out so quickly. The rush to get the fix out was probably a factor in the second flub. There were no security problems with 5.5.2 or 5.5.3-alpha, and neither caused serious problems to existing sites.
Still, gotta be embarrassing for WP. And … still wondering how the flaw in 5.5.2 escaped pre-release testing.
