Serendipity 1.1.3 and 1.2-beta2 released due to SQL exploit

Serendipity 1.1.3 and 1.2-beta2 have been released due to a SQL injection attack reported by Dr. Neal Krawetz today. It is possible to abuse a 'commentMode' variable to inject SQL code that was targeted to the function that fetches comment information. This variable was introduced to Serendipity 1.1 - all prior versions are not affected.

Please update your blogs as soon as possible. If you are using a database backend that allows SQL union queries, the injection could probably lead to disclosure of the stored MD5 password hashes. Because of this, we also suggest to update your blog user account passwords.

It is a good idea to check your server's Access-Logs and search for the 'commentMode' variable to see, if malicious request have been issued to your blog already.

For those people that do not want to upgrade to a whole new version, you can also simply patch the file include/functions_comments.inc.php and replace the single occurence of:

$type = $serendipity['GET']['commentMode'];

to

$type = serendipity_db_escape_string($serendipity['GET']['commentMode']);

We are very sorry for this, but happy to provide a quick fix in short time. You can download the latest files as usual on www.s9y.org. Read the FAQ on how to perform an easy update.

Serendipity 1.2-beta1 released

After a long time of development and testing, Serendipity 1.2 is now out in its first release candidate.

There have been quite a lot of changes to the new version. Most important of them all, the authentication and session scheme has been altered to allow easier plugin interaction. Also the backend (master template and template for the entry editor) has finally ben Smartyfied so that they can be changed by template authors.

We would kindly ask all Serendipity users to test this new version to squash any possible showstoppers before the final release.

Please check especially if the login to your admin backend still works flawlessly (especially if you are using https) and if your 'Edit Entry' backend section works just like before. Please report bugs and issues on our Serendipity Forum Board.

Here's a list of other new cool enhancements since Serendipity 1.1:

  • Templates for Backend (Entry Editor, Master Template) via Smarty
  • New session/login system
  • SQLite3, PDO::Postgresql Support
  • better IPv6 support
  • better HTTP headers to support Caching
  • allow to define if a parent category should show entries of child categories on the frontend, or only entries of that exact category
  • Bugfix: RSS fullfeed for "let user decide" now properly works
  • Bugfix: Saving/sending trackbacks and tracking exit-links works in circumstances involving cached entries
  • Bugfix: Place possible dangerous user preference options to group management to prevent unwanted configuration changes

A full list of changes is contained in the docs/NEWS file inside the file archive. Many changes are small bugfixes and user interaction enhancements that all speed up your Serendipity experience.

You can download the latest version on www.s9y.org. And most of all: Have fun!