[Updates] WordPress 3.5.1 Released

WordPress has released version 3.5.1 of their WordPress blog script.

For more information on this release see their release notes:

http://wordpress.org/news/2013/01/wordpress-3-5-1

All users are encouraged to upgrade and to make sure any themes and plugins are also updated if necessary.

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! Outlook

Joomla! recently released version 3.0 of their popular CMS product. You can read more about Joomla! 3.0 at it’s release notes. With the release of Joomla! 3.0 I thought it might be a good idea to give an outlook on the different versions of Joomla!

Currently there are only two versions of Joomla! that are being supported by the Joomla! developers:

• Version 2.5 – Latest version as of October 8, 2012 2.5.7
• Version 3.0 – Latest version as of October 8, 2012 3.0.0

Technically speaking if you are using any version of Joomla! that is not one of these versions, then you are running an unsupported version of Joomla!

I know there are a lot of users that are still using Joomla! 1.5. Please understand Joomla! no longer supports this version and you really need to be updating to Joomla! 2.5. If you are using Joomla! 1.5 then you should consider reviewing the instructions for migrating to Joomla! 2.5. I can understand the reluctance to upgrade Joomla! because it may not be an easy process. However, please understand that if you continue to use an outdated piece of software, it puts your website and the web server in general at risk. A security hole in Joomla! 1.5 will not be patched because the Joomla! developers are no longer maintaining Joomla! 1.5. If you have questions or concerns about the upgrade process for Joomla! I strongly encourage you to ask these questions or voice these concerns at the Joomla! Forums.

While AMS Computer Services cannot provide any direct support for Joomla! As of today, October 8, 2012 we are allowing the following versions of Joomla! to run on our servers:

• Version 1.5.26
• Version 2.5.7
• Version 3.0.0

Note that this is including the latest version of Joomla! 1.5, even though it is not supported by the Joomla! developers. This just means that we will not disable any Joomla! sites that are using any of these version (1.5.26, 2.5.7, or 3.0.0). However, please note, we will not be able to allow Joomla! 1.5 indefinitely, eventually we will have to stop allowing Joomla! 1.5 on our servers, which is why all Joomla! 1.5 users need to be looking at upgrading to Joomla! 2.5. Please consider this fair warning regarding Joomla! 1.5.

If you are not using one of these versions, then your website may be susceptible to attack and as a result we may have to disable or suspend your hosting account. For example, if you are using Joomla! 1.5.22 note that this is an outdated version, you need to, at the very least, upgrade to Joomla! 1.5.26 and ideally upgrade to Joomla! 2.5.7. If you are using Joomla! 1.0.12 then you need to upgrade to either Joomla! 1.5.26 or (ideally) Joomla! 2.5.7.

Failing to keep the scripts on your website up to date means that you will be targetted for abusive attacks by malicious users.

As for Joomla! 3.0 note that this is really more of a beta release. Joomla! 3.0 is a short-term release, meaning that it is going to go through many updates over the next few months. This is not really ideal for live, production level websites. For production level sites, there is nothing wrong with staying with Joomla! 2.5 at this time, however I would encourage you to begin looking at Joomla! 3.0 and getting involved with that project because you will eventually need to upgrade to Joomla! 3.5, when it becomes a long-term release. I would stress that I really don’t recommend upgrading to Joomla! 3.0 at this time, but just that you need to be made aware of it’s existence and upgrade paths.

Steven

[Updates] WordPress 3.3.2 Released

WordPress has released version 3.3.2 of their popular blogging software. All WordPress users need to update to this version. This version is available in Softaculous in your cPanel. If you install WordPress through Softaculous in your cPanel, then you should consider updating that install through Softaculous in your cPanel.

Failure to update to version 3.3.2 – and continuing to keep your WordPress script up-to-date – can lead to your website being hacked and exploited! All WordPress users need to update.

This is also a good time to check for any plugins or themes that you are using on your WordPress site that may also need updating.

Release information regarding this update is available at:

http://wordpress.org/news/2012/04/wordpress-3-3-2/

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! 2.5.4 Released

A new version of Joomla! has been released. Version 2.5.4. All users are encouraged to upgrade.

For more information see the Joomla! 2.5.4 release notice:

http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5418-joomla-254-released.html

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! 2.5.3 Released

Joomla! has released version 2.5.3 of their popular CMS program. This is a security release. Information and release notes are available at:

http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5416-joomla-253-released.html

This release fixes two high priority security issues in Joomla! 2.5.2. All users are encouraged to upgrade.

The updated version of Joomla! is not yet available in Softaculous on our servers. As soon as it becomes available I will update this post. I just wanted to make the announcement regarding this update because it does affect the security of your Joomla! based website.

—–
(Update: 03/19/2012 4:05PM CST)
Softaculous has been updated to include Joomla! 2.5.3 now.
—–

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! 2.5.2 released

Joomla! has release version 2.5.2 of their CMS product. Release notes for this release are available at:

http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5415-joomla-252-released.html

This is a security release and does fix a couple of high/medium priority bugs. All affected Joomla! users are encouraged to upgrade!

Again, as has previously been noted, Joomla! 1.7 went end-of-life on February 24th and all Joomla! 1.7 users need to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5 as soon as possible.

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! 1.7 End-of-Life Announcement

The developers of the Joomla! CMS product recently released a new version of their popular CMS application, Joomla! 2.5. This application is replacing their former product, Joomla! 1.7. Joomla! 1.7 will be going end-of-life on February 24th, 2012. This means that no further updates or releases will be made for the Joomla! 1.7 line of products. All Joomla! 1.7 users need to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5 before February 24th, 2012 so that their website can remain safe and secure.

For a better understanding of this, let’s take a look at all of the current Joomla! products:

Joomla! 2.5
Currently the latest version of Joomla! 2.5 is version 2.5.1. This is the latest version of the Joomla! 2.5 series. All users of Joomla! 1.7 need to upgrade to this release tree.

Joomla! 1.7
This version of Joomla! is being retired and being replaced with Joomla! 2.5. Versions of Joomla! 1.7 include: 1.7.0, 1.7.1, 1.7.2, 1.7.3, 1.7.4, and 1.7.5. If you are using ANY of these versions of Joomla! then you need to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5.1. Support for Joomla! 1.7 will be ending on Friday, February 24th, 2012. This is coming directly from the Joomla! developers. What this means is that after February 24th, if you continue to use Joomla! 1.7 on your website and a vulnerability is found in the Joomla! 1.7 line of products, the Joomla! developers will not fix this security issue. Your website will likely be defaced, hacked, and your web hosting account will be compromised. We may to to suspend or disable your web hosting account if this happens. PLEASE upgrade your Joomla! 1.7 script to Joomla! 2.5 as soon as possible.

Joomla! 1.5
This is a legacy release of Joomla! As far as I am aware of, there is no direct upgrade path from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 2.5. But as far as I know, Joomla! 1.5 is not going end of life on February 24th, so users of Joomla! 1.5 are being allowed to continue to use this version of the script. The latest version of Joomla! 1.5 is 1.5.25. As long as you keep this updated to the latest version of Joomla! 1.5, you should be safe and secure.

Joomla! 1.0 or others
If you are using Joomla! 1.0 or any other version of Joomla! on your website, then it has long since been end of lifed, and is extremely outdated. Anybody that is still using this version of Joomla! is highly at risk for being attacked, hacked, defaced, and having their website completely compromised.

—–
(Update: 02/14/2012 5:12PM CST)
Perhaps a point was not clear in this post. If you are using Joomla! 1.5.25, then you are fine. There is no need for you to upgrade or do anything else.

• If you are using 1.5.xx, some other version than 1.5.25, then you need to consider upgrading to version 1.5.25, the latest version of the Joomla! 1.5 tree.

• If you are using Joomla! versions 1.7.xx OR 2.5, then you need to consider upgrading to Joomla! 2.5.1

• If you are using Joomla! version 1.7.xx please realize that support for this version from the Joomla! developers and community will cease on February 24th, 2012. That is why these users need to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5.1.

• If you are using Joomla! version 1.0.xx OR version 1.6.xx please note that these version have already reached their end-of-life and are no longer being supported or maintained. If you are using one of these versions of Joomla! then you missed the end-of-life cutoff for those respective releases. You probably need to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5.1 but I am not sure what your upgrade path is. I would recommend posting in the Joomla Forums to see what the exact steps are that you need to do.

If you are running anything other than the latest version of your respective Joomla! release tree, then you are using an outdated version and are susceptible to being hacked or compromised. I did find this post on the Joomla! forum that echos why it is important to use an up-to-date script.

I hope this helps to clear up the confusion.
—–

Backing up your account
Before attempting a Joomla! update we encourage you to create a backup of your account. Joomla! may have a backup component in it’s system, but I am not familiar with that. We do provide a backup method which you can use via your cPanel, to back up your entire account. For instructions on this see:

http://manual.amstechdns.com/userbackup

It’s always a good idea to keep a backup copy of your website, in case something happens to your website. While we’d like to believe that upgrading your Joomla! 1.7 to Joomla! 2.5 will be seamless, in the event that something goes wrong, having a backup of your website can be a life saver.

Upgrade Instructions – Non-Softaculous Users
Upgrading from Joomla! 1.7 to Joomla! 2.5 is suppose to be easy. The Joomla! developers have placed an instruction guide on their website:

http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_from_an_existing_version

I have personally tried the Extension Manager: Update method and the Admin Tools method to upgrade a non-production level version of Joomla! to version 2.5. This worked without any issues. But I would stress that I did not have any extension or components installed and the Joomla! website was non-production level.

If you have questions about the upgrade process, I highly encourage you to speak out at the Joomla! forums:

http://forum.joomla.org

They have a lot more experience with Joomla! than we do and can likely better answer and upgrade questions you may have.

Upgrade Instructions – Softaculous Users
If you installed Joomla! through Softaculous, then you should be able to upgrade Joomla! to version 2.5 from within Softaculous. Unfortunately, I did not have a test site involving this, so I do not know how well this method works. If it fails to work, you may be able to complete one of the Non-Softaculous methods from above to upgrade your website.

If you are a Softaculous Joomla! 1.7 user and have attempted the Softaculous Joomla! 2.5 upgrade, we would like to hear about your experiences with this, so we can share this information with other users. Leave us a comment on how this procedure worked for you.

The one thing I can tell you is that if you ignore this warning about upgrading your Joomla! 1.7 website to Joomla! 2.5, then you are putting your website at risk of being compromised. There will be no further updates to the Joomla! 1.7 release tree, and so continuing to use Joomla! 1.7 means that you are continuing to use an outdated and unsupported piece of software.

This is all a continuing effort to keep our web hosting users informed and aware of security implications on their accounts. I can speak from experience, trying to recover from an account hack can be more difficult than taking measures to prevent a hack. Running up-to-date and supported software is one of the best things you can do to keep your website secured.

Steven

[Updates] WordPress 3.3.1 released

A new version of WordPress has been released, version 3.3.1. This version fixes a security issue that could compromise your account. As always, all users are encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.

For release notes and information see:

http://wordpress.org/news/2012/01/wordpress-3-3-1

Steven

[Updates] Joomla! Security Updates

Joomla! today released updates to their popular Joomla! CMS script. They have released updates to both release trees, version 1.5 and version 1.7.

These are security updates so all users are encouraged to update their script to avoid compromising your website. Failing to update means that your Joomla! website will be vulnerable.

Release notes are below:

Joomla! 1.2.25:
http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5393-joomla-1525-released.html

Joomla! 1.7.3:
http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5392-joomla-173-released.html

If you need help updating, contact our support team for assistance.

Scott

[Updates] New Joomla! releases

The Joomla! development team has released two updates for their Joomla! CMS script.

The Joomla! developers are currently maintaining two release trees, version 1.5 a legacy version, and version 1.7 the latest version. There is a security update for each version.

Release notes for these updates are at:

Joomla! 1.5.24 released
Joomla! 1.7.2 released

Depending on which release tree you are using, you should upgrade to the newest version of that release tree. All Joomla! script users should update to avoid hacking and website exploits!

For instructions on upgrading see the Joomla! guides:

(Joomla! 1.5): Upgrading 1.5 from an existing 1.5x version
(Joomla! 1.7): Upgrading 1.7 from an existing 1.7x version

If you need help, we can assist you in upgrading an existing Joomla! 1.7 site to 1.7.2. Just open a support ticket and we will look into it. We will need your Joomla! administrator username and password.

Steven

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