If you check this blog earlier today, you were probably surprised by what you saw. And if you were viewing on an iPhone or other mobile device, it may have been even stranger. I’m trying to get things back in order.
And, yes, there is a story.
My Monday started with an overnight security alert from Sucuri.net, which provides an extra layer of security for this blog.
The subject line on the email alert screamed at me.
URGENT: WPTouch Vulnerability Disclosed. Update your WPTouch Plugin.
It went on to explain.
Our research team found a very serious vulnerability in the WPTouch Plugin for WordPress that allows an attacker to upload files remotely to websites running the plugin that have not updated to VERSION 3.4.3 VERSION 3.4.3 (the version the WPTouch team just put out to patch the vulnerability).
In order to secure your website if you’re using the WPTouch Plugin (and over 5 million sites are), make sure to update the plugin immediately.
WPTouch is a small plug-in that converts a WordPress site to display on mobile devices like an iPhone and, yes, I was using an outdated version that was, as Sucuri put it, seriously vulnerable.
So I dutifully went online, retrieved the updated version of the plugin, deleted the old version from my WordPress set-up, and activated the new version.
That’s when I realized I was in trouble. The reason is simple. I don’t know how to make basic tweaks in how WPTouch displays the available WordPress “themes”. I got an initial complaint almost immediately when a reader emailed to say that the light blue text on a light background was almost illegible.
And, to make things worse, somewhere along the way I managed to set the main blog to display as if it were being viewed on the screen of a phone. Not pretty at all, and I didn’t even realize it had happened until this morning.
In any case, I’ve got the main blog restored, and I’ll be diving back into the innards of WPTouch later today to try to restore the mobile version’s former ease of viewing.
And if you happen to know a lot about such things, any and all advice would be much appreciated!
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iPhone and ipad users can simply press the “archives” option in the left hand menu, then scroll to the bottom of the screen where you’ll see a box offering the choice of “mobile” or “desktop.” Pick “desktop” and voila! Things look back to normal again, and all is right with the world.
No reason to believe this workaround wouldn’t work on Android devices.
Ok well I really thought it was my browser (via laptop) – thanks for the clarification & hope you get it sorted out for the mobile guys.