[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #50455: wp_check_php_version() does not account for backporting and therefore leads to confusing user messages about PHP security

[WordPress Trac]

#50455: wp_check_php_version() does not account for backporting and therefore leads
to confusing user messages about PHP security
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 Reporter:  robert.peake        |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)        |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal              |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Administration      |    Version:  5.4.2
 Severity:  normal              |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  ui, administration  |
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 The function wp_check_php_version, which drives the PHP update nag in the
 admin, relies on http://api.wordpress.org/core/serve-happy/1.0/ but only
 passes in the version of PHP to the API.

 This does not account for the security practices of distributions such as
 RedHat or CentOS, which apply backporting to the versions of PHP that they
 support to maintain older versions as secure:
 https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/backporting

 As a result, the message is confusing to admin users who are unaware of
 the underlying operating system in use or of backporting.

 OS distribution types are easily discovered in PHP, and could be passed to
 the API to check whether backporting were in place to suppress the nag.

 While it is possible to use remove_meta_box on a case-by-case basis, it
 would be better if this were supported by core, i.e. a misleading message
 were not displayed in the first place, rather than special measures being
 taken to suppress it.

 RedHat and CentOS together represent 20% market share of all linux
 distributions, and linux represents the vast majority of web servers
 running WordPress. This is therefore a widespread issue.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50455>
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