[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #54840: wp_insert_term sanitizes attribute names, while term_exists does not before checking names

[WordPress Trac]

#54840: wp_insert_term sanitizes attribute names, while term_exists does not before
checking names
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 Reporter:  Dekadinious   |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Taxonomy      |    Version:  5.8.2
 Severity:  normal        |   Keywords:
  Focuses:                |
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 We have found an edge-case bug in the way term_exists handles checking for
 existing names compared to how wp_insert_term inserts the names. This
 happens if you are in a situation where the term name has an ampersand,
 and term_exists reach the point where it needs to check for the name. This
 happened to us because we have a suffix on each term slug.

 So if we are creating the term "X & Y", the slug will be "x-y-suffix".
 Therefore, there is no "x-y" slug in the database. The term_exists
 function will therefore not find the slug and will check for the name
 instead.

 When checking for the name, it will see if "X & Y" exists in the database.
 It does not, because wp_insert_term sanitizes the name and inserts it as
 "X & Y".

 The behavior is inconsistent. I would expect term_exist to find that the
 term exists when checking for the exact name used in wp_insert_term.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54840>
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