PHP Update Recommended

Have you seen this warning message in your WordPress dashboard?

Don't panic! We're on it!

What is PHP?

PHP is the programming language that runs server side that is used to build and maintain WordPress.

Why is this warning being displayed?

WordPress recommends that sites use a version of PHP that is at least 7.4 or higher. While most of our clients have upgraded their sites over time, some still have legacy themes and plugins that at the time WordPress made this recommendation the themes and plugins were not compatible with PHP 7.4. Forcing a site with these older themes and plugins to use PHP 7.4 would have broke the site.

How is AuthorBytes fixing it?

First, as mentioned earlier, DON'T PANIC! AuthorBytes has been planning for the migration of PHP 7.2 to PHP 7.4 for some time now. While there are unpatched security issues in PHP 7.2, AuthorBytes Web Application Firewalls have rules in place to keep bad actors from exploiting these known issues and make every effort to keep your site safe. We have been auditing each site that is running under the PHP 7.2 environment and manually upgrading them to the last version of WordPress and PHP 7.4 where possible. During this manual upgrade, we first take a snapshot backup of the site, apply the new software upgrades, perform basic site checks to make sure it still loads and if not roll the upgrades back. In most cases we have been able to successfully manually upgrade to PHP 7.4. That said there are still some plugins and themes that do not support the latest version of PHP 7.4 and so we are unable to upgrade them. In these cases, we are reaching out to customers individually to discuss upgrade options to find the best path forward.