{"version":1,"generated":"2026-10-22T22:39:19.838Z","about":"Today's edition: the 4 stories on the wp.news homepage, most important first.","docs":"https://wp.news/agents","licence":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"cite":"wp.news (https://wp.news), CC BY 4.0. https://wp.news/","date":"2026-10-22","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T12:01:38.225Z","stories":[{"id":"updraftplus-wordpress-plugin-security-breach-enabl-0cf54291-2026-10-22","date":"2026-10-21T22:03:33.000Z","headline":"UpdraftPlus breach lets hackers plant backdoors on WordPress sites","summary":"Search Engine Journal reports that hackers installed backdoors on WordPress sites through UpdraftPlus, putting more than 3 million active installations at risk. Hackers installed backdoors on WordPress sites using UpdraftPlus, putting over 3 million active installations at risk.","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/updraftplus-wordpress-plugin-security-breach-enables-backdoor-attacks/593909/","category":{"key":"wp-news","name":"WordPress News"},"importance":90,"image":"https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/updraftplus-backdoor-compromise-234.jpg","sources":[{"name":"Search Engine Journal","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/updraftplus-wordpress-plugin-security-breach-enables-backdoor-attacks/593909/","publishedAt":"2026-10-21T22:03:33.000Z"}],"tags":[{"slug":"teamupdraft","name":"TeamUpdraft","type":"company","sentiment":-80,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/teamupdraft.json"},{"slug":"updraftcentral","name":"UpdraftCentral","type":"product","sentiment":-90,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/updraftcentral.json"},{"slug":"wordpress-security","name":"WordPress security","type":"topic","sentiment":-70,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/wordpress-security.json"},{"slug":"wordpress-plugins","name":"WordPress plugins","type":"topic","sentiment":-50,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/wordpress-plugins.json"},{"slug":"patchstack","name":"Patchstack","type":"company","sentiment":30,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/patchstack.json"}]},{"id":"critical-php-security-release-58e31132-2026-10-21","date":"2026-10-21T13:44:09.000Z","headline":"Critical PHP Security Release","summary":"Wordfence says two critical PHP flaws, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, can allow unauthenticated code execution, and updating WordPress won't fix them. Site owners need to update and restart PHP. Automattic says its hosted sites are protected against the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities. Self-managed sites should confirm they run a patched PHP version now.","url":"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/10/critical-php-security-release/","category":{"key":"wp-news","name":"WordPress News"},"importance":80,"image":"https://wp.news/placeholder.png","sources":[{"name":"WordPress.org News","url":"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/10/critical-php-security-release/","publishedAt":"2026-10-21T13:44:09.000Z"},{"name":"Wordfence","url":"https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2026/10/critical-php-update-wordpress-vulnerabilities-testing/","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T00:51:21.000Z"},{"name":"Hacker News","url":"https://automattic.com/2026/10/21/your-sites-are-protected-against-the-php2shell-vulnerabilities/","publishedAt":"2026-10-21T16:23:52Z"}],"tags":[{"slug":"php","name":"PHP","type":"topic","sentiment":-50,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/php.json"},{"slug":"wordpress-security","name":"WordPress security","type":"topic","sentiment":-40,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/wordpress-security.json"},{"slug":"wordpress-core","name":"WordPress core","type":"topic","sentiment":10,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/wordpress-core.json"}]},{"id":"google-ceo-sundar-pichai-views-search-absorbed-int-9c283347-2026-10-22","date":"2026-10-22T09:17:18.000Z","headline":"Pichai sees Search folding into an agentic layer","summary":"Google CEO Sundar Pichai says Search's future is an agentic layer unifying Google's Search and AI experiences.","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-views-search-absorbed-into-agentic-layer/593923/","category":{"key":"industry","name":"Wider Tech"},"importance":60,"image":"https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/google-sundar-pichai-931.jpg","sources":[{"name":"Search Engine Journal","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-views-search-absorbed-into-agentic-layer/593923/","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T09:17:18.000Z"}],"tags":[{"slug":"google","name":"Google","type":"company","sentiment":30,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/google.json"},{"slug":"ai-agents","name":"AI agents","type":"topic","sentiment":40,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/ai-agents.json"},{"slug":"seo","name":"SEO","type":"topic","sentiment":-40,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/seo.json"},{"slug":"gemini","name":"Gemini","type":"product","sentiment":40,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/gemini.json"}]},{"id":"google-s-illyes-robots-txt-covers-crawling-not-ai--baa54325-2026-10-22","date":"2026-10-22T10:58:04.000Z","headline":"Google: robots.txt governs crawling, not AI training","summary":"A new Google robots.txt video, featuring Gary Illyes, says the standard covers crawling rather than how content gets used. It also recommends percent-encoding non-English robots.txt paths.","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-illyes-robots-txt-crawling-ai-training/593957/","category":{"key":"industry","name":"Wider Tech"},"importance":40,"image":"https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/google-robots-txt-featured.jpg","sources":[{"name":"Search Engine Journal","url":"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-illyes-robots-txt-crawling-ai-training/593957/","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T10:58:04.000Z"}],"tags":[{"slug":"google","name":"Google","type":"company","sentiment":10,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/google.json"},{"slug":"ai-crawlers","name":"AI crawlers","type":"topic","sentiment":0,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/ai-crawlers.json"},{"slug":"ai-training","name":"AI training","type":"topic","sentiment":-10,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/ai-training.json"},{"slug":"gemini","name":"Gemini","type":"product","sentiment":0,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/gemini.json"},{"slug":"seo","name":"SEO","type":"topic","sentiment":10,"url":"https://wp.news/api/v1/tags/seo.json"}]}]}