WordPress released security fix 5.5.3 day after it released 5.5.2
It seems that WordPress were not having the best day! 5.5.2 was released however it seemingly had a flaw in that you couldn’t set up a brand new website using wordpress 5.5.2 (without a database connection already configured!) – as soon as this was spotted the WordPress team stopped people from being able to download version 5.5.2 .. however in doing that – any WordPress sites on auto-update that had NOT already updated to 5.5.2 found that they couldn’t download it and so it downloaded a 5.5.3-alpha version! This alpha version also seemingly downloaded within theme 2020 and akismet spam plugin! So as the 5.5.3alpha released was not actually a fully released version 5.5.3 was created prepared and released!
Did you follow that!?
The short version – the issue would only have affected people trying to install a new wordpress version – everyone else will probably just have seen their sites auto update from 5.5.2 to 5.5.3 – if your site did get to the -alpha version you might find a few extra themes or plugins – but they won’t be activated and they can easily be removed and you can update your site to 5.5.3 and then carry on as normal!
From what I have read no sites were down or stopped working due to this issue
I can only imagine the panic at WordPress Head Office – but they reacted quickly and so all is well!
Until next time
Stay safe, stay well