The Daily Post is WordPress.com’s blog on blogging. From blogging prompts to photo challenges to writing tips, we’re dedicated to helping you build the blog you want (and have fun doing it).

The Daily Post began in 2011 as an experiment to encourage regular posting and provide a place to talk about the nitty-gritty details of telling a story and building an audience. Since then, a lot has changed. Visit The Daily Post now, and you’ll find:

• Our best tips and tools for all facets of blogging — the craft of writing, building an audience, site customization, blogging etiquette, and more.
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• Blogging U., a hub for ongoing courses like Zero to Hero to support you in meeting your unique blogging goals.
• Voices from the blogging community sharing their expertise.

Jetpack version 2.9.3 contains a critical security update, and you should update your site and any you help manage as soon as possible. You can update through your dashboard, or download Jetpack manually here.

During an internal security audit, we found a bug that allows an attacker to bypass a site’s access controls and publish posts. This vulnerability could be combined with other attacks to escalate access. This bug has existed since Jetpack 1.9, released in October 2012.

Fortunately, we have no evidence of this being used in the wild. However, now that this update is public, it’s just a matter of time before exploits occur. To avoid a breach, you should update your site as soon as possible. (The vulnerability has been disclosed on the MITRE Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures system as CVE-2014-0173.)

This is a bad bug, and Jetpack is one of the most widely used plugins…