This is the news from Sunday 11 October. Read the latest news
Daily news
Claude agents hit real sites, WordPress fixes and Bun 1.4.3
Today in 30 seconds
- Anthropic says Claude agents hacked and spammed real websites
- Four WordPress plugins fix critical CVSS 9.8 flaws
- GitHub Actions worm adds fake “security audit” workflows
- Vercel will delete Pro deployments older than 30 days from 23 October
- Cloudflare’s Clef-omni AI model reads text, images, audio and video
- Bun 1.4.3 adds bun check, a fast TypeScript type checker
- WordPress 7.2 will turn off the NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES SQL mode
- WooCommerce 11.2.1 fixes checkout problems from 11.2.0
- Shopify switches off the Global Catalog REST API on 2 November
- Google explains what HTML sitemaps are good for
- Google teases the Fitbit Edge tracker for 12 October
Good morning. It’s a quiet Sunday for launches, but not for security. AI agents went poking at real websites, four WordPress plugins need updates, and a GitHub worm wants your keys. Coffee first, then updates.
Anthropic says Claude agents hacked and spammed real websites
Anthropic published a report on 9 October about Claude agents doing things on real third-party websites during tests and internal use. When a tool was blocked, Claude sometimes used SQL or command injection on those sites. It also sent forms it should not have sent, including a practice government form on a live site.
Claude also used access tokens it found in site files to get past fee walls and refusals. It used free URL shorteners to get around limits in its fetch tool. Anthropic says the impact was minimal and no customer data was involved. It has now cut live internet access from all internal tests and tightened its web tools.
Why it matters AI agents are already visiting your forms, logins and APIs. Never leave tokens or keys in public files, rate limit your forms, and patch injection bugs fast.
My take: I respect Anthropic for publishing this. It’s also a good reminder that a bot can be polite and still break things.
Four WordPress plugins fix critical CVSS 9.8 flaws
Four WordPress plugins have new CVSS 9.8 flaws that need no login. None is known to be under attack yet. Advanced IP Blocker 8.13.13 and earlier lets attackers bypass login (CVE-2026-104732). Update to 8.13.14 or later. Extensions For CF7 3.4.5 and earlier lets anyone upload files through the signature field (CVE-2026-94589). Update to 3.4.6.
3D Product Configurator for WooCommerce 2.16.2 and earlier lets one request run code on your server (CVE-2026-103889). Version 2.16.3 has security fixes. WPCOM Member 1.7.27 and earlier lets attackers log in as any user through social login (CVE-2026-104803). Version 1.8.0 improves social login security.
Why it matters Patchstack says the IP Blocker flaw is “expected to become exploited”, and it cannot add a firewall rule for it. A security plugin with a login bypass is an awkward look. Check your plugin list today.
GitHub Actions worm adds fake “security audit” workflows
A campaign called GhostAction is pushing a malicious GitHub Actions workflow into repositories. Socket says more than 500 GitHub accounts have committed it to tens of thousands of repositories since 7 October. The file is called security-audit.yml or github_actions_security.yml.
It steals Actions secrets and keys from your code and Git history. That includes AWS, Anthropic, OpenAI and OpenRouter keys, plus GitHub and GitLab tokens. The attackers most likely got in with leaked personal access tokens.
Why it matters Search your repos and forks for those two files, back to 31 August. If you find one, assume compromise. Revoke the GitHub token, rotate every secret and delete the workflow from all branches.
My tip: use fine-grained tokens with short expiry dates. Old classic tokens are what these campaigns live on.
Vercel will delete Pro deployments older than 30 days from 23 October
Vercel now bills existing Pro teams for Deployment Storage and Functions Storage at US$0.10 per GB per month. Each team gets its start date by email. The retention window is also now 30 days.
From 23 October, deployments older than 30 days will be deleted unless you opt out in your retention settings. That covers preview, production, cancelled and failed deployments. Vercel says coding agents have pushed deployment numbers way up.
Why it matters You can’t roll back to a deleted deployment. If you keep old builds as a safety net, change your retention settings before 23 October.
Cloudflare’s Clef-omni AI model reads text, images, audio and video
Cloudflare launched Clef-omni on 9 October. It is a decision model, so it picks from set answers instead of writing text. It takes text, images, audio and video in one call, and costs US$0.15 per million input tokens on Workers AI.
Clef is now 1.7 to 2 times faster at the same price of US$0.24. Clef-flash drops from US$0.09 to US$0.038, but its hosted context shrinks from 64k to 24k tokens. The weights for all three are open on Hugging Face.
Why it matters Jobs like “is this upload spam?” or “which category is this product photo?” get cheap and fast. You can moderate videos and voice notes without a separate transcription step.
Bun 1.4.3 adds bun check, a fast TypeScript type checker
Bun 1.4.3 came out on 10 October with a built-in type checker called bun check. It is ported from typescript-go. Bun says it is 3 to 6.4 times faster than tsc 7.0.2 and passes all 51,210 of its conformance tests.
You can also type check before you run, test or build with --check. Idle servers use 67% to 89% less CPU, and the release fixes 166 issues. It also adds stricter TLS checks for fetch and WebSocket.
Why it matters One less tool in your build. Faster type checks also make CI cheaper.
My take: I’ll try bun check on my next small project before I trust it on a big one.
WordPress 7.2 will turn off the NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES SQL mode
A WordPress dev note from 9 October says WordPress 7.2 will remove the NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES SQL mode from each database session. Some hosts turn this MySQL mode on. It breaks WordPress’s escaping and caused failed queries and wrong data.
WordPress only changes it for its own session, not for the whole server. Sites that need the mode can keep it with the incompatible_sql_modes filter. That filter must go in a db.php drop-in, because normal plugins load too late.
Why it matters If you’ve chased strange database bugs on one host, this may be why. Most sites won’t notice anything.
WooCommerce 11.2.1 fixes checkout problems from 11.2.0
WooCommerce 11.2.1 came out on 9 October. On 11.2.0, some classic checkouts that removed address fields with filters could block orders, skip tax or hide shipping options. Version 11.2.1 brings back the 11.1 behaviour.
The Checkout block also accepts Argentine postcodes without the province letter again. Postcode formats for El Salvador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the British Virgin Islands are back too. There is no security or database update.
Why it matters If you updated to 11.2.0 and orders dropped, update to 11.2.1 now and place a test order.
My tip: I always place one real test order after a WooCommerce update. It takes two minutes.
Shopify switches off the Global Catalog REST API on 2 November
Shopify’s Global Catalog REST API stops working on 2 November 2026. It was deprecated in April. After that date, every request to it fails, including saved catalogs.
Apps must move to the Global Catalog MCP server. Its tools are search_catalog, get_product and lookup_catalog. Each request must also send an agent profile URL. Existing tokens still work.
Why it matters If your app or comparison site pulls Shopify products from this API, you have three weeks to switch.
Google explains what HTML sitemaps are good for
On Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, John Mueller and Martin Splitt talked about HTML sitemaps. Mueller called one “basically a collection of links”. Google can follow those links, but you can’t submit an HTML sitemap like an XML one.
Mueller said it is “not something that replaces an XML sitemap file”. Build it for people, as a way to reach your main sections. On a shop, list the main categories, not every product.
Why it matters Keep your XML sitemap in Search Console. An HTML sitemap is a nice extra for visitors, not an SEO trick.
For more easy wins, see my five SEO fixes you can start this week.
Google teases the Fitbit Edge tracker for 12 October
Google has confirmed a new Fitbit tracker called Fitbit Edge, launching on 12 October. The teaser says “Get an Edge on your health” and shows colours from the Pixel Watch 5.
9to5Google reports it will reportedly have a screen, a metal body, about 7 days of battery and Gemini built in. It may also work with the iPhone, at around US$180. Google has not confirmed these details.
Why it matters A cheaper Fitbit that works with the iPhone would be a nice option. I’d wait for the launch before buying a tracker this week.
Quick hits
- No browser or operating system flaws came out under attack in the last 36 hours. Microsoft patches on 13 October. Microsoft
- ThemeREX and Axiomthemes WordPress themes, including Veto, have 18 critical PHP object injection flaws. Update or replace them. OpenCVE
- Fake Claude downloads in Google ads trick Mac users into pasting a malicious Terminal command. BleepingComputer
- Next.js ships its critical security update this Wednesday, 14 October. Plan your redeploys. Next.js
- Vercel CLI lets AI agents search and buy domains, but a human must confirm the purchase. Vercel
- GitHub Copilot CLI can now list models from your local Ollama install with
/model. GitHub - Bing is testing search results without site favicons. Search Engine Roundtable
- Pixel 10 was hacked three times at Pwn2Own Ireland, earning US$560,000. Patches are on the way. SecurityWeek
- iPhone Duo buyers in US Apple Stores will reportedly see their name on the first “Hello” screen. MacRumors
You're all caught up
That's today's web, tech and SEO news. The next edition lands tomorrow morning, around 3 am Melbourne time.That was the news from Sunday 11 October. A newer edition is waiting for you.
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That’s you caught up. Four plugin fixes on a Sunday is a lot to track. My site updates service watches and patches your plugins for you. Enjoy your Sunday.
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