[wp-hackers] "The Matrix Has You" easter egg

Alex Hempton-Smith hempsworth at gmail.com
Sat Oct 23 19:48:41 UTC 2010


Many people use control panels with their hosts that give one-click
installs. It's also present on wordpress.com.

-- Alex


On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 9:43 PM, Ryan Bilesky <rbilesky at gmail.com> wrote:

> calling it a "frightening easter egg" is a bit overkill, i mean its just
> plain overkill.  The point of the idea is this, if you manage WP installs
> for someone, you can add the javascript so they won't ever see it.  IMO
> anyone who is able to install and manage WP by there own should have no
> problem with that, it would only cause a problem maybe for some horribly
> non-technical person, like my parents.  In which case there is probably
> someone with some technical ability who runs the site handles upgrades,
> ect.
>
> Plus the javascript can be added in via a plugin so really if someone
> writes
> the plugin its a simple as installing a plugin.
>
> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Chris Williams <chris at clwill.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks to the incredible evangelism of WP a relatively new and
> > inexperienced web master sets up a WP blog.  It has the "famous 5-minute
> > install".  Couldn't be easier.
> >
> > Then as we saw with the OP, he or one of his users stumbles upon a rather
> > frightening easter egg, and he/they become alarmed that they've been
> hacked.
> >  WP's reputation as a reliable and easy platform is sullied as they spend
> > time searching the internet to find a resolution.  Only to find that it
> was
> > "a joke", installed as part of the program from the original bona fide
> > sources.
> >
> > Your solution is to suggest they write javascript to disable this?
>  Really?
> >  How was this person to know about this risk in the first place?  How
> many
> > more potentially scary and alarming easter eggs do you expect them to
> > magically know about and prevent?  What level of Computer Science
> expertise
> > is required to manage a WP install, beyond the "5-minute install"?  And
> > isn't your solution like locking the barn door after the horse is gone?
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ryan Bilesky <rbilesky at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] "The Matrix Has You" easter egg
> >
> > If you don't like the easter egg use javascript to prevent both radio
> > buttons for any given revision from being selected at the same time.
> > Problem solved.
> >
> >
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> >
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