Upcoming Changes to the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) Plugin
Advanced Custom Fields just released a security update that might include breaking changes, and they are preparing a future update that will affect a common use case for many sites. In this post, we’ll outline the changes and how we plan to address any required fixes for Cinch customers.
ACF is an extremely common plugin within our customer base. It’s more likely than not if you are a Cinch customer that ACF is installed on your site. While the update has the potential to cause a breaking change, we have updated all Cinch customer sites to the latest version. We determined the likelihood of the update breaking any Cinch customer site was extremely minimal and wanted to be proactive for security. As with all software, it is important to keep your website up-to-date in order to provide a great user experience and stay safe.
We will be monitoring sites after this ACF update but request that you keep an eye on your site and if you notice anything broken to please contact support@cinchws.com. In the unlikely event that this update does negatively affect your site we will go over your options to get things fixed.
Upcoming February Changes
ACF has indicated they will be continuing to update the plugin to improve security when ACF handles the output of a field. This change will come in a future update, but for now you may see this warning message indicating that changes will need to be made:
How we are handling the situation
We are currently identifying Cinch customer sites that are displaying the above warning. We will then make plans on updating the theme next week (Jan 22 – 26). Depending on the extent of the necessary changes, we will make the updates as part of the maintenance subscription for all Essential Support and WooCommerce Support customers. Any customer site that requires extensive changes will be notified before we begin the fix.
If you see the above notification after next week, please reach out to us here: support@cinchws.com.
Next Steps
We applaud ACF for prioritizing security. Please keep an eye out for any issues after the update and contact us at support@cinchws.com if needed. If the update causes problems, we’ll discuss options to get your site fixed.
As your WordPress support team, Cinch has your back through this transition. We’ll ensure your site stays secure and running smoothly. Let us know if you have any other questions!
