What is this about?

PHP is the programming language that WordPress, WooCommerce and Joomla are built in, among others, and that most websites on a web hosting plan run on.

The two vulnerabilities can make it possible for an attacker to run their own code on a web server without logging in. The flaw is in PHP itself, not in a specific CMS or plugin. A website could therefore be exposed even if its own code was fully up to date and secure. The PHP project rates both flaws as critical and urges everyone to update immediately.

What we did

• Before the fixes were ready, we put temporary safeguards in place against the known attack methods on all our servers.
• We installed the fixes the same day the PHP project released them. By 18:16 CEST, all our servers were running the fixed versions.
• Afterwards, we removed the temporary safeguards again on the fixed versions, so everything runs as normal.

Which PHP versions are fixed?

Using PHP 7.4, 8.0 or 8.1? The PHP project no longer maintains these versions. Because the vulnerabilities are so serious, it has made a fix for them anyway, and we have installed it. The fix has been backported to your existing version, so the version number may look unchanged, but your website is protected.

Using PHP 7.3 or older? No fix exists for versions this old. We have kept the extra protection in place, but it is no substitute for a fix, and we strongly recommend switching to a newer version.

Have you read about the vulnerabilities in the media?

The vulnerabilities have received a lot of coverage, and advice is being given to everyone who has a website. Here is what that advice means for you as a Simply.com customer.

Does my website use PHP?
If you have web hosting with us and your website is built with, for example, WordPress, WooCommerce or Joomla, it uses PHP. You can see which PHP version it uses in our control panel.

Do I need to update PHP myself or shut down my website?
No. We update PHP on our servers, and that has already been done. You don’t need to shut down your website.

Should I check whether anyone has accessed my website?
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your website. You can download the web server’s log files in our control panel. See how in our guide to log files. If you see content, files or users you didn’t create yourself, or you’re in doubt, contact our support.

Also remember to keep your CMS, plugins and themes up to date. That protects against the vast majority of attacks, including those that have nothing to do with PHP itself.

Do I need to do anything?

No, you don’t need to do anything.

We do recommend always using a PHP version that the PHP project still maintains, i.e. PHP 8.2 or newer. Only those versions receive ongoing security fixes. You can switch PHP version yourself in our control panel. See how in our guide to PHP versions. Take a backup first, and check your website afterwards.

Stay updated

We have posted updates on the matter on our server status page. You can also follow the status of our servers there at any time.

If you have questions, feel free to contact our support.

The post Critical PHP vulnerabilities fixed on all our servers appeared first on Simply.com blog.

Previously, our forwarding server only supported HTTP traffic. This meant that visitors accessing your domain via https:// were not redirected and instead encountered an error.

We have now added full HTTPS support to the forwarding server. It automatically issues SSL certificates, ensuring that redirection works regardless of whether visitors use HTTP or HTTPS.

URL forwarding is included free of charge with all domains at Simply.com.

The post URL forwarding with HTTPS support appeared first on Simply.com blog.

This will be seamless for all domains using Simply.com name servers and does not require any manual action.

Customers who are NOT using our name servers but still rely on our DKIM record must manually add the following records to their DNS zones:

simplycom1._domainkey CNAME dkim1.simply.com
simplycom2._domainkey CNAME dkim2.simply.com

The old unoeuro._domainkey-record can be removed after this date.

At a later time, we will switch to the simplycom2 key, which will be 2048-bit.

The post Changes in DKIM setup appeared first on Simply.com blog.

Simply.com has no plans to remove or stop offering PHP 7.4, just as we still offer several other PHP 7 versions (and even PHP 5.6).

We will set our default PHP version to PHP 8.0 when WordPress and various themes start recommending it over PHP 7.4. We’ll give plenty of notice before making any changes.

If you want to use PHP 8, you can set this up for your web space – read more about this here: https://www.simply.com/en/support/faq/php/503/

The post About PHP 7.4 end-of-life appeared first on Simply.com blog.

In other words, we have future-proofed the platform for the next many years and built a solid technical foundation to further develop the product and the platform on for your benefit.

More speed

We have invested significantly in a brand new hardware platform based on the fastest Intel-CPUs. All of our 700+ servers have gotten new hardware.

Following the upgrade of the servers alone we have seen as much as up to 150% improved PHP performance in some of the preliminary tests we have made.

Furthermore, we have a series of changes planned that are on the way, and that will give an even better response time across all of our products.

New features on the way

We have more optimizations on the way, which among other things include:

• Faster execution with SSL
• Faster static-delivery
• Performance monitoring
• Faster e-mail platform
• MySQL 8
• Improved caching of some of the most popular CMSs, which we know our customers are using.

It is our clear goal to keep giving you full control over what you can do with your web space, instead of being locked down by lots of ridiculous or regulatory implementations. We will on our end then of course ensure optimization of all parts of our delivery from the webserver and downwards.

All customers will be activated on the Generation 4 Platform during August automatically.

We will make sure to announce, on our blog, whenever we make any significant changes, and when we implement the functions mentioned above. Furthermore, as always, we continously add functions and corrections to all parts of our website and control panel, which makes the Simply.com-Experience a class of its own.

PHP 7.4

Along with the platform upgrade we launch the option to run PHP 7.4, and we are also ready for when PHP 8.0 is released later this year. We’ve also made it possible to choose freely which PHP version you wish for your web space to run.

wp-cli and composer are now also pre-installed on all web spaces.

Free E-Mail Alias

We are making mail aliases free for all Standard, Pro and Enterprise products. This means that if you have a domain alias on any of these products, you can from this change on, easily and free of charge activate mail alias on these domains as well. This was 1 EUR per month per mail alias previously.

Updated Prices

As part of the investment in a new platform we are also adjusting the monthly product prices so we can keep delivering strong, stable web spaces with high speed, useful functions, and top-notch security in the future as well.

The new prices follow the general market and look like this:

Basic Suite: 4 EUR/md.
Standard Suite: 8 EUR/md.
Pro Suite: 12 EUR/md.
Enterprise Suite: 21 EUR/md.

The price change takes effect on September 1st 2020 and is applicable from the next time a product enters into a new period.

Up to the 1st of September 2020, we offer all of our customers the option to renew existing products to their “old price” through the Simply.com control panel.

The post Generation 4 Platform Upgrade appeared first on Simply.com blog.

This means that is time to upgrade our default PHP version from PHP 7.2 to PHP 7.4.

From tuesday the 25th of August 2020 we will be offering the following PHP versions:

• PHP 5.6 (slow and old)
• PHP 7.0
• PHP 7.1
• PHP 7.2
• PHP 7.3
• PHP 7.4 (our new default version)

If your Simply.com web space is currently using PHP 7.2, it will be upgraded to PHP 7.4 automatically after the 25th of August 2020.

You thereby do not need to do anything in this regard.

We have chosen to skip PHP 7.3 as WordPress currently recommends PHP 7.4, and it is our goal to follow WordPress’ recommendations in the future.

Most CMSs have long supported PHP 7.3 and PHP 7.4 so there should not be any problems upgrading – see https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration73.incompatible.php for a list of breaking changes.

Remember that you can also choose which PHP version you want your web space to run now. Read more about this here: https://www.simply.com/en/support/faq/php/503/

The post PHP 7.4 Upgrade appeared first on Simply.com blog.

Through several PHP updates, however, we have seen that many customers wish to remain on a specific PHP version as their shop or CMS does not support the newest PHP version, and the process of upgrading it is not always as tangible as one would like.

We therefore now offer that customers can choose a specific PHP version for their web space. This means, that if you use for example Magento 2.1 (which specifically demands PHP 7.0) or Prestashop (which demands PHP 7.1), you can now actively choose this and always use this PHP version in the future.

This of course also means that you miss out on all of the benefits in the new PHP versions, but by selecting a specific PHP version you can choose yourself when to upgrade.

You can read more about how you choose a specific PHP version for your web space here: https://www.simply.com/en/support/faq/php/503/

The post Choose a specific PHP version appeared first on Simply.com blog.