In addition to the regular feature and product patches typically released, there were a few updates of note last month that may be applicable to your site including:
Security-related Patches in January:
- Essential Addons & Ultimate Addons for the Elementor theme were updated to patch security flaws in January as was the Redux framework.
- Hustle Pro received two security patches bringing it to version 7.8.9.3
- Both CAPTCHA-related plugins, Simple CAPTCHA and hCaptcha also had a couple security holes plugged.
- Finally, Responsive Lightbox Gallery was updated to ver 2.6.1 to patch a cross-site scripting flaw.
All other security patches and affected plugins, including some listed in the overview below, are generally patched via your Care Plan within 24-48 hours of an update becoming available depending upon the severity of the patch.
Ongoing Issues, Updates & Improvements:
Website Backups: For those who are NOT utilizing our Care Plan Hosting packages, I’ve migrated away from an older backup plugin to a much newer, modern, backup plugin to better protect your sites. The migration was completed in January.
As part of the migration, the frequency of backups for non-Care Plan Hosting sites will be adjusted to match the frequency of changes made to your site. In other words, more frequently updates sites will be backed up on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule (depending on your Care Plan) while sites that incur infrequent updates may be shifted to a monthly schedule. This change is to better manage the amount of cloud storage required for backups which translates to keeping costs of the Care Plan lower for everyone.
Important Note for those who are on a Care Plan hosting package, your site will continue to be backed up on a nightly basis as always.
Divi 5: Elegant Themes has officially announced a release date of February 26, 2026 for Divi 5. However, Divi 4 will continue to be supported for at least another 6 months at which point migration to Divi 5 will be mandated to stay up to date. In the mean time, third party plugin support continues to roll out. All Care Plan clients will remain on Divi 4 for now while I begin testing the final release and migrating to the final release after it’s made public. Stay tuned for more updates!
Other updates to note in January included:
Coming after the holidays, January is often a slower month for patches but we still saw patches for Gravity Forms 2.9.25, Yoast 26.7 & 26.8, JetPack 15.4, NextGen Gallery 4.0.4, UpdraftPlus 1.26.1, Gravity SMTP 2.1.3 and PostSMTP 3.8.0, and the behind-the-scenes plugins used to optimize the operation of your site including: Smart Crawl Pro 3.15.0 (SEO support), Hummingbird Pro 3.19+ (advanced caching), Smush Pro 3.23.2 (image compression), and Hustle Pro 7.8.9.2 through 7.8.10.1 (popups and other promotional tools).
Please note that this does not include all updates made to your site, nor does it detail the release notes of any one particular plugin.
As always, if you have any questions or would like more specific details about any of the updates applied to your site specifically, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Plugin Update Summary for January 2026:
WordPress Core
There were no updates to WordPress core in January
Security-Related Updates
Essential Addons for Elementor 6.5.6
Ultimate Addons for Elementor 2.8.1
Redux Framework 4.5.10
Hustle Pro 7.8.9.2 / 7.8.9.3
Simple CAPTCHA Alt 1.37.0
hCaptcha for WP 4.21.1 / 4.22.0
Responsive LightboxGallery 2.6.1 (XSS vuln)
Standard Plugins
SmartCrawl Pro 3.15.0
Hummingbird Pro 3.19
Smush Pro 3.23.2
Hustle Pro 7.8.9.2 / 7.8.9.3 / 7.8.10 / 7.8.10.1
Gravity Forms 2.9.25
GP Advanced Calculations 1.1.21
Post SMTP 3.8.0
Gravity SMTP 2.1.3
Yoast 26.7 / 26.8
JetPack 15.4
NextGen Gallery 4.0.4
Share on Mastodon 0.20.1
UpdraftPlus 1.26.1
Smart Slider 3 Pro 3.5.1.32
Strong Testimonials 3.2.20 / 3.2.21
Responsive LightboxGallery 2.6.1 / 2.7.0
MC4WP 4.11.0 / 4.11.1
Themes and Related Plugins
Divi 5.0 Beta 5.0b7
Divi Supreme Pro 4.9.97.41
Divi Booster 5.0 / 5.0.1
Elementor 3.34.1 / 3.34.2
Astra (Elementor Theme) 4.12.1
Essential Addons for Elementor 6.5.5 / 6.5.6 / 6.5.7 / 6.5.8
Ultimate Addons for Elementor 2.8.1
Redux Framework 4.5.10
WooCommerce-Related
Woo Smart Coupons 9.67.0 / 9.68.0 / 9.69.0 / 9.70.0
Flexible Shipping 6.5.3 / 6.5.4
Flexible Shipping Pro 4.0.12
Woo Shipping 2.1.1 / 2.1.2 / 2.1.3
Woo Tax 3.3.1
PDF Inv & Packing List 5.5.0 / 5.6.0
Woo Order Status Control 1.16.2
Woo Stripe 10.3.0 / 10.3.0
Woo Square 5.2.0
Tickera 3.5.6.6 / 3.5.6.7
Tickera Bridge 1.7.0
Tickera CSV Export
Tickera Custom Forms 1.4.0
Tickera Serial Ticket Codes 1.1.6
Printful Integration 2.2.12
Export Order Items Pro for WooCommerce 2.1.38
YITH Authorize.net 1.51.0
YITH Dynamic Pricing 4.27.0
YITH Membership 2.28.0
YITH Gift Cards 4.30.1 / 4.31.0
YITH AJAX Filter 5.17.0
YITH Product Slider 1.51.0
YITH Sequential Ord Numb 1.52.0
YITH Anti-Fraud 2.9.0