Introduction to the upcoming Magento 2 Security Patch Releases

One of the important factors for any Ecommerce store owner is the security breach in their E-commerce store. Over time digital fraud is growing at an exponential rate especially in the arena of Ecommerce because lack of security and having valuable customer information stored in the database. Therefore, security is a more important aspect of an online Ecommerce store. According to the report by Gartner, Digital companies that are trustworthy will generate 20% more sales online as compared to other remaining stores.

Magento is a clear winner when you are looking for Ecommerce platform. Magento is not just open-source but also it is easy customizable CMS who is better known for its security updates. But in order to evade such security issues, Magento provides various security patches updates to older Magento users. Based on a study by ZDNet it was identified that 83.1% of Magento open-source sites and Magento E-commerce hacks were caused due to running on outdated versions. Even though the Magento emphasizes on security in all of their new releases, it is equally important for the Magento Ecommerce store owner to take notice regarding those new enhancements and keep their store updated.

Based on the stats & market trend, Magento has made the year 2019 as the year of security. Their engineers have invariably undertaken the task of securing the Magento commerce 2 by reducing 93% of security issue backlogs for the last 8 months. Ongoing Magento open-source versions and commerce’s Magento shipped 139 security fixes. Also, upcoming Q3 release will have highest 157 fixes among all the released security patches. As compared to the previous year’s investment in security, Magento has doubled its investment and also improved their approach towards security by creating broader strategic changes to enhance Ecommerce store security. Also, they have increased their security investment for the upcoming year 2020 along with roadmap.

Upcoming security patch will be only released for open source 2.3.2 and Magento commerce in the Q3 shipment. This security-only patch will provide an option to get the security updates required for black-Friday, but have to delay the less time-delicate quality, performance, and other adjustments until later. The patch will be called as “2.3.2-p“. What an unusual name for a security-only patch you might be thinking especially the patch being released next to the 2.3.3 release. The main reason behind keeping such naming scheme is that upcoming patch will be on prior to Magento’s latest release line so their uses can get the best possible updates. The Schema is flexible which will provide a continuous path and security fixes, or provide the option to choose a lighter security-only patch release when the Magento store owner needs to, By doing so the owner will be secure for as long as six months before considering a full release.

Feeling complicated but it’s not let’s understand through some examples.

Example 1: Full service later but security now:

In Q3’19, you upgrade your 2.3.2 instance to 2.3.2-p1.

In Q1’20, you can upgrade your 2.3.2-p1 instance to 2.3.4.

Example 2: An entire update

In Q3’19, you upgrade your 2.3.2 instance to 2.3.3.

In Q1’20, you can upgrade your 2.3.3 instance to 2.3.4.

In Q1’20, you upgrade your 2.3.3. instance to either 2.3.4 or 2.3.3-p1, depending on the complexity of the upgrade you want to take on.

 Example 3:  Security-only update to security-only update:

In Q3’19, you upgrade your 2.3.2 instance to 2.3.2-p1.

In Q1’20, you can upgrade your 2.3.2-p1 instance to 2.3.3-p1.

Example 4:  Functional changes later but security now:

In Q3’19, you upgrade your 2.3.2 instance to 2.3.2-p1.

Between Q3’19 and Q1’20, you upgrade your 2.3.2-p1 instance to 2.3.3 to get access to the quality updates. In Q1’20, you upgrade your 2.3.3. Instance to either 2.3.4 or 2.3.3-p1, depending on the complexity of the upgrade you want to take on.

After all the discussion about the security patches the main question arises is that where to get your hands on the security patch. Well, Magento will release the security-only patch to the Ecommerce customers as a part of composer package and their technology partners.

Magento is a platform which is constantly growing and changing as per the market requirements. However, this all new security releases are a very crucial factor which composes a robust path for the Ecommerce store owners in order to survive in the ever-growing online market. But if you are still using older Magento, you should upgrade your store to latest Magento 2 and if you are already using latest Magento 2 then it’s time to get your security patch installed to secure your store at cost effective price, Contact us now.