Why WordPress loads content of links in posts?

Hi,

I have investigated a strange feature of WordPress 5.0.3. It loads the content of all links you insert or edit in posts. I have not found any reason to do this. There are no broken link feature or anything which uses this.

Does anybody know why WordPress is loading the content of link you insert in post? I do not feel this is a good idea because WordPress admins may have private posts and links to private content as well.

HOW TO REPEAT THIS:

1) Install fresh WordPress (5.0.3) without any active plugins (I have installed with Mamp Pro my test version)

2) Follow access log in other web server which you are going to link, e.g. example.com/test.html (e.g. tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log | grep “test.html”)

3) Create a new post and insert there your link, e.g. https://example.com/test.html

4) You should see following kind of lines in access log:

0.0.0.0 – – [14/Feb/2019:07:08:58 +0000] “HEAD /test.html HTTP/1.1” 200 0 “https://example.com/test.html” “WordPress/5.0.3; https://test.multisite.com”
0.0.0.0 – – [14/Feb/2019:07:08:59 +0000] “GET /test.html HTTP/1.1” 200 4510 “https://example.com/test.html” “WordPress/5.0.3; https://test.multisite.com”
0.0.0.0 – – [14/Feb/2019:07:08:59 +0000] “HEAD /test.html HTTP/1.1” 200 0 “https://example.com/test.html” “WordPress/5.0.3; https://test.multisite.com”

Can anybody confirm this?

Any idea why WordPress is doing this?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by mwenell.