Jason Nickerson — Hosting Industry InsiderTwo decades
inside the web
as it kept rewriting
itself.
I’m Jason, a hosting industry insider with experience across open-source CMS platforms, control panels, cloud infrastructure, and the events that bring the industry together. Today, I focus on building partnerships, programming industry summits, and documenting what is happening across the hosting ecosystem.
- Aug 15, 2026
Chasing the Eternal 20-Year Horizon
Billions are pouring into fusion startups, proving that in the world of venture capital, the promise of unlimited energy is the ultimate long-term play.
Read article: Chasing the Eternal 20-Year Horizon→ - Aug 15, 2026
Hypervisor Escapes: VMware Joins the Club
A critical vulnerability in the VMXNET3 adapter reminds us that even the most established enterprise virtualization stacks aren't immune to guest-to-host escapes.
Read article: Hypervisor Escapes: VMware Joins the Club→ - Aug 14, 2026
When a Billion Dollars Just Isn’t Enough Anymore
Databricks went looking for a billion-dollar top-up and ended up with five times that amount as the AI gold rush continues to distort the definition of a 'normal' funding round.
Read article: When a Billion Dollars Just Isn’t Enough Anymore→
The early 2000s were the good years for tinkerers. Open-source CMS platforms were the closest thing we had to a universal starter kit, and PHP-Nuke and osCommerce were how you learned to ship real projects on the open web. I went deep on Joomla for the better part of a decade, contributing code to the project, organizing its community around releases and events, and eventually crossing over into the WordPress orbit that quietly swallowed everything in its path.
From there the story is a tour of the hosting stack: cPanel and the control-panel era that defined shared hosting, the managed cloud wave at Cloudways and DigitalOcean, and the publishing side at webhosting.today. Day to day now I'm at JetBackup, working on backup and disaster recovery and helping hosts protect the infrastructure that keeps everything running. I also program the seasonal industry summits, Atlas Digital Summit and Domain Days Dubai, where the hosting community gathers to set the agenda for what comes next.
The through-line is community, the conferences, the hallway conversations, and the group chats where the industry actually decides what happens next. The technology changes; the people pointing it in the right direction stay the same.
Twenty-something years,
in reverse.
- 2026 – present
FounderAtlas Digital SummitPrivate gatherings for hosting leaders, AI infrastructure innovators, and the builders of the agentic web.
- 2026 – presentFounderConf64
The Conference Operating System for Business Development and Field Marketing Teams.
- 2026 – present
Co-FounderSuperDeployThe advanced migration engine for AI applications. Seamlessly transition your codebase to independent, production-grade infrastructure in minutes.
- 2025 – 2026Director of Business Developmentwebhosting.today
Contract · Business development and partnerships for the hosting publisher.
- 2024 – presentBusiness Development & Partnerships ManagerJetBackup
Backup and disaster recovery for the hosting ecosystem.
- 2023 – present
Chief Marketing Officer, Founding TeamDomain Days DubaiMENA’s domain and digital asset conference.
- 2021 – 2023Senior Manager, WordPress Business Unit → Lead Community Marketing Manager IICloudways / DigitalOcean
Full-time · WordPress community, field marketing, and sales enablement through the acquisition.
- 2019 – 2021Marketing ManagercPanel
Full-time · Event planner and marketing strategist for 500–3,000 attendee events and virtual series.
- 2017 – 2019FounderCMS Summit
The global CMS conference.
- 2007 – 2019CEO | FounderJoomlaxtc.com / Monev Software LLC
Premium Joomla templates and extensions. 101,000+ members.
- 2015 – 2019Board Member, Capital Team ChairJoomla! Project
Leadership, sponsorships, and partnerships for the open-source CMS.
- 2001 – 2005DeveloperPHP-Nuke · osCommerce era
First shipping code in the early open-source web.
Threat Briefing: Critical SAP RCE, Oracle SSH Update & WP Auth Bypass
Infrastructure & Hosting Layer
SAP Commerce Cloud Critical RCE — Immediate threat to enterprise cloud environments as active exploitation attempts are observed following recent patches [9].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-58231 / CVSS 10.0 (Critical)
- Affected versions: SAP Commerce Cloud versions unpatched prior to August 2026 update.
- Fixed in: SAP August 2026 Security Patch.
- Action now: Apply SAP security notes immediately; review cloud traffic for anomalous RCE patterns.
Oracle Linux 9 OpenSSH Critical Vulnerability — Important security advisory issued for OpenSSH on Oracle Linux 9 [11].
- CVE / severity: ELSA-2026-47756 / Severity: Critical
- Affected versions: OpenSSH packages on Oracle Linux 9.
- Fixed in: openssh-8.7p1-38.el9_4.5 (or higher based on specific ELSA stream).
- Action now: Run
dnf update opensshon all Oracle Linux 9 nodes; restart thesshdservice.
Linux Distros "Won't Fix" Vulnerability — A new vulnerability identified across multiple Linux/Unix distributions that vendors currently indicate will not be patched [12].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-74523 / Severity: Not disclosed in sources
- Affected versions: Multiple Linux/Unix host packages.
- Fixed in: No patch planned by vendors.
- Action now: Implement strict network segmentation and monitor for exploitation of unpatched system packages; consider third-party hardening tools.
Portainer Docker Access Risk — Active exposure detected where non-admin users can gain unauthorized Docker environment access [14].
- CVE / severity: No CVE assigned / Severity: High
- Affected versions: Portainer instances with Standard User roles granted endpoint access.
- Fixed in: Not disclosed in sources.
- Action now: Audit Portainer user roles; restrict endpoint-level access to trusted administrators only.
WordPress & CMS Layer
User Profile Builder Auth Bypass — Type confusion vulnerability allows attackers to bypass authentication entirely [1, 2].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-15826 / CVSS not disclosed (High potential impact)
- Affected versions: User Profile Builder <= 3.16.4
- Fixed in: 3.16.5 (indicated by version ceiling)
- Action now:
wp plugin update user-profile-builder; verify user logs for unauthorized logins during the vulnerability window.
Pods Plugin Privilege Escalation — Authorization bypass allows lower-privileged users to escalate permissions via custom content types [3].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-19598 / Severity: High
- Affected versions: Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields (all versions up to current)
- Fixed in: Not disclosed in sources.
- Action now: Disable the plugin if high-risk custom fields are exposed to non-admins; monitor for unauthorized content type modifications.
Link Library Arbitrary File Deletion — Lack of path validation allows attackers to delete critical system or site files [4].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-18855 / Severity: High
- Affected versions: Link Library (up to current version)
- Fixed in: Not disclosed in sources.
- Action now: Audit the
ll_delete_link_fieldsfunction; restrict access to plugin settings to senior admins only.
Windows Ecosystem Alert
Windows Zero-Day Under Active Attack — Exploitation of a new Windows kernel-level vulnerability has been confirmed in the wild [10].
- CVE / severity: CVE-2026-68820 / Severity: Critical
- Affected versions: Windows OS (specific builds not listed but affecting current ecosystem).
- Fixed in: August 2026 Cumulative Updates.
- Action now: Force Windows Update on all workstations and servers; monitor for Gunra and WindRelay malware signatures [10].
On the
road.
Conferences, summits, and WordCamps I’ll be at in the months ahead.
- Aug 16 – 19, 2026
- Sep 28 – 29, 2026
- Domain Days DubaiRescheduled
New dates to be announced.
Oct 15 – 16, 2026 - Nov 11 – 12, 2026
- State of the WordDec 2026
- Mar 15 – 18, 2027
When the servers
go quiet.
A small digital label putting out industrial house, progressive house, and dubstep. A different kind of open protocol.
Twenty years of showing up for the projects, communities, and voices that keep the open web open.
A news portal covering the hosting and domain industry — and a running excuse to keep talking to the people who build it.