"Deprecated: md5(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated" when $author is null

[archon810]

Describe the bug

There's apparently a comment with a null author, and it causes a deprecated warning in the plugin (PHP 8.1+).

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:
The comment ID in our case is: id:6635282509. https://apkmirror.disqus.com/admin/moderate/all/search/id:6635282509

Expected behavior

No notice.

Screenshots

Here's a screenshot from Sentry:

Specifications:

• Wordpress version: 6.7.2
• Plugin version: 3.1.2
• PHP: 8.1

[archon810]

Any updates please? It keeps pinging our Sentry. @chrisjtang

[chrisjtang]

@archon810 Thanks for reporting. This should be fixed in the latest release of the plugin: https://github.com/disqus/disqus-wordpress-plugin/releases/tag/3.1.3

[archon810]

@chrisjtang Please reopen, the bug is not fixed in 3.1.3.

ErrorException: Deprecated: md5(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated
#15 /wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/rest-api/class-disqus-rest-api.php(789): Disqus_Rest_Api::comment_data_from_post
#14 /wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/rest-api/class-disqus-rest-api.php(697): Disqus_Rest_Api::update_comment_from_post
#13 /wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/rest-api/class-disqus-rest-api.php(661): Disqus_Rest_Api::create_or_update_comment_from_post
#12 /wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/rest-api/class-disqus-rest-api.php(242): Disqus_Rest_Api::rest_sync_webhook
#11 /wordpress/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php(1292): WP_REST_Server::respond_to_request
#10 /wordpress/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php(1125): WP_REST_Server::dispatch
#9 /wordpress/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php(439): WP_REST_Server::serve_request
#8 /wordpress/wp-includes/rest-api.php(459): rest_api_loaded
#7 /wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): WP_Hook::apply_filters
#6 /wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook::do_action
#5 /wordpress/wp-includes/plugin.php(565): do_action_ref_array
#4 /wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp.php(418): WP::parse_request
#3 /wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp.php(818): WP::main
#2 /wordpress/wp-includes/functions.php(1342): wp
#1 /wordpress/wp-blog-header.php(16): require
#0 /index.php(23): null

With data:

[chrisjtang]

@archon810 Hmm that is very strange. Based on the provided data and the author being null, it seems like the if ( $author ) check should prevent the thread of execution from entering that code block in the first place. Are you able to ascertain why the if block is being executed?

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that we could add extra checks to prevent md5() from being called with null as the first parameter, but I would like to at least try to understand why it's being called in the first place if $author = null like it seems like it should be here https://github.com/disqus/disqus-wordpress-plugin/blob/master/disqus/rest-api/class-disqus-rest-api.php#L735