Magento Open Source 2.4.0 Release Notes

This release includes all the core quality improvements included in Magento 2.3.5-p1, more than 100 new fixes for the core code and 30 security enhancements. It includes the resolution of 226 GitHub issues by Magento community members. These community contributions range from a minor cleanup of the core code to significant improvements in inventory management and GraphQL.

Minor releases bring significant code improvements. Before upgrading to Magento 2.4.0, make sure your environment meets the minimum technical stack requirements (Vicus is happy to work with you and your hoster to ensure your Magento hosting meets these specifications).

Quarterly versions may contain backward incompatible changes (BIC). Magento 2.4.0 contains minor backward incompatible changes. See BIC reference to view minor backward incompatible changes. (Major backward incompatibility issues are described in BIC highlights. Not all releases introduce significant BICs.)

Functionalities

• The browser Internet Explorer 11.x is no longer supported.
• Elasticsearch 7.6.x is now the default search program. The old search engine no longer works.

Significant security enhancements

This release includes more than 30 security fixes and platform security enhancements.

More than 30 security enhancements that help close vulnerabilities for remote code execution (RCE) and cross-site scripting (XSS). To date, no confirmed attacks related to these issues have occurred. However, certain vulnerabilities could potentially be exploited to gain access to customer information or take over administrator sessions. Most of these issues require an attacker to first gain access to Admin. Therefore, we remind you to take all necessary steps to protect your Admin, including but not limited to these efforts: IP downlisting, two-factor authentication, using a VPN, using a single location instead of / admin, and good password hygiene.

• Implementation of e Two-factor Authentication (2FA) for Admin accounts. Read more about Two-factor Authentication (2FA)...
• Support for a brand new security.txt file. This file is an industry standard file on the server that allows security researchers to report potential security issues to site administrators.

Platform upgrades

The following platform upgrades help improve website security and performance. Supported versions of PHP and PHPUnit, Elasticsearch, MySQL and other dependencies are listed in Magento 2.4 technology stack requirements.

Adaptation to hosting (also has cost implications)

• Support for PHP 7.4 introduced and PHP 7.1 and 7.2 obsolete. Magento 2.4.0 introduces support for PHP 7.4.
• Elasticsearch 7.6.x is now the default catalog tool (insite-search) for Magento Commerce and Open Source. you cannot install or upgrade to Magento 2.4.0 without also installing Elasticsearch 7.6.x.
• MySQL 8.0 support to take advantage of improved performance, security and reliability. Although MySQL 5.7 remains supported for Magento 2.4.x, MySQL 5.6 is no longer supported. you cannot host Magento 2.4.x with a MySQL 5.6 database.
• MariaDB 10.4 support. MariaDB 10.0 and 10.1 are no longer supported.

Adobe Stock Integration v2.0

Ability to purchase licenses for previews of stock images from the Media Gallery. Sellers can now find any Adobe Stock preview image in the Media Gallery, reducing the number of steps required to purchase a license for a stock preview image.

New Media Gallery

This replacement for the previous Media Gallery provides a replacement, searchable interface for Magento media assets. Administrators can now search, filter and type images up to 30x faster than possible with the previous version of this feature. Vendors can use this tool to measure storefront image usage. Extension developers should remember that extensions developed for the Media Gallery will not work unnecessarily with the new Media Gallery.

Inventory Management

Improvements in Stock Management for this release include support for in-store pickup and support for bundle products. See the Stock Management release notes for a more detailed discussion of recent bug fixes for Stock Management.

Klarna

This release includes new on-site messaging options to help shoppers understand the credit and financing options available. It also includes improvements to refunds, API efficiency, cookies and unit testing, discounts, configuration settings now include the On-Site Messaging section for controlling the storefront display of Klarna promotional messages.

Read the entire post on the Magento website.