id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	focuses
66108	Fatal error in wp_insert_term() when the term name is not a string	josephscott		"An XML-RPC wp.newPost request with a terms_names entry that is an array instead of a string ends in a fatal error:

{{{
curl -i -H 'Content-Type: text/xml' http://localhost:8889/xmlrpc.php \
--data '<?xml version=""1.0""?><methodCall><methodName>wp.newPost</methodName><params><param><value><int>1</int></value></param><param><value><string>admin</string></value></param><param><value><string>password</string></value></param><param><value><struct><member><name>post_title</name><value><string>Nested term name</string></value></member><member><name>terms_names</name><value><struct><member><name>post_tag</name><value><array><data><value><array><data><value><string>foo</string></value></data></array></value></data></array></value></member></struct></value></member></struct></value></param></params></methodCall>'
}}}


The terms_names loop in `_insert_post()` does not check the type of each term name. `get_term_by( 'name', $array, $taxonomy )` casts the value to a string and returns false, so the code goes on to create the term:

{{{#!php
<?php
$term_info = wp_insert_term( $term_name, $taxonomy );
}}}

`wp_insert_term()` then runs `'' === trim( $term )`. That causes PHP to throw a TypeError for an array, so instead of an XML-RPC fault the client gets an HTTP 500.

Two things need to change:

1. `wp_insert_term()` should return the existing `empty_term_name` WP_Error for a non-scalar `$term`. This covers every caller, including wp.newTerm, the REST terms controller, and plugins. Numeric term names keep working as they do today.
2. The terms_names loop in `_insert_post()` should reject anything that is not a string with an `IXR_Error`, matching the `Invalid term ID.` check for terms by ID right above it.


I will have a PR to address both of those items."	defect (bug)	new	normal	7.2	XML-RPC		normal		has-patch has-unit-tests changes-requested