PrayerBoard Silent Screen Redesign and Election Upload Security Fix

On June 20, 2026, SmartKit received important improvements across PrayerBoard and the Election system.

This update includes a redesigned PrayerBoard silent screen, theme-aware visual refinements, countdown fixes, better light-theme support, restored election avatars, and a security hardening update for election uploads.

Redesigned PrayerBoard Silent Screen

The PrayerBoard silent screen has been fully redesigned with a cleaner and more polished layout.

The updated screen now includes:

• A clock
• A stacked phone and bell icon
• Watermark text
• A visible countdown
• A more refined silent-mode presentation

This makes the silent screen clearer, more useful, and better aligned with the rest of the PrayerBoard display experience.

Theme-Aware Silent Screen Styling

The silent screen now adapts automatically to the active PrayerBoard theme.

Background colors, icons, text, and countdown styling now match the selected theme, creating a more consistent and professional display across different board styles.

Countdown Timer Fix

We fixed an issue where the silent screen countdown appeared frozen.

The root cause was in the display state logic, where the timer update could be skipped too early. The countdown now updates correctly and remains active as expected.

Sound Button Visibility Fix

The Enable Sound button was difficult to see on light themes.

It now uses a universal dark glass style, making the button clear and accessible across both light and dark display themes.

Election Avatar Image Fix

Election participant images were breaking because of a failing external avatar service.

We replaced the dependency with a self-hosted CSS initials avatar helper. This improves reliability and prevents broken avatar images when external services fail.

Election Upload Security Hardening

We completed a security audit of the Election system and confirmed several key protections were already in place:

• CSRF protection is active on all forms
• SQL queries use PDO prepared statements
• Vote fraud protection uses account checks, one-time voter codes, IP checks, browser fingerprinting, and cookies
• User-facing output is escaped to help prevent XSS
• File uploads are restricted to approved image formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, and WEBP

During the audit, we found and fixed one upload security issue.

The election upload directory did not have a protective .htaccess file. This could have allowed uploaded script files to execute if a malicious file reached the directory.

We added election/uploads/.htaccess to block PHP and script execution and disable directory listing. The fix has also been uploaded to the server.

A More Reliable and Secure SmartKit

With the redesigned PrayerBoard silent screen, better theme handling, countdown fixes, restored election avatars, and improved upload protection, SmartKit is now more polished, reliable, and secure.

We will continue improving SmartKit with practical fixes, stronger safeguards, and cleaner user experiences.