I actually quite liked that shortcut.

diff --git a/includes/Title.php b/includes/Title.php
index 674fc05..c07d971 100644 (file)
--- a/includes/Title.php
+++ b/includes/Title.php
@@ -1389,6 +1389,10 @@ class Title {
        public function userCanRead() {
                global $wgUser, $wgGroupPermissions;
 
+               # Shortcut for public wikis, allows skipping quite a bit of code path
+               if ($wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'])
+                       return true;
+
                $result = null;
                wfRunHooks( 'userCan', array( &$this, &$wgUser, 'read', &$result ) );
                if ( $result !== null ) {