WordPressers! A brand new version of WordPress is here with better security and many bug fixes. WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release is now available for the general public to test. This update was released yesterday and includes 60 bug fixes and 3 security fixes. The release is for all the previous versions of WordPress. Therefore, we recommend you have this update first tested and then only applied to your WordPress site.
The WordPress 5.8.1 update includes a total of 63 enhancements including a few crucial security fixes.
You can either directly download WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release or venture over to your Dashboard > Updates and simply click “Update Now”. Websites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update to v5.8.1.
Since this is a security and maintenance release, we suggest you update your site ASAP to avoid possible fatal errors.
WordPress 5.8.1 Security Updates:
- Fixed: A data exposure vulnerability within the REST API.
- Fixed: A XSS vulnerability in the block editor
- The Lodash library updated to version 4.17.21 in each branch to incorporate upstream security fixes.
For more information on the update, check out the full list of changes on Trac. You can also check out the version 5.8.1 HelpHub documentation page.
According to the official announcement post, WordPress 5.8.1 is a short-cycle release and the next major release is going to be WordPress 5.9 in December.
Jonathan Descrosiers and Evan Mullins were the Lead for WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release.