Software Update: WordPress 5.8.1

Version 5.8.1 of WordPress has been released. With this program, which is made available under a GPL license, it is possible to set up and maintain a website or blog. WordPress is easy to set up and can be up and running within five minutes if a server with PHP and MySQL is already available. There are possibilities to further extend the functionality of WordPress with plugins and the look with themes to adjust. The most important changes made in version 5.8 are listed for you below:

WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release

This security and maintenance release features 60 bug fixes in addition to 3 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.4 have also been updated. WordPress 5.8.1 is a short-cycle security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.9.

You can download WordPress 5.8.1 by downloading from WordPress.org, or visit your Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.

Security Updates

3 security issues affect WordPress versions between 5.4 and 5.8. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.8, all WordPress versions since 5.4 have also been updated to fix the following security issues:

• props @mdawaffemember of the WordPress Security Team for their work fixing a data exposure vulnerability within the REST API.
• Props to Michał Bentkowski of Securitum for reporting a XSS vulnerability in the block editor.
• The Lodash library has been updated to version 4.17.21 in each branch to incorporate upstream security fixes.

In addition to these issues, the security team would like to thank the following people for reporting vulnerabilities during the WordPress 5.8 beta testing period, allowing them to be fixed prior to release:

• props Evan Ricafort for reporting a XSS vulnerability in the block editor discovered during the 5.8 release’s beta period.
• props Steve Henty for reporting a privilege escalation issue in the block editor.

For more information, browse the full list of changes on Trac, or check out the version 5.8.1 HelpHub documentation page.