WordPress 5.8.1 which is a short-cycle security and maintenance release is now ready. The latest release comes with 60 bug fixes and 3 security fixes. The WordPress team urged users to update their websites as soon as possible for their websites’ safety. The team also said that the next major release will be version 5.9.
60 bug and 3 security fixes
The WordPress team stated that 3 security issues that were fixed in the release affect WordPress versions between 5.4 and 5.8, thus, all versions since WordPress 5.4 have also been updated. Websites that support automatic background updates already started the update process. If not, users can download the latest version from WordPress’ official website or can go to their dashboard and click “Update Now” from the “Updates” menu.
Fixed security issues are listed below:
- A data exposure vulnerability within the REST API is fixed.
- An 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.
The security team also stated that the following vulnerabilities were reported during the WordPress 5.8 beta testing period, allowing them to be fixed prior to release:
- An XSS vulnerability in the block editor was discovered during the 5.8 release’s beta period.
- A privilege escalation issue in the block editor.