This security and maintenance release features 60 bugfixes 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 by visiting your Dashboard → Updates and clicking “Update Now”.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.
Security Updates
Three 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 to @mdawaffe, a member 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 to Evan Ricafort for reporting a XSS vulnerability in the block editor discovered during the 5.8 release’s beta period.
Props to Steve Henty for reporting a privilege escalation issue in the block editor.
Thank you to all of the reporters for privately disclosing the vulnerabilities. This gave the WordPress security team time to fix the vulnerabilities before WordPress sites could be attacked.
Introducing 5.8 “Tatum”, our latest and greatest release. Named in honour of Art Tatum, the legendary jazz pianist. His formidable technique and willingness to push boundaries inspired musicians and changed what people thought could be done.
So fire up your music service of choice and enjoy Tatum’s famous recordings of ‘Tea for Two’, ‘Tiger Rag’, ‘Begin the Beguine’, and ‘Night and Day’ as you read about what the latest WordPress version brings to you.
Three Essential Powerhouses
Manage Widgets with Blocks
After months of hard work, the power of blocks has come to both the Block Widgets Editor and the Customiser. Now you can add blocks both in widget areas across your site and with live preview through the Customiser. This opens up new possibilities to create content: from no-code mini layouts to the vast library of core and third-party blocks. For our developers, you can find more details in the Widgets dev note.
Display Posts with New Blocks and Patterns
The Query Loop Block makes it possible to display posts based on specified parameters; like a PHP loop without the code. Easily display posts from a specific category, to do things like create a portfolio or a page full of your favourite recipes. Think of it as a more complex and powerful Latest Posts Block! Plus, pattern suggestions make it easier than ever to create a list of posts with the design you want.
Edit the Templates Around Posts
You can use the familiar block editor to edit templates that hold your content – simply activate a block theme or a theme that has opted in for this feature. Switch from editing your posts to editing your pages and back again, all while using a familiar block editor. There are more than 20 new blocks available within compatible themes. Read more about this feature and how to experiment with it in the release notes.
Three Workflow Helpers
Overview of the Page Structure
Sometimes you need a simple landing page, but sometimes you need something a little more robust. As blocks increase, patterns emerge, and content creation gets easier, new solutions are needed to make complex content easy to navigate. List View is the best way to jump between layers of content and nested blocks. Since the List View gives you an overview of all the blocks in your content, you can now navigate quickly to the precise block you need. Ready to focus completely on your content? Toggle it on or off to suit your workflow.
Suggested Patterns for Blocks
Starting in this release, the Pattern Transformations tool will suggest block patterns based on the block you are using. Right now, you can give it a try in the Query Block and Social Icon Block. As more patterns are added, you will be able to get inspiration for how to style your site without ever leaving the editor!
Style and Colourise Images
Colourise your image and cover blocks with duotone filters! Duotone can add a pop of colour to your designs and style your images (or videos in the cover block) to integrate well with your themes. You can think of the duotone effect as a black and white filter, but instead of the shadows being black and the highlights being white, you pick your own colours for the shadows and highlights. There’s more to learn about how it works in the documentation.
For Developers to Explore
Theme.json
Introducing the Global Styles and Global Settings APIs: control the editor settings, available customisation tools, and style blocks using a theme.json file in the active theme. This configuration file enables or disables features and sets default styles for both a website and blocks. If you build themes, you can experiment with this early iteration of a useful new feature. For more about what is currently available and how it works, check out this dev note.
Dropping support for IE11
Support for Internet Explorer 11 has been dropped as of this release. This means you may have issues managing your site that will not be fixed in the future. If you are currently using IE11, it is strongly recommended that you switch to a more modern browser.
Adding support for WebP
WebP is a modern image format that provides improved lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. WebP images are around 30% smaller on average than their JPEG or PNG equivalents, resulting in sites that are faster and use less bandwidth.
Adding Additional Block Supports
Expanding on previously implemented block supports in WordPress 5.6 and 5.7, WordPress 5.8 introduces several new block support flags and new options to customise your registered blocks. More information is available in the block supports dev note.
Check out the Field Guide for more!
Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It highlights developer notes for each change of which you may want to be aware: WordPress 5.8 Field Guide.
The Squad
The WordPress 5.8 release was lead by Matt Mullenweg, and supported by this highly enthusiastic release squad:
In addition to these contributors, many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They answer questions from people across the world, whether they are using WordPress for the first time, or they’ve been around since the first release all the way back in 2003. These releases are as successful as they are because of their efforts!
Finally, thanks to all the community translators who help make WordPress available in over 200 languages for every release. 80 languages have translated 80%, or more, of WordPress 5.8 and our community translators are hard at work ensuring more languages are on their way. If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more. Check out Make WordPress or the core development blog.
This security release features one security fix. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.
WordPress 5.7.2 is a short-cycle security release. The next major release will be version 5.8.
You can update to WordPress 5.7.2 by downloading from WordPress.org, or by visiting your Dashboard → Updates and clicking “Update Now”.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.
Security Updates
One security issue affecting WordPress versions between 3.7 and 5.7. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.7, all WordPress versions since 3.7 have also been updated to fix the following security issue:
This security and maintenance release features 26 bug fixes in addition to two security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 4.7 have also been updated.
WordPress 5.7.1 is a short-cycle security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.8.
You can download WordPress 5.7.1 by downloading from WordPress.org, or by visiting your Dashboard → Updates and clicking “Update Now”.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.
Security Updates
Two security issues affect WordPress versions between 4.7 and 5.7. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.7, all WordPress versions since 4.7 have also been updated to fix the following security issues:
Thank you SonarSource for reporting an XXE vulnerability within the media library affecting PHP 8.
Thank you Mikael Korpela for reporting a data exposure vulnerability within the REST API.
Thank you to all of the reporters for privately disclosing the vulnerabilities. This gave the security team time to fix the vulnerabilities before WordPress sites could be attacked.
Bringing you fresh colours in the admin, simpler interactions in the editor, and controls right where you need them, WordPress 5.7 lets you focus on the content you create.
Meet “Esperanza”, the first WordPress release of 2021. “Esperanza” is named in honour of Esperanza Spalding, a modern musical prodigy. Her path as a musician is varied and inspiring – learn more about her and give her music a listen!
With this new version, WordPress brings you fresh colours. The editor helps you work in a few places you couldn’t before without getting into code or hiring a pro. The controls you use most are right where you need them. Layout changes that should be simple, are even simpler to make.
Now the new editor is easier to use
Font-size adjustment in more places: now, font-size controls are right where you need them in the List and Code blocks. No more trekking to another screen to make that single change!
Reusable blocks: several enhancements make reusable blocks more stable and easier to use. And now they save automatically with the post when you click the Update button.
Inserter drag-and-drop: drag blocks and block patterns from the inserter right into your post.
You can do more without writing custom code
Full-height alignment: have you ever wanted to make a block, like the Cover block, fill the whole window? Now you can.
Buttons block: now you can choose a vertical or a horizontal layout. And you can set the width of a button to a preset percentage.
Social Icons block: now you can change the size of the icons.
A simpler default colour palette
This new streamlined colour palette collapses all the colours that used to be in the WordPress source code down to seven core colours and a range of 56 shades that meet the WCAG 2.0 AA recommended contrast ratio against white or black.
Find the new palette in the default WordPress Dashboard colour scheme, and use it when you’re building themes, plugins, or any other components. For all the details, check out the Colour Palette developer note.
From HTTP to HTTPS in a single click
Starting now, switching a site from HTTP to HTTPS is a one-click move. WordPress will automatically update database URLs when you make the switch. No more hunting and guessing!
New Robots API
The new Robots API lets you include the filter directives in the robots meta tag, and the API includes the max-image-preview: large directive by default. That means search engines can show bigger image previews, which can boost your traffic (unless the site is marked not-public).
Lazy-load your iFrames
Now it’s simple to let iframes lazy-load. By default, WordPress will add a loading="lazy" attribute to iframe tags when both width and height are specified.
Ongoing cleanup after update to jQuery 3.5.1
For years, jQuery helped make things move on the screen in ways the basic tools couldn’t – but that keeps changing, and so does jQuery.
In 5.7, jQuery gets more focused and less intrusive, with fewer messages in the console.
Check the Field Guide for more!
Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It highlights developer notes for each change you may want to be aware of. WordPress 5.7 Field Guide.
The Squad
The WordPress 5.7 release comes to you from a small and experienced release squad:
This release is the reflection of the hard work of 481 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on nearly 250 tickets on Trac and over 950 pull requests on GitHub.
This maintenance release includes 5 bug fixes. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.6.1, so you’ll want to upgrade.
You can download WordPress 5.6.2 directly, or visit the Dashboard → Updates screen and click Update Now. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.
WordPress 5.6.2 is a small maintenance release focused on fixing user-facing issues discovered in 5.6.1. The next major release will be version 5.7, currently scheduled for release on 9 March 2021.
This maintenance release features 20 bug fixes as well as 7 issues fixed for the block editor. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.6, so you’ll want to upgrade.
You can download WordPress 5.6.1 directly, or visit the Dashboard → Updates screen and click Update Now. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.
WordPress 5.6.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.7.
Meet Simone, our latest and greatest WordPress release. Named in honour of the legendary performer Nina Simone, who is known for tunes like “Feeling Good”, “Young, Gifted and Black”, and “Four Women”. Fire up a playlist with her best work and read on to discover what we have in store for you.
Welcome to WordPress 5.6
Sharing your stories has never been easier.
WordPress 5.6 brings you countless ways to set your ideas free and bring them to life. With a brand-new default theme as your canvas, it supports an ever-growing collection of blocks as your brushes. Paint with words. Pictures. Sound. Or rich embedded media.
Greater layout flexibility
Bring your stories to life with more tools that let you edit your layout with or without code. Single column blocks, designs using mixed widths and columns, full-width headers, and gradients in your cover block – make small changes or big statements with equal ease!
More block patterns
In some themes, preconfigured block patterns make setting up standard pages on your site a breeze. Let the power of patterns streamline your workflow and save you clicks. Plus, share these features with clients, editors, and more.
Better video captioning
To help you add subtitles or captions to your videos, you can now upload them within your post or page. This makes it easier than ever to make your videos accessible for anyone who needs or prefers to use subtitles.
Twenty Twenty-One is here!
Twenty Twenty-One is a blank canvas for your ideas, and the block editor is the best brush. It is built for the block editor and packed with brand-new block patterns you can only get in the default themes. Try different layouts in a matter of seconds, and let the theme’s eye-catching, yet timeless design make your work shine.
What’s more, this default theme puts accessibility at the heart of your website. It conforms to the WordPress accessibility-ready guidelines and addresses several more specialised standards from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AAA. It will help you meet the highest level of international accessibility standards when you create accessible content and choose plugins which are accessible too!
A rainbow of soft pastels
Perfect for a new year, Twenty Twenty-One gives you a range of pre-selected colour palettes in pastel, all of which conform to AAA standards for contrast. You can also choose your own background colour for the theme, and the theme chooses accessibility-conscious text colours for you – automatically!
Need more flexibility than that? You can also choose your own colour palette from the colour picker.
Improvements for everyone
Expanding auto-updates
For years, only developers have been able to update WordPress automatically. But now you have that option, right in your dashboard. If this is your first site, you have auto-updates ready to go, right now! Upgrading an existing site? No problem! Everything is the same as it was before.
Accessibility Statement
Even if you’re not an expert, you can start letting others know about your site’s commitment to accessibility! The new feature plugin includes template copy for you to edit and publish, and it’s written to support different contexts and jurisdictions.
Built-in Patterns
If you’ve not had the chance to play with block patterns yet, all default themes now feature a range of block patterns that let you master complex layouts with minimal effort. Customise the patterns to your liking with the copy, images, and colours that fit your story or brand.
For developers
REST API authentication with Application Passwords
Thanks to the API’s new Application Passwords authorisation feature, third-party apps can connect to your site seamlessly and securely. This new REST API feature lets you see what apps are connecting to your site and control what they do.
More PHP 8 support
5.6 marks the first steps toward WordPress Core support for PHP 8. Now is a great time to start planning how your WordPress products, services, and sites can support the latest PHP version. For more information about what to expect next, read the PHP 8 developer note.
In addition, many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They answer questions from people across the world, whether they are using WordPress for the first time, or they’ve been around since the first release all the way back in 2003. These releases are as successful as they are because of their efforts!
Finally, thanks to all the community translators who helped make WordPress 5.6. available in 38 languages at the time of release. Our community translators are hard at work ensuring more languages are on their way (70 are already at 90%). If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more. Check out Make WordPress or the core development blog.
