WordPress released a maintenance update that contains twenty changes to the core and fixes fifteen issues in the Gutenberg block editor. WordPress also announced that it is dropping security support for WordPress versions 4.1 to 4.6.
Short-Cycle Maintenance Release
This is a maintenance release that incrementally makes WordPress a smoother experience.
Some of the fixes that are representative of what’s in this release:
- Fixed an issue with uploaded Mac screenshots that resulted in broken images
- Removed obsolete “novalidate” attribute from comment forms, originally added in 2013 to compensate for browsers that didn’t support HTML5.
- Introduced a development mode for block editor styles so that style changes appear immediately during development without needing to clear the browser cache.
Dropping Security Support
WordPress announced that it is dropping support for versions 4.1 through 4.6. According to the official WordPress stats, only 0.9% of websites are using those versions of WordPress.
Statement on release page:
“Dropping security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6
This is not directly related to the 6.8.2 maintenance release, but branches 4.1 to 4.6 had their final release today. These branches won’t receive any security update anymore.”
Another WordPress page provides more information:
“As of July 2025, the WordPress Security Team will no longer provide security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6.
These versions were first released nine or more years ago and over 99% of WordPress installations run a more recent version. The chances this will affect your site, or sites, is very small.”
Read the official WordPress 6.8.2 announcement:
WordPress 6.8.2 Maintenance Release
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