WordPress 6.8 “Cecil,” released on April 15, 2025, was a polish-focused major release whose headline changes were bcrypt password hashing (the first such change since 2008), built-in speculative loading for faster page transitions, and Style Book support for classic themes. More than 900 contributors from 60+ countries built it; the name honors jazz pianist Cecil Taylor.
A lot has happened since: WordPress 6.9 “Gene” arrived in December 2025, and WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong,” the current major release, shipped in May 2026. The 6.8 branch still receives courtesy security backports (6.8.3 landed in September 2025), but if you’re running 6.8 today, the practical advice is simple: update to 7.0.
Still, 6.8 deserves its place in the record books — mostly for a security change years in the making. Here’s what actually shipped, what changed along the way, and which pre-release proposals never made it in.
The Headline Change: Bcrypt Password Hashing
WordPress 6.8 strengthened password security by updating the hashing algorithm from phpass portable hashing to bcrypt, making password hashes significantly more difficult to crack. It was the first change to how WordPress hashes user passwords since 2008. That’s why, for security folks, this understated update was the release’s landmark.
The update also shifted application passwords, user password reset keys, personal data request keys, and recovery mode keys from phpass to BLAKE2b hashing via Sodium — a faster, more secure cryptographic option.
These security enhancements required no administrator action. Existing sessions remained valid, and users weren’t forced to change passwords. WordPress simply rehashes each password with bcrypt the next time a user logs in or updates their credentials. Application passwords and security keys created before WordPress 6.8 stayed valid, and post passwords continued using phpass while the core team researched next steps.
For the technical details, see the core team’s bcrypt announcement.
Speculative Loading: Faster Page Transitions by Default
WordPress 6.8 integrated speculative loading into core to improve page load performance. This technique uses prefetching to load resources the browser anticipates users will need. Start to click a link, and the next page may already be on its way. The result: faster page transitions and a smoother browsing experience.
The implementation built on the Performance Team’s Speculative Loading plugin. By default, core prefetches links with a “conservative” eagerness setting to minimize potential issues, and it only activates for logged-out visitors on sites with pretty permalinks enabled. Developers can customize the behavior with the new “wp_speculation_rules_configuration” filter, or exclude specific paths with “wp_speculation_rules_href_exclude_paths.”
The result is one of those rare performance wins that requires zero configuration: anticipated resources load in the background, site transitions feel faster, and compatibility is preserved for everyone else.
A Restructured Style Book — Now for Classic Themes, Too
The Style Book, the tool for previewing and managing your site’s block styles in one place, got a structured new layout with clearer labels in 6.8. Typography, colors, and block styles are easier to navigate, with changes previewed in the panel as you move through the options.
The bigger story: 6.8 brought the Style Book to classic themes for the first time. If a classic theme supports editor styles or includes a theme.json file, its users get the same organized style overview that block themes enjoy — a meaningful step in closing the gap between the two theme worlds.
Persistent Rendering Mode, Saved per Post Type
Since 6.8, users can choose whether the editor displays the site’s template while editing content or shows only the content being added — and that preference now persists between sessions, saved per post type. Pages default to showing the template and content together.
The option lets you see how content will interact with the final published page by rendering template blocks without making them editable. Because the setting is remembered, you don’t need to reconfigure your preferred view each time you edit.
Starter Content in the Block Inserter
WordPress 6.8 made starter content easier to reach: starter patterns now appear under their own “Starter Content” category in the Block Inserter, alongside the blocks and patterns you already use. The familiar starter-content modal didn’t go away — it gained a preference toggle, so you can turn it off if you’d rather work from the inserter alone.
The updated workflow is consistent with the overall block editing experience: new users get a smoother start, and experienced site builders can pull predefined layouts into a page without breaking stride.
Smarter WP_Query Cache Keys
On the developer side, 6.8 optimized how the “WP_Query” class generates cache keys. Array-type query arguments are now normalized (sorted and de-duplicated) before the cache key is built, so two queries that are effectively identical finally resolve to the same cached result instead of triggering duplicate database work.
WP_Query
WP_Query is a PHP class that you can use to construct queries to the WordPress database. It enables you to customize how posts or pages are rendered on the page without writing SQL queries.
Read MoreBecause “WP_Query” powers so much of WordPress, the win compounds across the ecosystem — with the biggest gains on sites that don’t run a persistent object cache. The core team’s dev note on the WP_Query changes has the details.
What Else Shipped in WordPress 6.8
Beyond the headliners, the release rolled up 320+ enhancements and fixes. Highlights:
- Query Loop improvements: You can now exclude sticky posts from Query Loop results — a small change that ends a long-running layout annoyance.
- Data Views refinements: The management screens in the Site Editor picked up usability improvements, including better density and field controls.
- New tools for block developers: A new “query-total” block landed in core, and the Navigation block’s aria-label support was fixed for assistive technology.
- 100+ accessibility fixes: A broad cleanup across the admin and editor — including removing redundant tooltips that added noise for assistive technology.
What Didn’t Make It Into WordPress 6.8
Pre-release coverage (including an earlier version of this article) tracked several proposals that ultimately didn’t land in 6.8. For the record:
- A core accessible-tooltip API: The proposed standardized tooltip system didn’t ship. Ironically, 6.8’s accessibility work went the other direction — removing redundant tooltips rather than adding a new component.
- Registration security warnings: The planned warning for the risky combination of open registration plus a privileged default user role was deferred out of 6.8 and retargeted to a later release.
- Text prefixes on admin notices: The “Error:/Warning:/Success:” prefix proposal remains an open ticket, not a shipped feature.
- Border support for older bundled themes: Twenty Twenty-One and Twenty Twenty-Two didn’t gain border controls in this cycle.
- “Learn WordPress” links in the dashboard widget: Proposed, but not merged.
That’s the nature of WordPress release cycles: proposals earn their way in only when they’re ready, and “deferred” is a feature of the process, not a failure.
WordPress 6.8 FAQ
When was WordPress 6.8 released?
WordPress 6.8 “Cecil” was released on April 15, 2025, named for jazz pianist Cecil Taylor. It was 2025’s first major release; 6.9 “Gene” followed on December 2, 2025.
Is WordPress 6.8 still supported?
Only the newest major release (currently WordPress 7.0) is officially supported. Older branches like 6.8 receive security backports as a courtesy (6.8.3 shipped in September 2025), but with no guarantee. If you’re still on 6.8, plan your update.
What did WordPress 6.8 change about passwords?
It switched user password hashing from phpass to bcrypt, the first such change since 2008, and moved application passwords and security keys to BLAKE2b hashing. No action was required: passwords rehash automatically at the next login.
What came after WordPress 6.8?
WordPress 6.9 “Gene” (December 2, 2025) brought Notes and an expanded Command Palette, and WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” (May 20, 2026) added AI to core along with a modernized admin. Our WordPress 7.0 guide covers the current release in depth.
6.8 in the Rearview
WordPress 6.8 pitched itself as a quiet polish release, and mostly it was. But bcrypt hashing and core speculative loading gave it more staying power than the “fewer new features” framing suggested. The best way to honor it? Run the current release: WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” carries every one of these improvements forward, plus everything that’s shipped since.
