WordPress 6.8 launched on April 15, 2025 with more than 370 enhancements and 520 bug fixes for the editor, including design improvements, polishing the query loop, and more.
But today, we’d like to highlight two important elements of WordPress 6.8 that significantly improve the security and performance of enterprise WordPress sites: bcrypt for password hashing and native support for speculative loading. Both will elevate your experience on WordPress VIP.
Let’s dive in.
Security improvements: Bcrypt
By upgrading to bcrypt for password hashing, WordPress 6.8 makes passwords more secure. This change strengthens defense against attacks without requiring heavy lifting from enterprise teams. In this update, other key security improvements are happening behind the scenes as well, ensuring that authentication data—such as password reset keys and security tokens—is protected by faster, more secure encryption methods.
This upgrade means stronger protection for user accounts and sensitive data for enterprises. Bcrypt slows down attackers trying to crack passwords while keeping logins fast and seamless for legitimate users. Because this change happens automatically when upgrading to WordPress 6.8, organizations benefit from enhanced security without disruptions—existing passwords will still work, users will remain logged in, and no additional setup is needed.
The password protection system is built to evolve, allowing security improvements to roll out smoothly in future updates. This aligns with modern security standards used in enterprise platforms, which benefit from increased security standards that rise to meet evolving threats. Read more about how WordPress VIP is hardening its enterprise security credentials here.
Performance improvements: speculative loading and LCP
WordPress 6.8’s integration of speculative loading into Core WordPress marks a notable step in improving page speed and user experience for enterprise WordPress sites. By leveraging the Speculation Rules API, speculative loading allows browsers to prefetch URLs dynamically as users interact with a site, reducing the time it takes for the next page to load.
This translates into tangible improvements in key performance metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), a crucial factor in search rankings and user engagement. This solitary feature has already demonstrated a ~1.9% improvement in LCP passing rates across tens of thousands of WordPress sites, and enterprises can now benefit from these gains at scale, natively.
For large media organizations and high-traffic enterprise sites, even marginal improvements in LCP can significantly impact reader retention, ad revenue, and overall engagement. Faster page loads mean users can access content almost instantly, reducing bounce rates and increasing engaged time. Enterprises can enable it with minimal risk while still gaining meaningful performance improvements.
Another advantage for enterprises: speculative loading is a progressive enhancement, meaning it won’t disrupt the browsing experience for users on unsupported browsers. With native support in Chrome, Edge, and Opera—covering most of web traffic—enterprises can confidently rely on this feature to optimize site speed without extensive configuration or maintenance.
By reducing perceived load times and improving LCP, enterprises enhance user experience, improve SEO, and increase overall engagement—all while maintaining the flexibility to adapt the feature to their unique needs. Now built directly into WordPress Core, speculative loading makes high-performance WordPress experiences more attainable than ever.
Want to see the LCP score for your site? Check out our site performance tool now.
Getting started with WordPress 6.8
Security and performance enhancements are always something to look forward to in new WordPress releases. But there’s a lot more to explore in this latest release. If you have questions about how this release will impact your site or need support adapting your workflows, contact the WordPress VIP team. For additional peace of mind, consider our Upgrade Assurance Service.
Author
Stephen Edde, Product Marketing Manager, WordPress VIP
