Shield 1.1 and 1.2 have been released, offering new features and performance improvements based on user feedback, with the primary distinction between the two being their compatibility with different Elasticsearch versions. Shield 1.1 supports Elasticsearch 1.4.2 and newer versions of 1.4.x, while Shield 1.2 requires Elasticsearch 1.5.0 or higher, and the plugin download service now automatically selects the appropriate Shield version based on the Elasticsearch version. Notable additions include LDAP user search, which enhances user authentication flexibility and performance, anonymous access that allows fine-grained control over actions available to non-authenticated users, and dynamic IP filtering that can be managed without restarting the cluster. The updates also include support for mapping LDAP users to roles, filtering sensitive settings from node settings API outputs, and improvements to facilitate the upgrade process.