RabbitMQ 3.12 end of life
RabbitMQ 3.12 reached the end of community support on 29 February 2024, a week after 3.13.0 shipped on 22 February. Commercial support for the line ended on 30 June 2025. The final release on the line was 3.12.14. Clusters still on 3.12 face a two-hop upgrade, because RabbitMQ requires a stop at 3.13 before moving to 4.x.
What now
Which vendors provide RabbitMQ 3.12 security patches now that support has ended?
Patched RabbitMQ 3.x Builds with SBOM and VEX Attestation- End of life
- 29 February 2024
- Released
- Jun 2023
- Final release
- 3.12.14
- Successor
- RabbitMQ 3.13, then 4.x
Date published by RabbitMQ release information. We do not publish a lifecycle date we cannot source.
Last reviewed
RabbitMQ versions: release and end-of-life dates
| Version | Released | End of life | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RabbitMQ 4.3 | 23 Apr 2026 | 31 January 2027 | Approaching |
| RabbitMQ 4.2 | 28 Oct 2025 | 31 July 2026 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 4.1 | 15 Apr 2025 | 31 January 2026 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 4.0 | 18 Sept 2024 | 30 April 2025 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 3.13 | 22 Feb 2024 | 30 September 2024 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 3.12 (this page) | 2 Jun 2023 | 29 February 2024 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 3.11 | 28 Sept 2022 | 30 June 2023 | End of life |
| RabbitMQ 3.8 | 1 Oct 2019 | 31 July 2022 | End of life |
End-of-life dates are published by each project and checked against endoflife.date.
What actually stops on 29 February 2024
- Community releases on the 3.12.x line. 3.12.14 was the last.
- Security fixes for the broker, management plugin and shipped plugins.
- Erlang/OTP compatibility updates for the line.
What actually breaks in the upgrade
Two hops, and the second one is the hard one
3.12 to 3.13 is a routine rolling upgrade. 3.13 to 4.x removes classic mirrored queues and requires the move to quorum queues, which is application work. Plan the two as one programme; teams that do the easy hop and stop end up back in the same position a year later.
Feature flags must be enabled before you move
RabbitMQ gates upgrades behind required feature flags. All flags from the current version must be enabled before upgrading to the next minor, and a cluster that has been upgraded in place repeatedly sometimes has flags left disabled from an earlier hop. Check before you plan the window, not during it.
Your options, costed honestly
Including the ones that do not involve buying anything from us.
| Option | What it is | Effort | Cost | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upgrade 3.12 to 3.13 now, 4.x next | Rolling upgrade, then the quorum queue programme. | Days, then quarters | Engineering time | Do the first hop immediately: it is routine and it gets you to the required stepping stone. |
| Extended support on 3.12 | Backported CVE fixes for the broker and Erlang layer. | Days | Subscription | Right when an ISV product pins the version and cannot be moved. |
| Stay unpatched | Over two years of unpatched broker CVEs. | None | Zero now | Given that the first upgrade hop is routine, this is the hardest position on this list to justify. |
What OSSeva does for RabbitMQ 3.12
OSSeva patches this line
OSSeva backports CVE fixes to RabbitMQ 3.12 and its Erlang runtime. In most 3.12 cases we will recommend the rolling upgrade to 3.13 first, because it is routine work that materially reduces your exposure, and take the support conversation from there.
RabbitMQ extended supportWhat your auditor will say
Requirement 6.3.3, applied to the broker as a system component.
CC7.1, plus availability. Two years unpatched is a clear control gap.
When did RabbitMQ 3.12 reach end of life?
Community support ended on 29 February 2024, a week after RabbitMQ 3.13.0 was released. Commercial support ended on 30 June 2025. The final release was 3.12.14.
Can I upgrade RabbitMQ 3.12 straight to 4.x?
No. RabbitMQ requires an upgrade through 3.13 first. It is a two-hop migration, and the second hop is the one that removes classic mirrored queues.
Is upgrading RabbitMQ 3.12 to 3.13 risky?
It is a routine rolling upgrade for most clusters. The main precondition is that all required feature flags from the current version are enabled before you start, which is easy to check and easy to forget.
Can I get security patches for RabbitMQ 3.12?
Yes, from a third-party provider. OSSeva backports CVE fixes to the 3.12 line and the Erlang runtime beneath it — though for most 3.12 clusters we would recommend the routine upgrade to 3.13 first.
Get a quote
Still running RabbitMQ 3.12?
Tell us the versions and the estate size. We will tell you honestly whether to upgrade or to buy cover — and we say 'upgrade' more often than you would expect.
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