RabbitMQ 4.3 end of life
RabbitMQ 4.3 leaves community support on 30 November 2026, seven months after 4.3.0 shipped on 23 April 2026. Broadcom lists commercial support for 4.3 until 30 April 2028. The latest public release is 4.3.6. 4.3 is the only line in community support today, and 4.4 has no published release date. OSSeva ships patched 4.3 builds after the community date.
- End of life
- 30 November 2026
- Released
- Apr 2026
- Final release
- 4.3.6 (latest public release, September 2026)
- Successor
- RabbitMQ 4.4 (in development, no release date published)
Date published by RabbitMQ release information. We do not publish a lifecycle date we cannot source.
Last reviewed
What actually stops on 30 November 2026
- Public 4.3.x patch releases. After 30 November 2026, fixes on the line ship in Broadcom's commercial releases.
- Public fixes for later advisories. The pattern is already visible on 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2, where fixes for CVEs published in 2026 went to commercial patch releases after community support ended.
- Community support for any RabbitMQ line until 4.4 ships. The 4.4.0 release notes exist in draft in the rabbitmq-server repository, but no date has been announced.
What actually breaks in the upgrade
Get to 4.3.6 first
CVE-2026-67419, published in September 2026, lets an authenticated user who can bind to a topic exchange push the broker into heavy CPU and memory use with repeated # segments in a binding key. It is fixed in 4.3.5. Any 4.3 cluster below that should move to 4.3.6, the latest public release, before the community date.
Khepri is the only metadata store
4.3 removed Mnesia. Khepri is Raft-based, so a majority of nodes must be online for the cluster to be available. Partition handling settings in rabbitmq.conf are accepted but ignored, and the release notes recommend removing them.
Erlang 28 needs 4.3.6
RabbitMQ's compatibility matrix lists Erlang 27.0 as the minimum for 4.3 and marks Erlang 28 as fully supported from 4.3.6. Earlier 4.3 releases support Erlang 28 for new clusters only, because of a known issue with rolling upgrades from Erlang 27.
Your options, costed honestly
Including the ones that do not involve buying anything from us.
| Option | What it is | Effort | Cost | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSSeva patched builds on 4.3 | Signed 4.3 builds with backported fixes for advisories published after the last public release. | Days | Subscription | Keeps the cluster patched from 1 December 2026 without waiting for 4.4. |
| Broadcom commercial support | Broadcom lists commercial support for 4.3 until 30 April 2028. | Procurement | Commercial subscription | A route to commercial patch releases, on Broadcom's licensing terms. |
| Upgrade to 4.4 when it ships | The next feature release, with no published date yet. | Weeks | Engineering time | The eventual destination. It cannot be planned against 30 November until a date exists. |
| Stay on public 4.3.x | No public fixes after the community date. | None | Zero now | Scanners will flag advisories fixed only in commercial releases, as they already do for 4.0 to 4.2. |
What OSSeva does for RabbitMQ 4.3
OSSeva patches this line
OSSeva ships patched, signed RabbitMQ 4.3 builds, with backported fixes for the broker, the management and federation plugins and the Erlang runtime underneath. They continue after community support ends on 30 November 2026, on the Patch, Assure and Operate tiers.
RabbitMQ extended supportWhat your auditor will say
Every system component in the cardholder data environment needs its applicable security patches. A runtime, framework or broker with no upstream fix supply needs a patched source or a documented compensating control.
Auditors ask for evidence that production systems receive security fixes. A version past end of life fails that test unless another supplier ships the fixes and can show which CVEs they close.
RabbitMQ 4.3: common questions
When does RabbitMQ 4.3 reach end of life?
Community support ends on 30 November 2026. Broadcom lists commercial support for 4.3 until 30 April 2028. 4.3.0 was released on 23 April 2026.
Which RabbitMQ versions can upgrade to 4.3?
Only 4.2.x. RabbitMQ's upgrade guide says 3.13 users must upgrade to 4.2 first, and all stable feature flags, including khepri_db, must be enabled before the move.
What replaces RabbitMQ 4.3?
4.4. Its release notes are in draft in the rabbitmq-server repository, and no release date has been published.
Which Erlang version does RabbitMQ 4.3 need?
Erlang 27.0 or later. Erlang 28 is fully supported from 4.3.6, and earlier 4.3 releases support it for new clusters only.
Who patches RabbitMQ 4.3 after November 2026?
Broadcom, in commercial releases, and OSSeva, which ships patched, signed 4.3 builds on the Patch, Assure and Operate tiers.
Still running RabbitMQ 4.3?
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.