Security Policy and Supported Versions

Using Pulsar’s Security Features

You can find documentation on Pulsar’s available security features and how to use them here: https://pulsar.apache.org/docs/en/security-overview/.

Security Vulnerability Announcements

The Pulsar community will announce security vulnerabilities and how to mitigate them on the users@pulsar.apache.org. For instructions on how to subscribe, please see https://pulsar.apache.org/contact/.

Versioning Policy

The Pulsar project adheres to Semantic Versioning. Existing releases can expect patches for bugs and security vulnerabilities. New features will target minor releases.

When upgrading an existing cluster, it is important to upgrade components linearly through each minor version. For example, when upgrading from 2.8.x to 2.10.x, it is important to upgrade to 2.9.x before going to 2.10.x.

Supported Versions

Feature release branches will be maintained with security fix and bug fix releases for a period of at least 12 months after initial release. For example, branch 2.5.x is no longer considered maintained as of January 2021, 12 months after the release of 2.5.0 in January 2020. No more 2.5.x releases should be expected at this point, even to fix security vulnerabilities.

Note that a minor version can be maintained past it’s 12 month initial support period. For example, version 2.7 is still actively maintained.

Security fixes will be given priority when it comes to back porting fixes to older versions that are within the supported time window. It is challenging to decide which bug fixes to back port to old versions. As such, the latest versions will have the most bug fixes.

When 3.0.0 is released, the community will decide how to continue supporting 2.x. It is possible that the last minor release within 2.x will be maintained for longer as an “LTS” release, but it has not been officially decided.

The following table shows version support timelines and will be updated with each release.

If there is ambiguity about which versions of Pulsar are actively supported, please ask on the users@pulsar.apache.org mailing list.

Release Frequency

With the acceptance of PIP-47 - A Time Based Release Plan, the Pulsar community aims to complete 4 minor releases each year. Patch releases are completed based on demand as well as need, in the event of security fixes.