Suricata is developed in a cycle of one major version every 2 years, with that version being supported for 3 years. During this time, patch releases will be released as needed, but on average about one patch release every 2 months.
Our version scheme uses semantic versioning and follows a pattern of ‘x.y.z’ (e.g. 6.0.11, 7.0.2), in which we bump ‘x’ for each major release. ‘z’ is bumped for every minor release.
A patch release should always be safe to install over a release in the same branch. The major releases have more room for introducing breaking changes, even though we try to minimize breaking changes in any case.
A branch is typically designated as end-of-life (EOL) 3 years after the first stable release in that branch. Since the major next release is 2 years after the previous major release, this gives a one year window to upgrade major versions while staying supported.
Current EOL Status
- 7.0.x: supported as “stable” until July 2026
- 6.0.x: supported as “old stable” until July 2024, it is recommended to start planning for upgrading to 7.0.x.
- 5.0.x: end of life since August 1st, 2022
- 4.1.x: end of life since December 31st, 2020
- 4.0.x: end of life since May 7th, 2019
- 3.2.x: end of life since December 18, 2017
- all earlier versions: end of life
We strongly recommend updating to a supported branch if you’re still running an older version, and always upgrading to the latest patch release within a branch.
EOL Announcements
EOL announcements will be done by an email to consortium members and by a post to the forum. These announcements will list the end date of the branch involved.