Security Officer-supported branches update

Jacques A. Vidrine nectar at FreeBSD.org
Fri Dec 31 10:31:06 PST 2004


Hello Everyone,

The branches supported by the FreeBSD Security Officer have been
updated to reflect recent EoL (end-of-life) events.  The new list is
below and at <URL: http://www.freebsd.org/security/ >.  FreeBSD 5.2.1
has `expired' and is no longer supported effective January 1, 2005.
Also note that FreeBSD 4.9 ceased to be supported on November 1, 2004,
while FreeBSD 4.8 will continue to be supported until March 31, 2005.

If you are running FreeBSD 4.9, it is recommended that you upgrade to
FreeBSD 4.10 or to the soon-to-be-released FreeBSD 4.11.
If you are running FreeBSD 5.2.1, it is recommended that you upgrade to
FreeBSD 5.3.

[Excerpt from http://www.freebsd.org/security/ follows]

FreeBSD Security Advisories

    The FreeBSD Security Officer provides security advisories for
    several branches of FreeBSD development. These are the -STABLE
    Branches and the Security Branches. (Advisories are not issued for
    the -CURRENT Branch.)

      * There is usually only a single -STABLE branch, although during
        the transition from one major development line to another
        (such as from FreeBSD 4.x to 5.x), there is a time span in
        which there are two -STABLE branches. The -STABLE branch tags
        have names like RELENG_4. The corresponding builds have names
        like FreeBSD 4.10-STABLE.

      * Each FreeBSD Release has an associated Security Branch. The
        Security Branch tags have names like RELENG_4_10. The
        corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE-p5.

    Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited
    time only, and is designated as one of `Early adopter', `Normal',
    or `Extended'.  The designation is used as a guideline for
    determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.

    Early adopter
        Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be
        supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months
        after the release.

    Normal
        Releases which are published from the -STABLE branch will be
        supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 12 months
        after the release.

    Extended
        Selected releases will be supported by the Security Officer
        for a minimum of 24 months after the release.

    The current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently
    supported branches are given below.  The Estimated EoL (end-of-life)
    column gives the earliest date on which that branch is likely to be
    dropped.  Please note that these dates may be extended into the
    future, but only extenuating circumstances would lead to a branch's
    support being dropped earlier than the date listed.

    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |  Branch   |  Release   |  Type  |  Release date  |  Estimated EoL |
    |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+----------------|
    |RELENG_4   |n/a         |n/a     |n/a             |January 31,2007 |
    |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+----------------|
    |RELENG_4_8 |4.8-RELEASE |Extended|April 3, 2003   |March 31, 2005  |
    |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+----------------|
    |RELENG_4_10|4.10-RELEASE|Extended|May 27, 2004    |May 31, 2006    |
    |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+----------------|
    |RELENG_5   |n/a         |n/a     |n/a             |October 31, 2006|
    |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+----------------|
    |RELENG_5_3 |5.3-RELEASE |Extended|November 6, 2004|October 31, 2006|
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

    Older releases are not maintained and users are strongly
    encouraged to upgrade to one of the supported releases mentioned
    above.

[End excerpt]

Cheers,
-- 
Jacques A Vidrine / NTT/Verio
nectar at celabo.org / jvidrine at verio.net / nectar at FreeBSD.org


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