FortiAuthenticator End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all FortiAuthenticator versions. Dates read at the vendor's own lifecycle pages (support.fortinet.com). Updated at every deploy.
FortiAuthenticator 8.0 is supported until April 2, 2030, its end-of-support date. Active support for FortiAuthenticator 8.0 ends on October 2, 2028. The next FortiAuthenticator version to reach end of life is 6.6, on June 11, 2028. 27 of 29 tracked FortiAuthenticator versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 6.5, did so on June 30, 2026. The full FortiAuthenticator lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
Running an EOL version? Get matched with support options — free ↓| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 1.0 | Jul 8, 2011 | Jul 8, 2014 | 4493 days past EOL | EOL |
| 1.1 | 1.1 | Sep 21, 2011 | Sep 21, 2014 | 4418 days past EOL | EOL |
| 1.2 | 1.2 | Jan 11, 2012 | Jan 11, 2015 | 4306 days past EOL | EOL |
| 1.3 | 1.3 | May 14, 2012 | May 14, 2015 | 4183 days past EOL | EOL |
| 2.0 | 2.0 | Oct 24, 2012 | Apr 24, 2017 | 3472 days past EOL | EOL |
| 2.1 | 2.1 | Feb 28, 2013 | Aug 28, 2017 | 3346 days past EOL | EOL |
| 2.2 | 2.2 | Apr 19, 2013 | Oct 19, 2017 | 3294 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.0 | 3.0 | Oct 22, 2013 | Apr 22, 2018 | 3109 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.1 | 3.1 | Jun 17, 2014 | Dec 17, 2018 | 2870 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.2 | 3.2 | Oct 22, 2014 | Apr 22, 2019 | 2744 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.3 | 3.3 | Feb 5, 2015 | Aug 5, 2019 | 2639 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.0 | 4.0 | Jul 30, 2015 | Jan 30, 2020 | 2461 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.1 | 4.1 | Mar 31, 2016 | Sep 30, 2020 | 2217 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.2 | 4.2 | Nov 10, 2016 | May 10, 2021 | 1995 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.3 | 4.3 | Mar 10, 2017 | Sep 10, 2021 | 1872 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.0 | 5.0 | Jun 30, 2017 | Dec 30, 2021 | 1761 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.1 | 5.1 | Nov 3, 2017 | May 30, 2022 | 1610 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.2 | 5.2 | Jan 5, 2018 | Jul 5, 2022 | 1574 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.3 | 5.3 | May 7, 2018 | Nov 7, 2022 | 1449 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.4 | 5.4 | Aug 15, 2018 | Feb 15, 2023 | 1349 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.5 | 5.5 | Nov 19, 2018 | May 19, 2023 | 1256 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.0 | 6.0 | Mar 14, 2019 | Sep 14, 2023 | 1138 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.1 | 6.1 | Mar 30, 2020 | Sep 30, 2024 | 756 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.2 | 6.2 | Sep 16, 2020 | Mar 16, 2025 | 589 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.3 | 6.3 | Apr 22, 2021 | Oct 22, 2025 | 369 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.4 | 6.4 | Aug 6, 2021 | Feb 6, 2026 | 262 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.5 | 6.5 | Feb 14, 2022 | Jun 30, 2026 | 118 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.6 | 6.6 | Dec 11, 2023 | Jun 11, 2028 | 594 days remaining | Active |
| 8.0 | 8.0 | Oct 2, 2025 | Apr 2, 2030 | 1254 days remaining | Active |
[](https://endoflife.ai/fortiauthenticator)
FortiAuthenticator lifecycle status — the real story
FortiAuthenticator identity and authentication appliance lifecycle from Fortinet's public product life cycle portal (same verified endpoint and mapping as FortiManager and FortiProxy: releaseDate = GA, support = End of Engineering Support, eol = End of Support; generated by tools/fortinet-lifecycle.mjs, fetched 2026-09-08). All 29 published software lines included (1.0 through 8.0); hardware appliance rows on the same endpoint are skipped, they belong to a hardware platform file. 27 of the 29 lines are past End of Support as of the fetch date.
KEV context: no CISA catalog entry names FortiAuthenticator as of catalogVersion 2026.09.08; the risk score for this product carries no KEV factor until the catalog does.
FortiAuthenticator release and support pattern
Across the 29 release lines with a published release date, FortiAuthenticator has shipped a new line roughly every 4 months (median interval). A line typically stays supported for about 4.5 years from its release to its end-of-life date.
Of the 29 release lines tracked, 27 are past end of life and 2 are still within support. The newest line, 8.0, was released October 2, 2025. The next scheduled end of life is 6.6 on June 11, 2028 — 594 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is 8.0, to April 2, 2030.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
What does FortiAuthenticator end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of FortiAuthenticator reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches. Vulnerabilities discovered after this date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database, exploit code appears on GitHub, and your systems remain permanently exposed.
The CVE blind spot: A CVE-based scan does not show the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no vendor patch is coming. This is one of the most dangerous gaps in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL FortiAuthenticator should treat it as a vulnerability class in their risk register, apply compensating controls (network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, access restriction), and prioritize migration to a supported version.
Your options when FortiAuthenticator reaches end of life
There are four realistic paths. Which one is right depends far more on how long the system needs to keep running than on the version you are on today.
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Move to a supported version | The system will outlive the current version's support window and you can schedule the work | Budget for compatibility testing, not just the upgrade itself — that is where the real cost sits |
| Replace the component | The project is unmaintained, or a better-supported alternative exists | The replacement has its own lifecycle and its own end-of-life date — you are changing vendors, not escaping the problem |
| Buy extended support | Migration is genuinely underway but cannot finish before the deadline, or the workload is frozen by certification or a third-party application | A bridge, not a destination — every year purchased is a year the migration still has to happen |
| Document accepted risk | The system is isolated, short-lived, or scheduled for retirement | Only defensible with real compensating controls and a written decision — auditors treat undocumented end-of-life software as a finding |
How to choose, in one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support purchased repeatedly costs more than doing the project once, and the project only gets harder as the version ages. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next migration before it surprises you.
Worth saying plainly, because vendors selling extended support rarely will: extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon. It is the right answer when a deadline is genuinely unreachable, not as a default. Compare the annual fee against the one-time cost of migrating before committing to either.
Formalizing decisions like this across your estate? Our free EOL policy template is a ready-to-adopt policy with risk tiers, remediation SLAs, and audit mapping — no signup, free to use and share.
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, check whether the vendor or a third party sells extended support with security patches for your FortiAuthenticator version; coverage varies by product and version. Where it exists it is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
FortiAuthenticator has 27 versions past end of life — security patches have stopped, but CVE disclosures haven't. Extended support past the official date exists for many products in this position — whether it exists for FortiAuthenticator is exactly what we check. Tell us where to reach you and we'll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest "no vendor covers this."