FreeBSD stable/11 End of Life Date
FreeBSD stable/11 end-of-life date, support status, and CVE risk. Data from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation.
FreeBSD 11 was released on October 10, 2016 and support ended on September 30, 2021 — a supported lifespan of 5 years, longer than the 1 year and 3 months median for FreeBSD releases. It has been without security patches for 4 years and 10 months. 16 newer FreeBSD releases have shipped since.
Commercial vendors offer security patches beyond EOL. Compare your options.
Compare Options →| Version | Latest | EOL Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| releng/1.0 | — | Aug 31, 1994 | EOL |
| releng/1.1 | — | May 31, 1995 | EOL |
| releng/2.0 | — | Feb 28, 1996 | EOL |
| releng/2.1 | — | Jun 30, 1997 | EOL |
| releng/2.2 | — | Mar 31, 1998 | EOL |
| releng/3.0 | — | May 31, 1999 | EOL |
| releng/3.1 | — | Aug 31, 1999 | EOL |
| releng/3.2 | — | Dec 31, 1999 | EOL |
What does FreeBSD stable/11 end of life mean?
When FreeBSD stable/11 reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches for this version. CVEs discovered after the EOL date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database with no patch available. Exploit code frequently appears on GitHub within days of disclosure.
The CVE blind spot: Most vulnerability scanners check for known CVEs but do not flag the ongoing accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software versions. Running FreeBSD stable/11 past its EOL date creates a permanently growing attack surface that standard security tooling will not surface.
Migrate to FreeBSD releng/15.1 or implement compensating controls — network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, restricted access — while migration is underway.