macOS 12 End of Life Date
macOS 12 end-of-life date, support status, and CVE risk. Data from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation.
macOS 12 was released on October 25, 2021 and support ended on September 16, 2024 — a supported lifespan of 2 years and 11 months, in line with the 2 years and 11 months median for macOS releases. The last patch it will ever receive is 12.7.6, published July 29, 2024 — 2 months before support ended. It has been without security patches for 1 year and 11 months. 1 newer macOS release has shipped since.
| Version | Latest | EOL Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) | 10.0.4 | Jun 22, 2001 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.1 (Puma) | 10.1.5 | Jun 6, 2002 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) | 10.2.8 | Oct 3, 2003 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) | 10.3.9 | Apr 15, 2005 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) | 10.4.11 | Nov 14, 2007 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) | 10.5.8 | Aug 13, 2009 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) | 10.6.8 | Jul 25, 2011 | EOL |
| Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) | 10.7.5 | Oct 4, 2012 | EOL |
What does macOS 12 end of life mean?
When macOS 12 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 macOS 12 past its EOL date creates a permanently growing attack surface that standard security tooling will not surface.
Migrate to macOS 26 or implement compensating controls — network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, restricted access — while migration is underway.