Perl End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all Perl versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.26 | 5.26.3 | May 30, 2017 | May 30, 2020 | 2215 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.28 | 5.28.3 | Jun 22, 2018 | Jun 23, 2021 | 1826 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.30 | 5.30.3 | May 22, 2019 | May 22, 2022 | 1493 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.32 | 5.32.1 | Jun 20, 2020 | Jun 20, 2023 | 1099 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.34 | 5.34.3 | May 20, 2021 | May 20, 2024 | 764 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.36 | 5.36.3 | May 27, 2022 | May 27, 2025 | 392 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.38 | 5.38.5 | Jul 2, 2023 | Jul 2, 2026 | 9 days remaining | Warning |
| 5.40 | 5.40.4 | Jun 9, 2024 | Jun 9, 2027 | 351 days remaining | Active |
| 5.42 | 5.42.2 | Jul 3, 2025 | Jul 3, 2028 | 741 days remaining | Active |
What does Perl end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of Perl 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: Most vulnerability scanners check for known CVEs but do not flag the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no patch will ever exist. This is the most dangerous gap in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL Perl 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.
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, extended support vendors provide continued security patches for EOL Perl versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
We work with vetted extended support vendors. Tell us what you need and we'll connect you with the right provider.
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