Protocol Buffers 3.25 End of Life Date
Protocol Buffers 3.25 end-of-life date, support status, and CVE risk. Data from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation.
Protocol Buffers 3.25 was released on November 1, 2023 and support is scheduled to end on March 31, 2027 — a planned supported lifespan of 3 years and 5 months. It is a long-term support (LTS) release, so it carries a longer patch window than the interim releases around it. Its most recent patch is 3.25.9, published March 25, 2026.
What does Protocol Buffers 3.25 end of life mean?
When Protocol Buffers 3.25 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 Protocol Buffers 3.25 past its EOL date creates a permanently growing attack surface that standard security tooling will not surface.
Migrate to Protocol Buffers 4.x or implement compensating controls — network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, restricted access — while migration is underway.