Apache Tomcat 5 End of Life Date
Apache Tomcat 5 end-of-life date, support status, and CVE risk. Data reconciled from official vendor documentation and endoflife.date at every build; the source of each date is on the product page.
Apache Tomcat 5 was released on September 6, 2003 and support ended on September 30, 2012 — a supported lifespan of 9 years and 1 month, in line with the 9 years and 1 month median for Apache Tomcat releases. Its latest release on record is 5.5.36, published October 10, 2012 — 10 days after the published end-of-life date. It has been past its end-of-life date for 14 years and 1 month. 6 newer Apache Tomcat releases have shipped since.
Extended support for Apache Tomcat exists: vetted vendors ship security patches past the official date. Right now that coverage spans Apache Tomcat 8.5, with 40+ post-EOL CVE fixes documented in vendor release notes. Whether it covers Apache Tomcat 5 is part of what we check. Leave an email and we reply within one business day with matched options and pricing guidance, or an honest "no vendor covers this version." Free, no obligation; vendors do not pay for placement.
What does Apache Tomcat 5 end of life mean?
When Apache Tomcat 5 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: A CVE-based scan does not show the ongoing accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software versions. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. Running Apache Tomcat 5 past its EOL date creates a growing attack surface that a clean scan result does not rule out.
Migrate to Apache Tomcat 11.0 or implement compensating controls — network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, restricted access — while migration is underway.