Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support Maintenance Policy

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The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support maintenance policy changes to a similar maintenance policy as the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8 and 9 Extended Update Support. The new policy addresses increased customer security requirements by expanding CVE coverage. The new policy eliminates the “inclusions list” maintenance policy of past Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support versions.

Why is Red Hat making this change to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support?

At Red Hat, addressing customers' security risks is of paramount importance. Red Hat expanded the scope of addressing fixes or remediations for Red Hat-defined Critical and Important CVEs on all actively supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support also includes maintenance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability add-on, and the Resilient Storage add-on. By expanding the scope of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support, we hope to reduce the risk profile of our customers, maintain greater stability of their enterprise deployments and lessen the time to resolution of internal security audits.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Update Support maintenance policy consists of addressing (a) security related issues for software packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7 Extended Lifecycle Support, and (b) Urgent bugs for a specified list of packages as detailed below.

This policy applies to packages currently supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server, i.e. packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (rhel-7-server-rpms). Packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optional (rhel-7-server-optional) are not supported and will only receive fixes at Red Hat’s discretion.

Maintained Architectures

  • x86 (64 bit only)
  • IBM S/390x

Security Maintenance

  • Red Hat may provide security fixes for Red Hat defined Critical and Important CVEs for packages within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support
  • The policy applies ONLY on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.9 which Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support is based. Systems covered by RHEL 7 Extended Lifecycle Support must be fully updated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9 in order to receive support. No exceptions to this stipulation will be made.
  • Definition of Critical and Important Impact CVEs is defined by the Red Hat Security Policy

Bug Fix Maintenance

  • The inclusions list below is a minimum set of packages that apply to Urgent bug fixes.
    • bind, bash, chrony, grub2, grubby, glibc, gnutls, httpd, kernel, libgcrypt, libvirt, nss, openssh, openssl, python 2.7, qemu-kvm, rpm, sudo, systemd, wget, yum
  • Urgent bugs not on the list may be addressed at Red Hat discretion.
  • The policy applies ONLY on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.9 which Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support is based.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support Exclusions

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extras
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Supplementary repository
  • Red Hat Software Collections (RHSCL)
  • Red Hat Developer Toolset
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Containers
    • Red Hat does not build Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support containers
    • Customers can build their own containers using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support content.
    • Containers created using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support content are supported as long as they are compliant with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ELS description in this document and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Container Compatibility Matrix.
  • RHEL 7.9 Universal Base Images (UBI)
    • UBI images freeze at the end of the RHEL 7 maintenance period. Customers may build and maintain UBI images
      using RHEL 7 ELS content.
    • Customer created UBI-based containers using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support content are supported as long as they are compliant with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ELS description in this document and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Container Compatibility Matrix.
  • OpenJDK Maintenance
    • OpenJDK 11 maintenance ends October 2024
    • OpenJDK 8 maintenance ends November 2026
  • Apache Tomcat is not maintained during the RHEL 7 ELS period
  • .NET and .NET Core
  • The openldap-server package
  • Note: Red Hat does not maintain Extended Life cycle Support for version 7 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power LE (POWER9), Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM System z (Structure A), and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host.

Additional Information and Options as Red Hat Enterprise Linux Transitions to Extended Life Phase

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