ASP.NET Core 2.3 end of support announcement

Daniel Roth

Principal Product Manager

Update

The ASP.NET Core 2.3 end of support date was updated from April 7, 2027 to April 13, 2027 to align with the Microsoft servicing release cycles. Additional context was also added to clarify that ASP.NET Core 2.3 is no longer recommended as a migration strategy.

Today we are announcing that ASP.NET Core 2.3 will reach end of support on April 13, 2027. After that date, Microsoft will no longer provide security patches, bug fixes, or technical support for ASP.NET Core 2.3.

ASP.NET Core 2.3 was supported on .NET Framework to help facilitate migrations to ASP.NET Core and .NET Core. However, the platform has evolved significantly since then, and ASP.NET Core 2.3 is now far out of date compared to currently supported releases. As a result, continuing support no longer aligns with our goal of helping customers move to a secure, modern, and actively maintained platform. While ASP.NET Core 2.3 remains supported until its end-of-support date, it is no longer recommended as a migration strategy. Customers should instead follow our recommended guidance for migrating from .NET Framework to modern ASP.NET Core.

This announcement provides the required 12 months of advance notice, as defined by the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy for products classified as “Tools.”

Current support policy

ASP.NET Core 2.3 packages (latest patched version only) are currently supported only with .NET Framework (they’re already unsupported on the .NET Core runtime). After April 13, 2027, this support will end and ASP.NET Core 2.3 will not be supported on any version of NET Framework either.

Note that the ASP.NET Core 2.3 packages include the Entity Framework 2.3 packages, which will end support on the same date.

Impact of end of support

After ASP.NET Core 2.3 reaches end of support:

No new security updates will be issued for ASP.NET Core 2.3.
Continuing to use an unsupported version may expose your applications to security vulnerabilities.
Technical support will no longer be available for ASP.NET Core 2.3.
The ASP.NET Core 2.3 packages will be deprecated.

Upgrade recommendation

We understand that upgrading is an investment, and we want to make the process as smooth as possible. Modern versions of .NET offer significant improvements in performance, security, and developer productivity that make the upgrade well worth the effort.

We recommend upgrading to a currently supported version of .NET, such as .NET 10 (LTS).

To help with the upgrade process, we recommend using GitHub Copilot modernization, which provides AI-powered assistance to help you analyze, plan, and execute your migration to a modern .NET version.

Resources

Closing

ASP.NET Core 2.3 will reach end of support on April 13, 2027. We strongly recommend starting your migration to a supported version of .NET today, leveraging tools like GitHub Copilot modernization to facilitate the process. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to us through our support channels.

Topics

Author

Daniel Roth

Principal Product Manager

Daniel Roth is a Program Manager on the ASP.NET team at Microsoft.

18 comments

Discussion is closed. Login to edit/delete existing comments.

Tomy Power April 11, 2026

Yes new security updates will be issued for ASP.NET Core 2.3.
Michael J. Ryan (tracker1) April 9, 2026

I’m not sure that I have much empathy on this one… It’s been a decade and we’ll past enough time to migrate to a newer platform version.

I will say that the core 2 to 3 migration was one of the most painful, but since Core 3 and into .Net 5 to current has been relatively smooth. Given the seismic shift from Cute 1 to 2, it should have been anticipated to not necessarily stay out long term and getting a decade of support is a pretty good run, all things considered in terms of web platforms.
Kalle Niemitalo April 9, 2026 · Edited

I wonder if this end-of-life plan was already known to developers of Teams when they chose to use ASP.NET Core 2.2, rather than 2.1 or 2.3, in the Push Notification Hub modernization project about which they blogged here in April 2025.

Please edit “ASP.NET Core 2.3 Supported Packages” page to mention the end-of-life announcement there too.
Denis Bredikhin April 8, 2026

Interesting what does it mean for the future of the CoreWCF project.
It relies on ASP.NET Core 2.3 AFAIK.
- Matt Connew April 8, 2026 · Edited
  
  It does and it doesn't depend on ASP.NET Core 2.3. In order to run on .NET Framework, CoreWCF needs to depend on ASP.NET Core 2.3. CoreWCF targets a single tfm, and only targets netstandard2.0. When running on .NET Framework, the ASP.NET Core 2.3 dependency is pulled in and used at runtime. When you build an application that targets .NET, eg net8.0, there's some build targets built in to the .NET SDK which detects the ASP.NET Core 2.3 dependency and pulls them out, replacing them with a reference to the ASP.NET Core reference assemblies that ship with the SDK. The end...
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  It does and it doesn’t depend on ASP.NET Core 2.3. In order to run on .NET Framework, CoreWCF needs to depend on ASP.NET Core 2.3. CoreWCF targets a single tfm, and only targets netstandard2.0. When running on .NET Framework, the ASP.NET Core 2.3 dependency is pulled in and used at runtime. When you build an application that targets .NET, eg net8.0, there’s some build targets built in to the .NET SDK which detects the ASP.NET Core 2.3 dependency and pulls them out, replacing them with a reference to the ASP.NET Core reference assemblies that ship with the SDK. The end result is at runtime, when running on .NET, the ASP.NET Core 2.3 dependencies have been removed and replaced with the ASP.NET Core version which ships with .NET (presuming you installed the ASP.NET Core Runtime).
  
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- Denis Bredikhin April 8, 2026
  
  I think there is a contradiction between this post and the following:
  https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/corewcf
  The end of life date for the specific version of .NET Framework or six months after the next major or minor version release.
  - Benjamin Krämer April 9, 2026 · Edited
    @Matt I would still appreciate if the policy could be updated to make this clearer already on 1.8:
    Instead of <code> it should say something like <code> and some part below even still mentions ASP.NET Core 2.1. And as right now, the support dependency on ASP.NET Core is only mentioned in regards to major updates wheres I assume it's always the dependency for the EOS even though not clearly stated on the top. It might just allow to relief some confusion with some easy fix-ups :)
    
    Maybe even update the 1.8 EOS text to <code> in accordance to the others.
    
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    @Matt I would still appreciate if the policy could be updated to make this clearer already on 1.8:
    Instead of
    
    The end of life date for the specific version of .NET Framework or six months after the next major or minor version release.
    
    it should say something like
    
    The end of life date for the specific version of .NET Framework, ASP.NET Core 2.3 or six months after the next major or minor version release.
    
    and some part below even still mentions ASP.NET Core 2.1. And as right now, the support dependency on ASP.NET Core is only mentioned in regards to major updates wheres I assume it’s always the dependency for the EOS even though not clearly stated on the top. It might just allow to relief some confusion with some easy fix-ups 🙂
    
    Maybe even update the 1.8 EOS text to
    
    April 7, 2027 or six months after the next major or minor version release.
    
    in accordance to the others.
    
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  - Denis Bredikhin April 8, 2026
    
    I say up to because if at the release date of 1.10 there is only 3 months of support left for ASP.NET Core 2.3, then 1.9 would only have 3 months of support on .NET Framework.
    The lifecycle policy states “The end of life date for the specific version of .NET Framework” not “The end of life date for the specific version of ASP.NET Core” so I think it still requires some clarification.
  - Matt Connew April 8, 2026
    
    Basically it means that when 1.10 is released, 1.9 will be supported for up to 6 months. I say up to because if at the release date of 1.10 there is only 3 months of support left for ASP.NET Core 2.3, then 1.9 would only have 3 months of support on .NET Framework. The same applies for .NET versions. If 1.10 is released when there is only 2 months of support left for .NET 8, then the support for 1.9 on .NET 8 would end after only 2 months and not the 6 months.
    
    And yes, I will release a CoreWCF...
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    Basically it means that when 1.10 is released, 1.9 will be supported for up to 6 months. I say up to because if at the release date of 1.10 there is only 3 months of support left for ASP.NET Core 2.3, then 1.9 would only have 3 months of support on .NET Framework. The same applies for .NET versions. If 1.10 is released when there is only 2 months of support left for .NET 8, then the support for 1.9 on .NET 8 would end after only 2 months and not the 6 months.
    
    And yes, I will release a CoreWCF 2.0 version to drop .NET Framework support. It will allow removal of a bunch of workarounds needed to accommodate changes in behavior between ASP.NET Core 2.3 and .NET. For example, at some point they changed the order of starting registered IHostedService implementations and starting the IServer which caused us a chicken and egg problem so we have currently account for them being started in either order. CoreWCF 2.0 will be an opportunity to remove some code, be able to depend on newer features in .NET, and make progress a little bit faster.
    
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  - Benjamin Krämer April 8, 2026 · Edited
    
    I assume they will release CoreWCF 2.0 and drop `.NET Framework` support (having it supported for only 6 more months on CoreWCF 1.8).
    
    The lifecycle policy states:
    For example, when 2.0 is released, if 1.10 was the last 1.x release and supported .NET Framework, .NET 9 and .NET 10, then it would be supported on .NET 9 and .NET 10 for the duration of their respective support lifecycle, and would be supported on .NET Framework for the duration of support of ASP.NET Core 2.3.
    
    Basically saying you should not expect ANY specific version to be supported for longer than 6 months at...
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    I assume they will release CoreWCF 2.0 and drop `.NET Framework` support (having it supported for only 6 more months on CoreWCF 1.8).
    
    The lifecycle policy states:
    For example, when 2.0 is released, if 1.10 was the last 1.x release and supported .NET Framework, .NET 9 and .NET 10, then it would be supported on .NET 9 and .NET 10 for the duration of their respective support lifecycle, and would be supported on .NET Framework for the duration of support of ASP.NET Core 2.3.
    
    Basically saying you should not expect ANY specific version to be supported for longer than 6 months at any time. As the policy states that any major keeps all .NET frameworks of it’s minors as long as the .NET version is supported, I would expect 2.0 instead of 1.9 to signalize this in accordance to the policy as they phrased it based on the .NET Framework versions lifecycle, and not ASP.NET Core 2.x.
    
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