Application security used to be the final hurdle before release. In the DevSecOps era, that model is gone. Security is no longer a one-time checkpoint at the end but a continuous, developer-driven process woven into every stage of the lifecycle, from the first line of code to production workloads.
What we’re seeing is a core DevSecOps tactic called “shifting left” – bringing security and testing to the earliest stages of the software development process to prevent issues from slipping into production. The benefit is simple but powerful: problems are caught faster and fixed earlier, when remediation is cheapest and least disruptive.
On the other hand, a complementary “shifting right” tactic enables security in production with monitoring, anomaly detection, incident response, and resilience measures. Together, shifting left and right creates a more resilient posture that spans the entire application lifecycle.
But even with this full-spectrum approach, there’s a glaring gap most teams overlook: what happens when the software itself is no longer supported?
The End Of Life (EOL) Blind Spot
Open-source projects move quickly. Communities release new versions frequently and just as quickly retire older ones. For enterprises, however, upgrading on community timelines is rarely possible. Business-critical workloads often remain locked to specific runtime or framework versions. Upgrading them may take months or years, requiring careful planning, extensive testing, and increased budget.
When your open-source runtime, library, or framework version reaches its end of life, the community stops providing security patches. The vulnerabilities don’t stop, though – and attackers know EOL software lingers in production, making it a prime target.
Shifting left will certainly alert you to the problem. It can flag that a dependency is approaching EOL or a vulnerability exists in an unsupported component. Shifting right will help you spot suspicious activity if attackers attempt to exploit that weakness. But without security patches, neither can close the gap.
Why Shifting Left Isn’t Enough
This is where the familiar mantra falls short. DevSecOps practices are invaluable but create a false sense of completeness. Security teams may feel confident that they are catching risks and issues across the entire software lifecycle. However, they are still running into a fundamental block: once software is out of support, knowing about vulnerabilities does not mean you can fix them.
Even with perfect visibility, the absence of patches leaves organizations exposed. Enterprises often find themselves in a security stalemate. They are aware of the risks but unable to resolve them without an upgrade. And upgrades, as we know, rarely move at the pace the open-source community expects.
Extending Security Beyond the Lifecycle
The only way to close this gap is to extend security coverage past official lifecycles. Extended security patching services can deliver backported security fixes for your entire EOL open-source stack, allowing you to maintain protection while planning upgrades on your timeline.
By adding extended security support, enterprises complete their DevSecOps strategy. Vulnerability scans that would otherwise be dead ends instead point to patches that can be applied. Compliance requirements can be met with auditable and shareable evidence of ongoing security coverage. And, most importantly, enterprises avoid being forced into rushed, high-risk upgrades to maintain security.
Closing the DevSecOps Gap
Shifting left has redefined how modern organizations build software, and shifting right has brought much-needed attention to runtime resilience. Both are essential, but neither is sufficient without a strategy for addressing EOL risk.
True DevSecOps means security everywhere: in development, in production, and beyond the official support window. Pairing DevSecOps with extended lifecycle security closes the loop, delivering end-to-end protection that doesn’t expire.
Ultimately, security doesn’t stop on release day, and it certainly doesn’t stop at end-of-life
