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v3.21.1 Feature

This release adds 2 notable features for engineering teams evaluating rollout.

Published 1mo Containers & Orchestration
✓ No known CVEs patched
Read the diff → Tool health → What is this tool? →

✓ No known CVEs patched in this version

Topics

chart charts cncf helm kubernetes

Affected surfaces

deps

ReleasePort's take

Moderate signal
editorial:auto 1mo

Helm v3.21.1 fixes a nil pointer panic in ClientOnly template flows and updates dependencies to address a high‑severity Go vulnerability (GO-2026-5026) while moving the runtime from Go 1.25 to 1.26.

Why it matters: Addresses GO-2026-5026, a severity‑80 security issue, by bumping golang.org/x/net to v0.55.0; eliminates nil pointer panic in helm template ClientOnly flows; upgrades the Go runtime from version 1.25 to 1.26.

Summary

AI summary

Broad release touches What's Next, deps, Notable Changes, and https://kubernetes.slack.com.

Changes in this release

Security High

Bumps golang.org/x/net to v0.55.0 to address GO-2026-5026 vulnerability.

Bumps golang.org/x/net to v0.55.0 to address GO-2026-5026 vulnerability.

Source: llm_adapter@2026-06-12

Confidence: high

 —
Dependency Medium

Updates Go runtime from version 1.25 to 1.26.

Updates Go runtime from version 1.25 to 1.26.

Source: llm_adapter@2026-06-12

Confidence: high

 —
Bugfix Medium

Fixes nil pointer panic in helm template ClientOnly flows.

Fixes nil pointer panic in helm template ClientOnly flows.

Source: llm_adapter@2026-06-12

Confidence: high

 —
Full changelog

Helm v3.21.1 is a patch release. Users are encouraged to upgrade for the best experience.

The community keeps growing, and we'd love to see you there!

  • Join the discussion in Kubernetes Slack:
    • for questions and just to hang out
    • for discussing PRs, code, and bugs
  • Hang out at the Public Developer Call: Thursday, 9:30 Pacific via Zoom
  • Test, debug, and contribute charts: ArtifactHub/packages

Notable Changes

  • Fixed nil pointer panic that could happen with helm template in ClientOnly flows. Now correctly returns a template error https://github.com/helm/helm/pull/31920
  • Bumped golang.org/x/net to v0.55.0 to address GO-2026-5026 #32152
  • Bumped Go from 1.25 to 1.26 #32168
  • Dependency version updates

Installation and Upgrading

Download Helm v3.21.1. The common platform binaries are here:

This release was signed with 208D D36E D5BB 3745 A167 43A4 C7C6 FBB5 B91C 1155 and can be found at @scottrigby keybase account. Please use the attached signatures for verifying this release using gpg.

The Quickstart Guide will get you going from there. For upgrade instructions or detailed installation notes, check the install guide. You can also use a script to install on any system with bash.

What's Next

  • 4.2.2 and 3.21.2 are the next patch releases scheduled for July 8, 2026
  • 4.3.0 and 3.22.0 are the next minor releases scheduled for September 9, 2026

Changelog

  • fix(action): avoid nil REST client getter panic when installing CRDs c56dd0095fd76da5d7b30ecdf506103e7f26745e (sergiochan)
  • fix(registry): keep credentials on plain-HTTP fallback with oras-go v2.6.1 702529f90a0021e4d9df4880d6589198ec0e05f7 (Terry Howe)
  • chore(deps): bump oras.land/oras-go/v2 from 2.6.0 to 2.6.1 178e120e16f5d61f769ee2c56a0d2a45ab7303bd (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/crypto from 0.52.0 to 0.53.0 dcf35f86551322d93c1cb695f08435b3287e5ad0 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/term from 0.43.0 to 0.44.0 44aff8bf51809ec9f8a906d050818776cd47b264 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/text from 0.37.0 to 0.38.0 ae2f31f5a7d0cd789ca9fd83a6a2fe5fc7c3a1a3 (dependabot[bot])
  • Update .github/env 402225fffdc82a28a213af94ea269c4300f12700 (Terry Howe)
  • ci: bump golangci-lint to v2.11.3 for go 1.26 00eac21a89cd977868c0304917acd90220e07895 (Terry Howe)
  • chore: bump go to 1.26 bec346ac983fd0b860a13ef7750616e088143f01 (Terry Howe)
  • chore(deps): bump github.com/lib/pq from 1.11.2 to 1.12.3 58b6ccffd3e3ade58543c50e76e6fb6c39393be5 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump github.com/distribution/distribution/v3 30b9f51d80b5853ef4031af168dd02491bbef9ab (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump github.com/containerd/containerd from 1.7.30 to 1.7.32 858aa47b455f08516a6d977f93d609c24f985853 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump github.com/Masterminds/semver/v3 from 3.4.0 to 3.5.0 1af25d46939584205f0e3810fc547fcda727b1ec (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump github.com/mattn/go-shellwords from 1.0.12 to 1.0.13 97e4bc30e57290d81b36972ce49f908d68fd9241 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/crypto from 0.51.0 to 0.52.0 29bdd1bedd28bf816c7e26d356126489edf22945 (dependabot[bot])
  • fix(deps): bump golang.org/x/net to v0.55.0 to address GO-2026-5026 bad6cd478f5b3f3c96b795f4d6a010f04a89624f (Terry Howe)
  • chore(deps): bump k8s.io/klog/v2 from 2.130.1 to 2.140.0 75c2e9bf370eabf35a00e60cfceaee2b969ebe00 (dependabot[bot])
  • chore(deps): bump golang.org/x/text from 0.35.0 to 0.37.0 cd4dac334caf38105aaae00ee8d4a9cb03de0b2c (dependabot[bot])

Full Changelog: https://github.com/helm/helm/compare/v3.21.0...v3.21.1

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