---
layout: docs
page_title: Upgrading to Vault 1.12.x - Guides
description: |-
  This page contains the list of deprecations and important or breaking changes
  for Vault 1.12.x. Please read it carefully.
---

# Overview

This page contains the list of deprecations and important or breaking changes
for Vault 1.12.x compared to 1.11. Please read it carefully.

## Changes

### Supported Storage Backends

Vault Enterprise will now perform a supported storage check at startup. There is no impact on open-source Vault users.

@include 'ent-supported-storage.mdx'

@include 'consul-dataplane-upgrade-note.mdx'

### External Plugin Loading

Vault 1.12.0 introduced a change to how external plugins are loaded. Prior to
Vault 1.12.0 plugins were lazy loaded on startup. This means that plugin
processes were killed after a successful mount and then respawned when a
request is routed to them. Vault 1.12.0 introduced auto mutual TLS for
secrets/auth plugins so we do not lazy load them on startup anymore.

## Known Issues

### Pinning to builtin plugin versions may cause failure on upgrade

1.12.0 introduced plugin versions, and with it, the ability to explicitly specify
the builtin version of a plugin when mounting an auth, database or secrets plugin.
For example, `vault auth enable -plugin-version=v1.12.0+builtin.vault approle`. If
there are any mounts where the _builtin_ version was explicitly specified in this way,
Vault may fail to start on upgrading to 1.12.1 due to the specified version no
longer being available.

To check whether a mount path is affected, read the tune information, or the
database config. The affected plugins are `snowflake-database-plugin@v0.6.0+builtin`
and any plugins with `+builtin.vault` metadata in their version.

In this example, the first two mounts are affected because `plugin_version` is
explicitly set and is one of the affected versions. The third mount is not
affected because it only has `+builtin` metadata, and is not the Snowflake
database plugin. All mounts where the version is omitted, or the plugin is
external (regardless of whether the version is specified) are unaffected.

-> **NOTE:** Make sure you use Vault CLI 1.12.0 or later to check mounts.

```shell-session
$ vault read sys/auth/approle/tune
Key                  Value
---                  -----
...
plugin_version       v1.12.0+builtin.vault

$ vault read database/config/snowflake
Key                                   Value
---                                   -----
...
plugin_name                           snowflake-database-plugin
plugin_version                        v0.6.0+builtin

$ vault read sys/auth/kubernetes/tune
Key                  Value
---                  -----
...
plugin_version       v0.14.0+builtin
```

As it is not currently possible to unset the plugin version, there are 3 possible
remediations if you have any affected mounts:

* Upgrade Vault directly to 1.12.2 once released
* Upgrade to an external version of the plugin before upgrading to 1.12.1;
  * Using the [tune API](/vault/api-docs/system/auth#tune-auth-method) for auth methods
  * Using the [tune API](/vault/api-docs/system/mounts#tune-mount-configuration) for secrets plugins
  * Or using the [configure connection](/vault/api-docs/secret/databases#configure-connection)
    API for database plugins
* Unmount and remount the path without a version specified before upgrading to 1.12.1.
  **Note:** This will delete all data and leases associated with the mount.

The bug was introduced by commit
https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/commit/c36330f4c713b886a8a23c08cbbd862a7c530fc8.

#### Impacted Versions

Affects upgrading from 1.12.0 to 1.12.1. All other upgrade paths are unaffected.
1.12.2 will introduce a fix that enables upgrades from affected deployments of
1.12.0.

### Mounts associated with deprecated builtin plugins will result in core shutdown on upgrade

As of 1.12.0 Standalone (logical) DB Engines and the AppId Auth Method have been
marked with the `Pending Removal` status. Any attempt to unseal Vault with
mounts backed by one of these builtin plugins will result in an immediate
shutdown of the Vault core.

-> **NOTE** In the event that an external plugin with the same name and type as
a deprecated builtin is deregistered, any subsequent unseal of Vault will also
result in a core shutdown.

```shell-session
$ vault plugin register -sha256=c805cf3b69f704dfcd5176ef1c7599f88adbfd7374e9c76da7f24a32a97abfe1 auth app-id
Success! Registered plugin: app-id
$ vault auth enable -plugin-name=app-id plugin
Success! Enabled app-id auth method at: app-id/
$ vault auth list -detailed
app-id/    app-id    auth_app-id_3a8f2e24    system         system     default-service    replicated     false        false                      map[]      n/a                        0018263c-0d64-7a70-fd5c-50e05c5f5dc3    n/a        n/a                      c805cf3b69f704dfcd5176ef1c7599f88adbfd7374e9c76da7f24a32a97abfe1    n/a
$ vault plugin deregister auth app-id
Success! Deregistered plugin (if it was registered): app-id
$ vault plugin list -detailed | grep "app-id"
app-id                               auth        v1.12.0+builtin.vault                                 pending removal
```

The remediation for affected mounts is to set the
[VAULT_ALLOW_PENDING_REMOVAL_MOUNTS](/vault/docs/commands/server#vault_allow_pending_removal_mounts)
environment variable and replace any `Pending Removal` feature with the
[preferred alternative
feature](/vault/docs/deprecation/faq#q-what-should-i-do-if-i-use-mount-filters-appid-or-any-of-the-standalone-db-engines).

For more information on the phases of deprecation, see the [Deprecation Notices
FAQ](/vault/docs/deprecation/faq#q-what-are-the-phases-of-deprecation).

#### Impacted Versions

Affects upgrading from any version of Vault to 1.12.x. All other upgrade paths
are unaffected.

### `vault plugin list` fails when audit logging is enabled

If audit logging is enabled, Vault will fail to audit the response from any
calls to the [`GET /v1/sys/plugins/catalog`](/vault/api-docs/system/plugins-catalog#list-plugins)
endpoint, which causes the whole request to fail and return a 500 internal
server error. From the CLI, this looks like the following:

```shell-session
$ vault plugin list
Error listing available plugins: data from server response is empty
```

It will produce errors in Vault Server's logs such as:

```text
2022-11-30T20:04:22.397Z [ERROR] audit: panic during logging: request_path=sys/plugins/catalog error="reflect: reflect.Value.Set using value obtained using unexported field"
2022-11-30T20:04:22.398Z [ERROR] core: failed to audit response: request_path=sys/plugins/catalog
  error=
  | 1 error occurred:
  | 	* panic generating audit log
  | 
```

As a workaround, [listing plugins by type](/vault/api-docs/system/plugins-catalog#list-plugins-1)
will succeed:

* `vault list sys/plugins/catalog/auth`
* `vault list sys/plugins/catalog/database`
* `vault list sys/plugins/catalog/secret`

The bug was introduced by commit
https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/commit/76165052e54f884ed0aa2caa496083dc84ad1c19.

#### Impacted Versions

Affects versions 1.12.0, 1.12.1, and 1.12.2. A fix will be released in 1.12.3.

### PKI OCSP GET requests return malformed request responses

If an OCSP GET request contains a '+' character, a malformed request response will be
returned instead of properly processing the request due to a double decoding issue within the
handler.

As a workaround, OCSP POST requests can be used which are unaffected.

#### Impacted Versions

Affects version 1.12.3. A fix will be released in 1.12.4.

@include 'tokenization-rotation-persistence.mdx'

@include 'ocsp-redirect.mdx'
