Spring News Roundup: First Release Candidates of Boot, Framework, Data, Security, Modulith, AI

Spring published first release candidates for 17 projects during the week of October 19th, 2026, including Spring Boot 4.2.0-RC1, Spring Framework 7.1.0-RC1, Spring Data 2026.1.0-RC1, Spring Cloud 2026.0.0-RC1 (codename Paddington) and Spring Security 7.2.0-RC1. Spring Boot 4.2.0-RC1 migrates to the Ubuntu Resolute builder in place of the Noble Java Tiny Builder and improves Uber-Jar performance through direct lookup of classes and resources in nested jars, while Spring Cloud 2026.0.0-RC1 folds Spring Cloud Bus into Spring Cloud Stream and is based on Spring Boot 4.2.0-RC1. Spring Framework 7.1.0-RC1 adds onRetrySuccess() and onRetryFailure() overloads that pass retry state to listeners, and Spring Security 7.2.0-RC1 normalizes HTTP method casing via valueOf() and sets Content-Type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded on two classes.

There was a flurry of activity during the week of October 19th, 2026, highlighting: first release candidates of: Spring Boot, Spring Framework, Spring Data, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring for GraphQL, Spring Session, Spring Integration, Spring HATEOS, Spring Modulith, Spring REST Docs, Spring AI, Spring Batch, Spring AMQP, Spring for Apache Kafka, Spring LDAP and Spring Web Services. Spring Boot The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-boot-4-2-0-RC1-available-now of Spring Boot https://spring.io/projects/spring-boot 4.2.0 delivers bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a migration to the Ubuntu Resolute https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-26-04-resolute-raccoon-lts-released/80833 builder replacing the Noble Java Tiny Builder https://github.com/paketo-buildpacks/builder-noble-java-tiny/blob/main/README.md ; and improved Uber-Jar performance using direct lookup of classes and resources in nested jars. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/releases/tag/v4.2.0-RC1 and this wiki page https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-4.2.0-RC1-Release-Notes . Spring Framework The first release candidate of Spring Framework https://spring.io/projects/spring-framework 7.1.0 ships with bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: improved nullability in the and classes; and new overloaded methods, onRetrySuccess and onRetryFailure , defined in the interface, that add an instance of the class in the parameter list such that listeners can access the retry state directly upon failure. Further details on this release, including removal of deprecated APIs, may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/releases/tag/v7.1.0-RC1 . Spring Data The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/22/spring-data-2026-1-0-RC1-released of Spring Data https://spring.io/projects/spring-data 2026.1.0 provides bug fixes, dependency upgrades, RC1 upgrades to all of the subprojects and a notable new feature in Spring Data Redis https://spring.io/projects/spring-data-redis that now forwards subscription notifications related to annotated listener methods if a bean implements the interface. Spring Cloud The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-cloud-2026-0-0-RC1-has-been-released of Spring Cloud https://spring.io/projects/spring-cloud 2026.0.0, codenamed Paddington, delivers dependency upgrades, RC1 upgrades to all of the subprojects and a notable change where Spring Cloud Bus https://spring.io/projects/spring-cloud-bus is no longer its own project and has been incorporated into Spring Cloud Stream https://spring.io/projects/spring-cloud-stream . This release is based on Spring Boot 4.2.0-RC1. More details on this release may be found in this release notes https://github.com/spring-cloud/spring-cloud-release/releases/tag/v2026.0.0-RC1 . Spring Security The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-security-7 of Spring Security https://spring.io/projects/spring-security 7.2.0 ships with bug fixes, dependency upgrades and two new features: an instance of the class no longer detects a non-canonical-case HTTP method as a distinct value due to a change in the valueOf method, defined in the Spring Framework class, that now normalizes casing; and and classes now set the Content-Type header to application/x-www-form-urlencoded . Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/releases/tag/7.2.0-RC1 and this what's new https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/7.2/whats-new.html page. Spring for GraphQL The first release candidate of Spring for GraphQL https://spring.io/projects/spring-graphql 2.1.0 provides one bug fix that reinstates the Content-Length response header for WebFlux applications so that backwards compatibility is maintained and notable dependency upgrades such as: Spring Framework 7.1.0-RC1; Spring Data 2026.1.0-RC1; and Spring Security 7.2.0-RC1. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-graphql/releases/tag/v2.1.0-RC1 . Spring Session The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-session-4 of Spring Session https://spring.io/projects/spring-session 4.2.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: integrating the Spring Security Settings Plugin https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/io.spring.security.settings and Spring Security Maven Plugin https://github.com/spring-io/spring-security-release-tools/blob/main/maven-plugin/README.adoc ; and standardizing the configuration of the public and private continuous integration environments. Further details on this release may be found in the r elease notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-session/releases/tag/4.2.0-RC1 . Spring Integration The first release candidate of Spring Integration https://spring.io/projects/spring-integration 7.2.0 ships with bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a deprecation of the default constructor in the class to define a new constructor that contains the allowedPatterns attribute for improved security; and the ability to allow the class to set the outboundHeaderNames , inboundHeaderNames and excludedOutboundStandardRequestHeaderNames and excludedInboundStandardResponseHeaderNames to align with the class. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-integration/releases/tag/v7.2.0-RC1 . Spring HATEOAS The first release candidate of Spring HATEOAS https://spring.io/projects/spring-hateoas 3.2.0 provides notable dependency upgrades such as: Spring Framework 7.1.0-RC1; Spring Plugin 4.2.0-RC1; and Reactor 2026.0.0-RC1. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-hateoas/releases/tag/3.2.0-RC1 . Spring Modulith The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-modulith-2-2-rc1-2-1-2-2-0-9-and-1-4-14-released of Spring Modulith https://spring.io/projects/spring-modulith 2.2.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: new ABANDONED and RESUBMITTED enumerations, added to the interface, to distinguish between failed and abandoned event publications; and event publications are now completed, by default, using the Spring Framework interface within a listener's transaction to avoid the possibility of a listener committing and the completion to fail. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-modulith/releases/tag/2.2.0-RC1 . Spring REST Docs The first release candidate of Spring REST Docs https://spring.io/projects/spring-restdocs 4.1.0 ships with one bug fix, a dependency upgrade to Spring Framework 7.1.0-RC1 and new features such as: improved nullability using JSpecify https://jspecify.dev/ ; and support for using the Spring Framework interface. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-restdocs/releases/tag/v4.1.0-RC1 . Spring AI The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-ai-2-1-0-RC1-available-now of Spring AI https://spring.io/projects/spring-ai 2.1.0 provides dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new interface for creating and finding sessions that replaces the now-deprecated interface; and the ability for the and classes to build an assistant message of each choice from ordered message parts. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ai/releases/tag/v2.1.0-RC1 . Spring Batch The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/22/spring-batch-6 of Spring Batch https://spring.io/projects/spring-batch 6.1.0 delivers bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: a new annotation that injects a job parameter into a job or step scoped bean used to require a Spring Expression Language SpEL expression; and a new class that serves as a type-safe alternative to class to take a function from the Spring Data interface to a interface. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-batch/releases/tag/v6.1.0-RC1 . Spring AMQP The first release candidate of Spring AMQP https://spring.io/projects/spring-amqp 4.2.0 ships with bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and new features such as: removal of the use of the noNullElements method, defined in the Spring Framework class, to allow the class and interface to accept null or empty arrays when declaring exchanges, queues, and bindings; and a simplification of the buildMessage method, defined in both the and classes, to avoid unnecessary nesting when handling existing instances of the class and message conversion. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-amqp/releases/tag/v4.2.0-RC1 . Spring for Apache Kafka The first release candidate of Spring for Apache Kafka https://spring.io/projects/spring-kafka 4.2.0 provides bug fixes, documentation improvements, dependency upgrades and one new feature that now writes out the value defined in the header when using the class in conjunction with the deliveryAttemptHeader container property set to true . Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-kafka/releases/tag/v4.2.0-RC1 . Spring LDAP The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/23/spring-ldap-4 of Spring LDAP https://spring.io/projects/spring-ldap 4.2.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: use of string parameterization in logging to avoid non-constant filename lengths; the addition of test cases for the class; and string cleanup in the getStringAttribute method, defined in class, to prevent a ClassCastException . More details on this release, including breaking changes , may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ldap/releases/tag/4.2.0-RC1 and what's new https://docs.spring.io/spring-ldap/reference/4.2/whats-new.html page. Spring Web Services The first release candidate https://spring.io/blog/2026/10/22/spring-ws-5-1-0-RC1-available-now of Spring Web Services https://spring.io/projects/spring-ws 5.1.0 ships with documentation improvements dependency upgrades and one new feature that allows an instance of the class to attach a policy document, such as a WS-Policy https://www.w3.org/submissions/WS-Policy/ or WS-SecurityPolicy https://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-securitypolicy/200702/ws-securitypolicy-1.2-spec-os.html fragment, to every binding it generates. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws/releases/tag/v5.1.0-RC1 and this wiki page https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws/wiki/Spring-Web-Services-5.1.0-RC1-Release-Notes .