gRPC
v1.81.1Networking & MessaginggRPC v1.81.1 is a patch release fixing memory safety bugs on Windows and ARM, plus Python/Ruby housekeeping. No API-breaking changes.
breakingPython 3.9 and Ruby 3.1 are no longer supported
If your services run gRPC Python on 3.9 or Ruby on 3.1, upgrading to v1.81.1 will break your build. Check your runtime versions before upgrading. Python 3.10+ and Ruby 3.2+ are the minimum now.
enhancementUpgrade Windows/ARM deployments to get memory safety fixes
Two Windows EventEngine races and an ARM completion queue shutdown race are fixed. If you run gRPC servers on Windows or ARM-based hosts (e.g., Graviton), this patch is worth applying — use-after-free and assertion crashes are hard to reproduce but can cause random service failures.
enhancementprotobuf 7.x now allowed for gRPC Python
The grpc-status package previously capped protobuf at <6.x. With the upper bound relaxed to 7.x, you can now unpin protobuf in Python services that use grpc-status alongside other libraries requiring newer protobuf versions.
Key changes (5)
- EventEngine: two Windows-specific bugs fixed — a use-after-free and a race causing assertion errors
- Core: completion queue shutdown race fixed on weak memory model architectures (ARM)
- Python: dropped Python 3.9 support; protobuf dependency upper bound relaxed to allow 7.x
- Ruby: dropped EOL Ruby 3.1 support; fixed CallCredentials reference leak
- Python: AsyncIO observability support added