#42: IDF v5.5.3 Released
Espressif has released v5.5.3 as the latest stable release of IDF. The full changelog can be found here:
https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/releases/tag/v5.5.3
This release will be supported through January 21, 2028. Version 5.5.3 is listed as a “bugfix release for ESP-IDF v5.5” but, like most “bugfix” releases from IDF, there are documented breaking changes and a host of other things to be aware of.
Notable Changes
- Peripheral Drivers/SPI The SPI master and slave no longer accepts
ESP_INTR_FLAG_SHAREDas interrupt flag during initialization. - Updated openthread library
- Added fix to prevent out-of-bounds read in Digest auth causing a potential security vulnerability
- A host of BLE fixes and improvements
- Added fix to Align the OTA written length to 16 bytes during OTA resumption when flash encryption is enabled.
- Upgraded openocd version to v0.12.0-esp32-20251215
- Fixed a crash where STA is freed before WPA3 SAE finishes
Should You Update?
The general answer to this is always going to be “yes” since it’s considered latest stable. However, anytime you move versions of IDF you should do a complete regression test and ensure you understand all changes you are pulling in. This can be extremely time consuming and if you don’t really need any of the changes it can be more work than it’s worth from a business standpoint.
If you are already on a 5.x version, upgrading to 5.5.3 should be safe with only a single breaking change called out. If that change doesn’t affect your project, I would recommend upgrading.
If you are on a previous version, I would approach moving to 5.5.3 as any other major version update and do full regression and look through release notes to ensure a buried change isn’t going to give you problems.
Join the community and get the weekly Production ESP32 newsletter. Concise, relevant content about ESP32 development right in your inbox.