Over two months after the previous 13.2 release, the Debian Project rolled out the third update to the stable 13 “Trixie” series, consolidating corrections for security vulnerabilities and serious functional issues across a wide range of packages.
However, if you’ve been keeping your system updated through security.debian.org, there’s not much to do with this release, because most of the fixes were already included in earlier updates. 13.3 just brings them together in one place.
Key package updates include upstream stable releases for Ansible, Apache2, Flatpak, Go components, PostgreSQL 17, QEMU, and the Linux kernel itself. Security and stability fixes address a variety of issues, including integer overflows, parsing errors, heap overflows, memory corruption risks, denial-of-service vulnerabilities, and bounds-check failures.
Core libraries like glibc and glib2.0 receive important fixes, and desktop components, including GNOME Shell and applications such as Thunderbird, Chromium, and VLC, as well as multimedia libraries, are updated to mitigate identified vulnerabilities.
The point release also incorporates updated microcode for Intel processors and adjustments to installer components, including an increased kernel ABI and rebuilds against proposed updates. Plus, the Debian Installer has been refreshed to include the cumulative fixes from this point release, facilitating new installations that begin in a fully updated state.
Also today, the Debian project published a point update for its oldstable 12 “Bookworm” series, version 12.13, which similarly adds corrections for 85 security issues and 96 bug fixes without requiring replacement of existing installation media, with updates available via Debian mirrors.
Once again, Debian 13.3 doesn’t add any new features to the “Trixie” release. It’s all about fixing bugs and addressing security issues in certain packages. If you’re already using it, simply run the command below to update your system to the latest stable version.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgradeCode language: Bash (bash)For more in-depth information on all the changes in Debian 13.3, see the release announcement. A comprehensive list of all packages that have received updates is available here.
If you are planning a fresh install, Debian 13.3 netinst ISO images are available for download here. They offer a base system that is perfect for servers or users who prefer to customize the installation to suit their specific needs, with support for six architectures: amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, and s390x.
For a more ready-to-use experience, the new release also provides Live images featuring pre-installed desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, and MATE. Please note that they are available only for the AMD64 architecture.
Finally, consider enabling automatic security updates to receive future patches without delay if you haven’t already done so. If you’re unsure how to do it, our guide will have you up and running in no time.
