Amazon RDS adds CU and GDR builds for five SQL Server versions

Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports a new set of Cumulative Update (CU) and General Distribution Release (GDR) builds spanning SQL Server 2016 through 2025, according to AWS’s September 8 announcement. AWS recommends upgrading existing instances to apply the updates.

Supported RDS builds

The announcement lists five supported targets, each with a Microsoft knowledge-base identifier and an exact RDS version:

• SQL Server 2016: SP3+GDR, KB5102340 — 13.00.6500.1.v1.
• SQL Server 2017: CU31+GDR, KB5102337 — 14.00.3540.1.v1.
• SQL Server 2019: CU32+GDR, KB5102335 — 15.09.4480.2.v1.
• SQL Server 2022: CU26, KB5093420 — 16.00.4265.3.v1.
• SQL Server 2025: CU7, KB5096981 — 17.00.4065.4.v1.

Availability: AWS describes these builds as supported now. The notice does not specify regional coverage or an automatic deployment schedule; support for a build should not be read as confirmation that an existing instance has already received it.

Security scope and upgrade planning

AWS says the GDR updates address vulnerabilities described in CVE-2026-47295, CVE-2026-47296, CVE-2026-54118 and CVE-2026-55002. The notice does not map individual vulnerabilities to each build, and it directs readers to Microsoft’s KB documentation for the detailed fixes and improvements.

For engineers, the distinction between the listed update branches matters: the 2016–2019 entries include GDR updates, while the 2022 and 2025 entries are identified as CUs. Match the SQL Server release, KB identifier and full RDS version when selecting a target rather than treating the announcement as one uniform patch across the fleet.

A practical rollout plan is to inventory current engine versions, review the relevant KB, and validate application queries and database jobs against the intended target before scheduling production changes. AWS identifies the RDS Management Console, AWS SDK and CLI as upgrade options.