diff --git a/Include/patchlevel.h b/Include/patchlevel.h
index 88f190c2355..cafc3304a12 100644
--- a/Include/patchlevel.h
+++ b/Include/patchlevel.h
@@ -18,12 +18,12 @@
/*--start constants--*/
#define PY_MAJOR_VERSION 3
#define PY_MINOR_VERSION 12
-#define PY_MICRO_VERSION 11
+#define PY_MICRO_VERSION 12
#define PY_RELEASE_LEVEL PY_RELEASE_LEVEL_FINAL
#define PY_RELEASE_SERIAL 0
/* Version as a string */
-#define PY_VERSION "3.12.11+"
+#define PY_VERSION "3.12.12"
/*--end constants--*/
/* Version as a single 4-byte hex number, e.g. 0x010502B2 == 1.5.2b2.
diff --git a/Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py b/Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py
index 742866a1aa8..3593d44cc5c 100644
--- a/Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py
+++ b/Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Autogenerated by Sphinx on Tue Jun 3 17:41:43 2025
+# Autogenerated by Sphinx on Thu Oct 9 13:06:56 2025
# as part of the release process.
topics = {
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/3.12.12.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/3.12.12.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d7263bc313e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/3.12.12.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+.. date: 2025-09-25-10-31-02
+.. gh-issue: 139330
+.. nonce: 5WWkY0
+.. release date: 2025-10-09
+.. section: Tools/Demos
+
+SBOM generation tool didn't cross-check the version and checksum values
+against the ``Modules/expat/refresh.sh`` script, leading to the values
+becoming out-of-date during routine updates.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-10-07-19-31-34
+.. gh-issue: 139700
+.. nonce: vNHU1O
+.. section: Security
+
+Check consistency of the zip64 end of central directory record. Support
+records with "zip64 extensible data" if there are no bytes prepended to the
+ZIP file.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-09-29-00-01-28
+.. gh-issue: 139400
+.. nonce: X2T-jO
+.. section: Security
+
+:mod:`xml.parsers.expat`: Make sure that parent Expat parsers are only
+garbage-collected once they are no longer referenced by subparsers created
+by :meth:`~xml.parsers.expat.xmlparser.ExternalEntityParserCreate`. Patch by
+Sebastian Pipping.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-06-25-14-13-39
+.. gh-issue: 135661
+.. nonce: idjQ0B
+.. section: Security
+
+Fix parsing start and end tags in :class:`html.parser.HTMLParser` according
+to the HTML5 standard.
+
+* Whitespaces no longer accepted between ```` does not end the script section.
+
+* Vertical tabulation (``\v``) and non-ASCII whitespaces no longer recognized
+ as whitespaces. The only whitespaces are ``\t\n\r\f`` and space.
+
+* Null character (U+0000) no longer ends the tag name.
+
+* Attributes and slashes after the tag name in end tags are now ignored,
+ instead of terminating after the first ``>`` in quoted attribute value.
+ E.g. ````.
+
+* Multiple slashes and whitespaces between the last attribute and closing ``>``
+ are now ignored in both start and end tags. E.g. ````.
+
+* Multiple ``=`` between attribute name and value are no longer collapsed.
+ E.g. ```` produces attribute "foo" with value "=bar".
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-06-18-13-34-55
+.. gh-issue: 135661
+.. nonce: NZlpWf
+.. section: Security
+
+Fix CDATA section parsing in :class:`html.parser.HTMLParser` according to
+the HTML5 standard: ``] ]>`` and ``]] >`` no longer end the CDATA section.
+Add private method ``_set_support_cdata()`` which can be used to specify how
+to parse ``<[CDATA[`` --- as a CDATA section in foreign content (SVG or
+MathML) or as a bogus comment in the HTML namespace.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-06-18-13-28-08
+.. gh-issue: 102555
+.. nonce: nADrzJ
+.. section: Security
+
+Fix comment parsing in :class:`html.parser.HTMLParser` according to the
+HTML5 standard. ``--!>`` now ends the comment. ``-- >`` no longer ends the
+comment. Support abnormally ended empty comments ``<-->`` and ``<--->``.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-06-13-15-55-22
+.. gh-issue: 135462
+.. nonce: KBeJpc
+.. section: Security
+
+Fix quadratic complexity in processing specially crafted input in
+:class:`html.parser.HTMLParser`. End-of-file errors are now handled
+according to the HTML5 specs -- comments and declarations are automatically
+closed, tags are ignored.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2025-06-09-20-38-25
+.. gh-issue: 118350
+.. nonce: KgWCcP
+.. section: Security
+
+Fix support of escapable raw text mode (elements "textarea" and "title") in
+:class:`html.parser.HTMLParser`.
+
+..
+
+.. date: 2023-02-13-21-41-34
+.. gh-issue: 86155
+.. nonce: ppIGSC
+.. section: Security
+
+:meth:`html.parser.HTMLParser.close` no longer loses data when the
+````.
-
-* Multiple slashes and whitespaces between the last attribute and closing ``>``
- are now ignored in both start and end tags. E.g. ````.
-
-* Multiple ``=`` between attribute name and value are no longer collapsed.
- E.g. ```` produces attribute "foo" with value "=bar".
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-09-29-00-01-28.gh-issue-139400.X2T-jO.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-09-29-00-01-28.gh-issue-139400.X2T-jO.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index a5dea3b5f81..00000000000
--- a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-09-29-00-01-28.gh-issue-139400.X2T-jO.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-:mod:`xml.parsers.expat`: Make sure that parent Expat parsers are only
-garbage-collected once they are no longer referenced by subparsers created
-by :meth:`~xml.parsers.expat.xmlparser.ExternalEntityParserCreate`.
-Patch by Sebastian Pipping.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-10-07-19-31-34.gh-issue-139700.vNHU1O.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-10-07-19-31-34.gh-issue-139700.vNHU1O.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index a8e7a1f1878..00000000000
--- a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2025-10-07-19-31-34.gh-issue-139700.vNHU1O.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-Check consistency of the zip64 end of central directory record. Support
-records with "zip64 extensible data" if there are no bytes prepended to the
-ZIP file.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tools-Demos/2025-09-25-10-31-02.gh-issue-139330.5WWkY0.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tools-Demos/2025-09-25-10-31-02.gh-issue-139330.5WWkY0.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index 77e74bafaec..00000000000
--- a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tools-Demos/2025-09-25-10-31-02.gh-issue-139330.5WWkY0.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-SBOM generation tool didn't cross-check the version and checksum values
-against the ``Modules/expat/refresh.sh`` script, leading to the values
-becoming out-of-date during routine updates.
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index a01b2519de6..7a384ed7833 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-This is Python version 3.12.11
+This is Python version 3.12.12
==============================
.. image:: https://github.com/python/cpython/workflows/Tests/badge.svg