breaking: updating protobuf version to 5.28.1

Author: nandiso123

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## v5.0.0
+
+### Breaking Changes
+  **Upgraded `protobuf` to v5.28.1**
+
+  * This upgrade introduces a breaking change due to `protobuf` v5.28.1 dropping support for Python versions earlier than 3.8.
+
+  * Downstream packages that depend on `sagemaker-training-toolkit` for builds or tests may need to:
+    - Regenerate their protobuf code with the updated version.
+    - Update related testing/build dependencies to maintain compatibility.
+
 ## v4.9.0 (2025-02-11)
 
 ### Features

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-4.9.1.dev0
+5.0.0

setup.py

@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ def read_version():
     "werkzeug>=0.15.5",
     "paramiko>=2.4.2",
     "psutil>=5.6.7",
-    "protobuf>=3.9.2,<=3.20.3",
+    "protobuf>=5.28.1",
     "scipy>=1.2.2",
     "boto3>=1.28.57",
     "botocore>=1.31.57",