Same issue here:
Jenkins 1.612:
Upgrading "Release Plugin" from 2.4.1 to 2.5.3 the release buttons of all projekts disappears.
Downgrading to 2.4.1, the release button appears again.

Is this an issue related to insufficient permissions? At the release notes there is the entry "Define a new RELEASE permission", but where to grant this permission?

You can set the new permission at the Jenkins -> Configure Global Security.

Thanks a lot for the fast reply and for a hint to work around the problem (and that's very importent )

Thats the solution for people who have enabled "Matrix-based security", but for people who are working witch the option "Logged-in users can do anything" the "Release-Button" still disapears" if you are logged-in or not.

The "work around" for "Anyone can do anything":

• log-in with an existing user (this is very importend if you are switching from "Anyone can do anything")
• enable "Matrix-based security"
• create group "authenticated"
• grant this group all rights
• save changes

After thinking about it several hours, I'm convinced that there is still a bug:

If a jenkins installation use the "Anyone can do anything" or "Logged-in users can do anything" instead of "Matrix-based security" as "Authorization" the "release button" still disappears!

Therefor I reopened this issue.

Kind regards,
Andreas

I got stung by this bug today when I enabled Active Directory security, and wrote a blog post with the workaround

It doesn't make sense that "Logged-in users can do anything" does not include "Release", and you should not have to switch to Matrix security to re-enable release!

In case it is helpful to others, I've confirmed Andreas' workaround for "logged-in users can do anything" via the matrix "authenticated" mechanism, on a system using jenkins builtin user database, on LTS 1.642.1.

(I wasn't sure whether it was an LDAP group until I researched it – but "authenticated" is built into Jenkins specially)

If the "authenticated" matrix feature is news to you as much as me, then you may wish to vote on JENKINS-30495

I just made a pull request fixing this bug. Problem was the introduction of the separate permission for matrix based security which did not take into account that some people do not use matrix based security.

Release button is missing for 2.5.4 version as well so we had to downgrade to 2.4.1. We use project-based matrix authorization strategy so Matrix-based security is not an option for us.

Code changed in jenkins
User: aprueller
Path:
src/main/java/hudson/plugins/release/ReleaseWrapper.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/release-plugin/bca86467ada50ed79d019c2ffe37d3749f058d39
Log:
[FIXED JENKINS-28132] add an impliedBy definition to release permission so it will be handled properly if no matrix-based security is used

Code changed in jenkins
User: Oleg Nenashev
Path:
src/main/java/hudson/plugins/release/ReleaseWrapper.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/release-plugin/137c807e146c93168096f3f08e936c5d56d64cc3
Log:
Merge pull request #16 from aprueller/master

[FIXED JENKINS-28132] add an impliedBy definition to permission

Compare: https://github.com/jenkinsci/release-plugin/compare/a7c8573bd5fb...137c807e146c

The fix has been release in Release Plugin 2.6