It seems that we are being primed for a big update to Adobe Reader, the Windows CRSS subsystem for next Patch Tuesday. Windows Printing may be a problem, and therefore application testing will be key this month.
Here are some quick “digest” updates for our mid-month posting around Microsoft Updates, vulnerabilities and patching.
Microsoft Quality Update
What in this Microsoft C-week update? This week’s quality-only update from Microsoft includes the following:
- fixes an issue that causes certain docking stations to lose internet connectivity when waking from Sleep mode.
- Adds functionality that improves the OS upgrade experience.
- Addresses an issue that might cause consecutive video clip playback to fail in games that use DX12.
- Addresses an issue that affects certain games that use the XAudio API to play sound effects.
- fixes an issue that affects the height of the Search box when you use multiple monitors that have different resolutions.
- resolves an issue that prevents certain troubleshooting tools from opening.
Two new features have been that include:
- New! Gives you the option to receive important notifications when focus assist is on. Focus assist is like a do not disturb mode that hides notifications.
- New! Restores functionality for Windows Autopilot deployment scenarios that are affected by the security mitigation for hardware reuse. This update removes the one-time use restriction for self-deploying mode (SDM) and pre-provisioning (PP). This update also re-enables any User Principal Name (UPN) display in user-driven mode (UDM) deployments for approved manufacturers
You can find out more from Microsoft in their update bulletin (KB5015878)
Emergency updates
Microsoft has been warning (since late June) that the July 2022 updates may break USB printing affecting Windows 10 21H1 and 21H2. Microsoft has offered the following statement:
“Microsoft has received reports of issues affecting some printing devices following installation of Windows updates released June 28 ( KB5014666) and later,”
It appears that normal printing operations may be affected with the following symptoms:
- Windows might show duplicate copies of printers installed on a device, commonly with a similar name and the suffix “Copy1”.
- Applications that refer to the printer by a specific name cannot print.
Microsoft offers some simple mitigation strategies such as updating the hardware specific drivers, restarting the printer and restarting Windows system. At present, Microsoft has not offered an official fix or update on this issue. There was a reported issue with Windows 11 Start menu with some devices unable to open the Start menu after the June 23, 2022 update. Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 11 Start menu issue has now been resolved.
Development Updates
This is the time of the update cycle where .NET is updated. This month’s .NET July update/preview includes the following fixes:
- Networking: Addresses an issue when Ssl negotiation can hang indefinitely when client certificates are used when TLS 1.3 is negotiated. Before the change renegotiation (PostHandshakeAuthentiction) would fail and SslStream or HttpWebRequest would observe timeout. Microsoft has suggested a possible workaround is disabling TLS 1.3 either through the PowerShell command Switch.System.Net.DontEnableTls13 AppContext or through updating the target system’s registry.
- WPF2: Addresses an issue where invoking a synchronization Wait on the UI thread can lead to a render-thread failure, due to unexpected re-entrancy.
Microsoft has been working on the “PostHandshakeAuthentiction” networking issue since February 2022. Let’s see how July’s latest attempt works out.
Lifecycle Update
This section covers some of the major changes that are happening in the Microsoft desktop and server ecosystem this month.
- Desktop Analytics will be retired on November 30, 2022. If you’re using Desktop Analytics today, Microsoft recommends that you use the new Windows compatibility reports in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager administrator center to assess application and driver compatibility. As in Microsoft Desktop Analytics, you’re able to select a targeted version of Windows to gather insights specific to the desktop OS version you plan to deploy.
- Windows Server, version 20H2 will reach the end of servicing on August 9, 2022. This will also be the retirement of Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). There will be no future SAC releases of Windows Server, and this product will no longer receive security updates after August 9, 2022. Windows Server will then move to the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) as the primary release channel.
Patch Revisions
This sections details any CVE or vulnerability reports that been published or changed since the previous Microsoft Update (Patch Tuesday). This cycle, we only have a single update to a Windows subsystem component:
- CVE-2022-33367: This is a client-side code vulnerability consisting of the usage of uninitialized buffer in the buffer pool by the MDE sensor on Linux systems. This affects the IP field, causing any remote connection, including failed connections, to be considered as ‘Successful remote logon’. This, in turn, triggers a false-positive alert.
Luckily for us Windows (and Mac) users, this only affects Linux users – on Windows desktops. As this change to this Microsoft CVE entry is for documentation or information purposes only, there is no action required for Windows update users.
