windows

Microsoft’s July 2018 series of patching missteps, with .Net security patches in particular, have left many admins in the lurch. Less than two weeks after they were first unleashed, poorly documented versions of the patches now appear to be available, but are not being actively pushed. There’s no indication from Microsoft if and/or when they’ll be fixed.

These patches, originally released on Patch Tuesday, July 10, are baring their FAANGs:

• KB 4340556 — Security and Quality Rollup updates for .Net Framework 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1 and 4.7.2 for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1
• KB 4340557 — Security and Quality Rollup updates for .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, and 4.7.2 for Windows Server 2012
• KB 4340558 — Security and Quality Rollup updates for .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, and 4.7.2 for Windows 8.1, RT 8.1, and Server 2012 R2
• KB 4340559 — Security and Quality Rollup updates for .Net Framework 2.0 SP2, 3.0 SP2, 4.5.2, and 4.6 for Windows Server 2008

The patches had been out for less than a day when we started seeing error reports on AskWoody. As I noted on July 12:

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If you’re trying to apply this month’s patches — an exercise in futility that I continue to discourage — you may have found that this month’s patches and their documentation read like a da Vinci script, mirrored upside down and backwards.

Take this astounding bit of bafflegab, from the official Microsoft Exchange blog:

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In what is becoming a common occurrence, Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday brought along so many bugs that they necessitated a remediation round. This month, unusually, it took only six days to get the exterminators out.

Since these fixes are aimed at four specific bugs introduced on Patch Tuesday, they don’t include the massive patches normally appearing on the second Patch Whateverday of the month. My guess is we’ll see at least one more big set of Windows patches before the month is out. Oh, boy.

Windows July patches, version 2

Yesterday, Monday, July 16, Microsoft released 27 new security patches for Windows, bringing the total number of patches so far this month up to 156. The new patches fall into six separate groups:

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You know it’s going to be an Alice in Wonderland month when some sites report that Microsoft plugged 54 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday, while others report 53. Fact is, patching has become so brutal — and so banal — that there’s no consensus on counting, much less on what’s good and bad.

Suffice to say that, once again this month, there was a huge number of security patches (129 individual patches, according to the Microsoft Update Catalog), with no pressing security fixes unless you’re using the Edge browser or Internet Explorer. Microsoft changed Win10 version 1803 to “Semi-Annual Channel,” but the term now means less than it ever has before. If that’s possible.

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