Patchday: Windows 8.1/Server 2012-Updates (12/08/2020)

[German]On December 8, 2020, Microsoft released various updates for Windows 8.1. These updates are also available for Windows Server 2012 R2. Here is some information about them.

Updates for Windows 8.1 und Windows Server 2012 R2

For Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 a rollup and a security-only update have been released. The update history for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 can be found on this Microsoft page.

Important: Starting July 2020 all Windows updates disable the RemoteFX vGPU features due to the CVE-2020-1036 vulnerability (see also KB4570006). After installing this update, attempts to start virtual machines (VM) with RemoteFX vGPU enabled will fail.

KB4592484 (Monthly Rollup) for Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2

Update KB4592484 (Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2) contains improvements and fixes, and addresses the following issues. 

• Addresses an issue in which PDF24 Creator version 9.1.1 cannot open .txt files.
• Addresses a security vulnerability by preventing applications that run as a SYSTEM account from printing to "FILE:" ports. To address this issue in the future, make sure your applications or services run as a specific user or service account.
• Security updates to Windows Graphics, Windows Peripherals, and Windows Core Networking.

This update is automatically downloaded and installed by Microsoft Update Catalog, but is also available in the Microsoft Update Catalog and via WSUS. In case of a manual installation, the latest Servicing Stack Update(SSU KB4566425 dated July 14, 2020) must be installed beforehand – but this SSU cannot be uninstalled.

Microsoft is aware of the following problem in connection with the update: Certain operations, such as renaming, that you perform on files or folders on a cluster shared volume (CSV) may fail with the error "STATUS_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL (0xC00000A5)". This occurs when you perform the operation on a CSV owner node from a process that does not have administrator privileges. KB article KB4586845 suggests a workaround to correct this problem.

KB4592495 (Security-only update) for Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2

Update KB4592495 (Security Only Quality Update for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2) addresses the following items.

• Addresses a security vulnerability by preventing applications that run as a SYSTEM account from printing to "FILE:" ports. To address this issue in the future, make sure your applications or services run as a specific user or service account.
• Security updates to Windows Graphics, Windows Peripherals, and Windows Core Networking.

The update is available via WSUS or in the Microsoft Update Catalog. In case of a manual installation the latest Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4566425 must be installed first. The same errors are known as with the rollup update, details about the update are described in the KB article. I did not find a security update for Internet Explorer 11.

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Patchday: Windows 8.1/Server 2012-Updates (12/08/2020)