Browser trouble II: Nov. 2024 updates for Server 2008/R2 bricks older browsers

[German]Microsoft seems to have released security updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 on November 12, 2024. Anyone who had these updates installed subsequently found that the older browsers that could previously be used on these machines no longer work. However, there is now a workaround to get a browser working again. However, this is more of an exotic problem, as there are probably only a few Windows Server 2008 R2 machines still running.

Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 are EOL

Windows 7 has long since fallen out of support, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will also no longer receive Extended Security Update (ESU) support from January 2024 (see also Windows Server 2008 R2 gets another year ESU support until January 9, 2024). On the other hand, Windows Embedded POSReady 7 was still supported until October 24, 2024 (see).

And via "premium assurance" Microsoft has extended the support for Windows Server 2008 R2 till January 2026. So there are still security updates for Microsoft for Windows Server 2008 R2 available. Some users of Windows 7 have then used the security updates of Windows Embedded POSReady 7 to patch security vulnerabilities on their operating systems and keep them running. And it's possible, to patch a 64 bit Windows 7 with Server 2008 R2 security updates.

Browsers are reaching a king of "end of support"

Google has ended support for its Chromium browser for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 as well as the server counterparts in January 2023 with version 109 due to end of life. I pointed this out in the blog post Windows 7/8.1: Google ends support in February 2023, Edge also affected.

This means that all Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, will also be discontinued in higher versions for these operating systems. Microsoft and Google have only promised to provide a security update for Google Chrome / Edge 109 for Windows Server 2012 R2. And there is still Firefox, whose developers have planned initial to support the browser under Windows 7 until Q3 2024 (see Windows 7/8.1: Firefox will be support until 3. Q. 2024 at least).

But Mozilla has extended the support for Firefox 115 ESR under Windows 7/8 till March 2025 (see): "We decided to extend support for ESR 115 only on Windows 7-8.1 and macOS 10.12-10.14 up to March 2025. We will re-evaluate this decision in early 2025 and announce any updates on ESR 115's end-of-life then." So much for the prehistory.

Nov. 2024 security updates bricks browsers

So Microsoft has shipped security updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 on November  12, 2024. German blog reader R.S. commented here on the article Patchday: Windows Server 2012 / R2 und Windows 7 (12. November 2024), that there was also an update for Internet Explorer (KB5046630) and an update for .NET (KB5046543) for Windows Server 2008 R2 – I had not discussed this here in the blog.

Then German blog reader Bolko got in touch with this comment, asking whether the browsers still work after installing the updates. Another user comments here: "All legacy browsers are broken with the update, on Windows 7 and 2008 R2." He tested it in a virtual machine, Chrome 109, Edge 109, Firefox ESR 115, Opera 95 no longer work.

However, it turns out that the Internet Explorer update KB5046630 is not the cause. German blog reader Trillian writes that the update KB5046705 as well as KB5046687 (available in the Microsoft Update Catalog for Windows Server 2008 R2) under Windows Server 2008 R2 (and probably under Windows 7) make the old browsers unusable.

A dirty workaround

German has indicated in this comment, that the Win32k.sys file is the root cause for this issue. If you are affected by the problem (only a few of the old systems should still be running), you can use the workaround outlined by Bolko in this German comment: After disabling the integrity check and the driver signature check via BCDEdit, the Win32k.sys file from an old backup before the November 2024 updates can be used to replace the version patched in November 2024.

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