• Patch Lady – so I don’t get it

    Posted on April 12, 2019 at 20:24 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    By now you’ve seen the headlines… we have three antivirus documented as being down for the count when it comes to Windows 7 and 8.1 (and corresponding Server OS as well).  Per https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493448 , Sophos, Avira and Avast all are causing issues, with machines unresponsive.  Avast in particular has the nasty side effect of “additionally you may be unable to log in or log in after an extended period of time”.

    Yet in the patches there doesn’t see to be any extreme changes to the kernel (that my honestly untrained eyes) can see that would cause three pretty common antivirus engines to be totally making computers unusable.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493472 (the monthly rollup KB) lists ArcaBit as another impacted one.

    Windows 10 1809 also refers to an issue with ArcaBit antivirus.  I am not seeing that reported on any other Windows 10 platform.

    In the cumulative update model it’s a bit harder to tell what exactly Microsoft is fixing.  Dustin Childs (ex-MSRC webcasts/blogger now at Zero day) lists out the patches in their “code” style not in the patch style.  Normally kernel code changes are the most historically and notoriously at fault for interactions with antivirus.  Because A/V hooks into the kernel, changes to that code often has ripple effects.

    Both kernel bugs this month (here and here) don’t give me clues that they might be the ones triggering all of these failures.

    Bottom line I’m giving you no answers tonight, just big warnings.  Don’t install updates just yet… but you knew that one already.

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