Newsletter Archives

• MS jiggles — but doesn’t fix — buggy Win7 patches KB 4088875, KB 4088878

  Posted on April 5, 2018 at 07:57 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A big shake-up last night re-arranged the way the buggy March Win7 patches install and clean up after themselves and adds to the lengthy list of known bugs. The key looming bug — “Total Meltdown” — remains a patching enigma: Dammed if ya do, dammed if ya don’t.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4088875, KB 4088878, March 2018 Black Tuesday

• New versions of buggy March Win7 patches are out

  Posted on April 5, 2018 at 02:53 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I have no idea what changed, but Günter Born reports (and a check of the Update Catalog confirms) that there are new versions of:

  KB 4088875 – Win7 March Monthly Rollup (dated, in the Update Catalog, as April 4)

  KB 4088878 – Win7 March Security-only patch (also April 4)

  KB 4088881 – Preview of the Win7 April Monthly Rollup (also April 4)

  KB 4090450 – Spectre V2 patch for Server 2008 (dated April 3)

  Looking at the KBNew page, I also see new versions of:

  KB 4099950 – the hotfix patch for bugs in the March Win7 patches (now dated April 4) – I talked about this fix of a fix of a … earlier this week in Computerworld.

  KB 4088879 – the Win8.1 Security-only patch (still dated March 10)

  And, as noted in several places on AskWoody, there’s a new version of the old favorite KB 2952664 — the patch that so helpfully makes it easier to upgrade Win7 to Win10 — and its Win8.1 cohort, KB 2976978.

  Born identifies new notes in the KB articles for the Win7 Monthly Rollup and the Preview Monthly Rollup that say:

  Important Please apply KB4100480 immediately after applying this update. KB4100480 resolves vulnerability in the Windows kernel for the 64-bit (x64) version of Windows. This vulnerability is documented in CVE-2018-1038 .

  You may recall that KB 4100480 is the “OMG” patch issued by MS when they figured that all of this year’s Win7 patches opened a huge “Total Meltdown” security hole in Win7.

  In addition, the description of the KB 4088875 Monthly Rollup patch and the KB 4088878 Security-only patch now advise:

  After you install this update, you may receive a Stop error message that resembles the following when you log off the computer:

  SESSION_HAS_VALID_POOL_ON_EXIT (ab)

  The solution on offer is KB 4099467, which is a single-shot hotfix for Win7 designed specifically to fix this bluescreen.

  How about them apples….

  Can any of you shed light on the reasons for the changes — in particular, do they fix any of the gazillion security holes in last month’s patches? If so, care to speculate on why Microsoft just slipped this stuff out without any announcement?

  And… when will it be safe to get back in the Win7 patching water?

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4088875, KB 4088878, KB 4088879, KB 4088881, KB 4090450, KB 4099467, KB 4099950, KB 4100480

• Macrium Reflect triggers BSOD on 32-bit Win7 systems after installing KB 4088875, this month’s Monthly Rollup

  Posted on March 19, 2018 at 02:36 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  There aren’t a lot of details just yet, but Macrium has posted a warning:

  After installing the Windows 7 update patch released on 13th March 2018, 32 bit installations of Macrium Reflect may cause Windows to be unable to restart. The error displayed in the BSOD is:

  pagefault_in_non-paged_area pssnap.sys

  We believe that this is related to the Spectre meltdown protection added in the Windows update KB 4088875.

  Windows 10 32 bit installs that have been upgraded from Windows 7 may also received this error.

  Also not clear if the bluescreen strikes after installing the Security-only downloadable patch KB 4088878.

  Thx, @cesmart4125.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4088875, KB 4088878, Macrium Reflect

• Buggy Windows 7 Monthly Rollup KB 4088875 — no acknowledgment from Microsoft

  Posted on March 15, 2018 at 07:24 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft no longer installs the Win7 March Monthly Rollup automatically, but KB 4088878 is still available in the Update Catalog. Aren’t you glad you held off on patching this month?

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  UPDATE: Microsoft now acknowledges the IP address setting bug. From KB 4088875:

  A new Ethernet virtual Network Interface Card (vNIC) may be created with default settings in place of the previously existing vNIC, causing network issues after applying this update. Any custom settings on the previous vNIC are still persisted in the registry but unused.

  Apply the resolution documented in KB3125574 (Convenience Rollup) for Known issue 1:

  IP address settings are lost after applying this update.

  Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

  You really have to wonder who’s testing this stuff.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4088875, KB 4088878