by Alexandre Poloboc
With an irresistible desire to always get to the bottom of things and find out the truth, Alex has spent most of his time working as a journalist, presenter,… read more
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- Administrators are reporting several issues with Windows servers after recent updates.
- The Patch Tuesday rollout introduced some serious VPN and RDP connectivity issues.
- Note that unpleasant problems only affect servers with RRAS functionality enabled.
If you really think about it, it’s kind of funny how we get all these patch updates that inevitably end up breaking even more stuff.
No, Windows 10 and 11 are not the only software made by Microsoft to be affected after each deployment, as Windows servers are not immune to these errors.
That being said, note that this month’s Windows Server updates are causing a number of issues, including VPN and RDP connectivity issues on servers that have Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) running. activated.
Yes, we’re talking about last week’s Patch Tuesday release, which includes:
- Private Internet Access – Access content around the world at the fastest speed.
- NordVPN – Secure multiple devices and enjoy stable connections anywhere.
- SurfShark – Handy VPN service with comprehensive security features.
- CyberGhost – Connect to thousands of servers for seamless, persistent browsing.
- ExpressVPN – Browse the web from multiple devices with heightened security protocols.
Latest Windows Server Updates Cause Major Problems
UPDATE: It took a while, but Microsoft has finally confirmed Internet connectivity issues affecting servers with Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) enabled after installing Windows updates released as part of the This month’s Patch Tuesday.
Additionally, Redmond officials say client devices may also experience issues after connecting to the affected servers, with the servers also losing their internet connection in the process.
The company has now revealed that these issues have been addressed in last week’s optional Windows Cumulative Update previews.
That being said, users using the new versions of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 SP1, and several versions of Windows Server also affected by this issue will likely have to wait for a fix until next month’s Patch Tuesday rollout.
After installing the above mentioned updates, Windows administrators started reporting several issues which could only be fixed after uninstalling the updates completely.
The one that stands out the most is the servers freezing for several minutes after a client connects to the RRAS server with SSTP.
In case you don’t know, RRAS is a Windows service that provides additional TCP connectivity and routing functionality, including remote access or site-to-site connectivity using a virtual private network (VPN) or dial-up connections.
Same here. I had to roll back updates on two RRAS servers. Disabling NAT wasn’t an option because that’s what servers are supposed to do.
However, even though the internet is full of complaints about this, Microsoft has yet to acknowledge these connectivity issues, which means we don’t have an official fix at this time.
That being said, the only way to resolve these issues on affected servers is to uninstall the corresponding cumulative update for your version of Windows Server.
How can I solve these problems?
As we mentioned above, there are no patches yet and the only thing you can do is uninstall these cumulative updates.
However, we must warn you that since Microsoft is bundling all security fixes into one update, removing this cumulative update may fix bugs, but will also remove all security fixes for fixed vulnerabilities.
So, since there is no winner winner chicken dinner situation here, make sure that restoring RDP or VPN connectivity to your servers is worth the increased security risks you take when uninstalling updates.
If you are an administrator, use one of the following commands to uninstall:
Windows Server 2012 R2: wusa /uninstall /kb:KB5014746
Windows Server 2019: wusa /uninstall /kb:KB5014692
Windows Server 20H2: wusa /uninstall /kb:KB5014699
Windows Server 2022: wusa /uninstall /kb:KB5014678Are you also experiencing these issues on your Windows Server machine? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.
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