January 8, 2019—KB4480972 (Security-only update)

Improvements and fixes

This security update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update. Key changes include:

• Provides protections against an additional subclass of speculative execution side-channel vulnerability known as Speculative Store Bypass (CVE-2018-3639) for AMD-based computers. These protections aren’t enabled by default. For Windows Server guidance, follow the instructions in KB4072698. Use this guidance document to enable mitigations for Speculative Store Bypass (CVE-2018-3639). Additionally, use the mitigations that have already been released for Spectre Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715) and Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754).
• Addresses an issue that affects PowerShell remoting loop back using non-administrator accounts. For more details, see Windows Security change affecting PowerShell.
• Addresses an issue that prevents cross-era navigation in the Japanese Calendar view. For more information, see KB4469068.
• Addresses an issue related to the date format for the Japanese Era calendar. For more information, see KB4469068.
• Addresses an issue that causes the GetCalendarInfo function to return a wrong value for the Japanese Era. For more information, see KB4469068.
• Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows MSXML, Windows Kernel, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Wireless Networking, and the Microsoft JET Database Engine.
  For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Security Update Guide.

Known issues in this update

• Cache size and location show zero or empty.

• Keyboard shortcuts may not work properly.

• Webpages may intermittently fail to load or render correctly.

• Issues with credential prompts.

• Issues when downloading files.
  | This issue is resolved in KB4493450.
  After installing this update, MSXML6 causes applications to stop responding if an exception was thrown during node operations, such as appendChild(),insertBefore(), andmoveNode().The Group Policy editor may stop responding when editing a Group Policy Object (GPO) that contains Group Policy Preferences (GPP) for Internet Explorer 10 settings.| This issue is resolved in KB4493450.
  Certain operations, such as rename, that you perform on files or folders that are 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 doesn’t have administrator privilege.| Do one of the following:

• Perform the operation from a process that has administrator privilege.

• Perform the operation from a node that doesn’t have CSV ownership.
  Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

How to get this update

This update is now available for installation through WSUS. To get the stand-alone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.File informationFor a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for update 4480972.