December 13, 2022—KB5021294 (Monthly Rollup)

Summary

Learn more about this cumulative security update, including improvements, any known issues, and how to get the update.

REMINDERWindows 8.1 will reach end of support on January 10, 2023, at which point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided. If you have devices running Windows 8.1, we recommend upgrading them to a more current, in-service, and supported Windows release. If devices do not meet the technical requirements to run a more current release of Windows, we recommend that you replace the device with one that supports Windows 11.Microsoft will not be offering an Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 8.1. Continuing to use Windows 8.1 after January 10, 2023 may increase an organization’s exposure to security risks or impact its ability to meet compliance obligations.For more information, see Windows 8.1 support will end on January 10, 2023.Windows Server 2012 R2 will reach end of support on October 10, 2023 for Datacenter, Essentials, Embedded Systems, Foundation, and Standard.

Note For information about the various types of Windows updates, such as critical, security, driver, service packs, and so on, please see the following article. To view other notes and messages, see the Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 update history home page.

Improvements

This cumulative security update includes improvements that are part of update KB5020023 (released November 8, 2022) and update KB5021653 (released November 17, 2022). This update also makes improvements for the following issues:

• By order of the Fijian government, Fiji will not observe daylight saving time (DST) in 2022. Therefore, clocks do not change by an hour at 02:00 on November 13, 2022.
• A memory leak in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS.exe) occurs on Windows domain controllers. This issue is known to occur after installing Windows updates dated November 8, 2022, or later.

Known issues in this update

Symptom	Next step
After this update or a later Windows update is installed, domain join operations might be unsuccessful and error “0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy” occurs. Additionally, text stating “An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Re-using the account was blocked by security policy” might be displayed.Affected scenarios include some domain join or re-imaging operations where a computer account was created or pre-staged by a different identity than the identity used to join or re-join the computer to the domain.For more information about this issue, see KB5020276—Netjoin: Domain join hardening changes.Note Consumer Desktop editions of Windows are unlikely to experience this issue.	This issue is resolved in KB5023765.
After installing this update, apps which use ODBC connections through Microsoft ODBC SQL Server Driver (sqlsrv32.dll) to access databases might not connect. Additionally, you might receive an error in the app, or you might receive an error from the SQL Server. Errors you might receive include the following messages:

• The EMS System encountered a problem.
  Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Protocol error in TDS Stream.
• The EMS System encountered a problem.
  Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Unknown token received from SQL Server.
  Note for developers: Apps affected by this issue might fail to fetch data, for example when using the SQLFetch function. This issue might occur when calling SQLBindCol function before SQLFetch or calling SQLGetData function after SQLFetch and when a value of 0 (zero) is given for the ‘BufferLength’ argument for fixed datatypes larger than 4 bytes (such as SQL_C_FLOAT).To decide whether you are using an affected app, open the app which connects to a database. Open a Command Prompt window, type the following command and then press Enter:`

tasklist /m sqlsrv32.dll

`If the command returns a task, then the app might be affected.| To mitigate this issue, you can do one of the following:

• If your app is already using or able to use Data Source Name (DSN) to select ODBC connections, install Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server and select it for use with your app using DSN.

Note: We recommend the latest version of Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server, as it is more compatible with apps currently using the legacy Microsoft ODBC SQL Server Driver (sqlsrv32.dll) than Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server.

• If your app is unable to use DSN, the app will need to be modified to allow for DSN or to use a newer ODBC driver than Microsoft ODBC SQL Server Driver (sqlsrv32.dll).
  This issue was resolved in KB5022352. If you have implemented the above workaround, it is recommended to continue using the configuration in the workaround.

How to get this update

Before installing this updateWe strongly recommend that you install the latest servicing stack update (SSU) for your operating system before you install the latest Rollup. SSUs improve the reliability of the update process to mitigate potential issues while installing the Rollup and applying Microsoft security fixes. For general information about SSUs, see Servicing stack updates and Servicing Stack Updates (SSU): Frequently Asked Questions.If you use Windows Update, the latest SSU (KB5018922) will be offered to you automatically. To get the standalone package for the latest SSU, search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog.Language packsIf you install a language pack after you install this update, you must reinstall this update. Therefore, we recommend that you install any language packs that you need before you install this update. For more information, see Add language packs to Windows.Install this update****Release Channel	Available	Next Step
Windows Update and Microsoft Update	Yes	None. This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update.
Microsoft Update Catalog	Yes	To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)	Yes	This update will automatically sync with WSUS if you configure Products and Classifications as follows:Product: Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise, Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry ProClassification: Security Updates

File information

For a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for update KB5021294.

References

Learn about the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates.