Microsoft releases emergency patches to fix Kerberos authentication issues on multiple versions of Windows

It is just a few days since Microsoft acknowledged problems with Kerberos authentication. Affecting Windows Servers with the Domain Controller role, the issues mean that domain user sign in could fail, Remote Desktop connection could fail to connect, and more.

Now the company has released a series of emergency updates to resolve the issues. A total of six out-of-band updates are available (KB5021652, KB5021653, KB5021654, KB5021655, KB5021656 and KB5021657), and they must be manually installed.

See also:

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In an update to the acknowledgement post in the known issues section of Windows release health, Microsoft says: "This issue was resolved in out-of-band updates released November 17, 2022 for installation on all the Domain Controllers (DCs) in your environment. You do not need to install any update or make any changes to other servers or client devices in your environment to resolve this issue. If you used any workaround or mitigations for this issue, they are no longer needed, and we recommend you remove them".

The cumulative updates that have been released must be manually installed via the Windows Update Catalog:

• ​Windows Server 2022: KB5021656
• ​Windows Server 2019: KB5021655
• ​Windows Server 2016: KB5021654

There are also standalone updates available for anyone who needs or wants them:

• Windows Server 2012 R2: KB5021653
• ​Windows Server 2012: KB5021652
• ​Windows Server 2008 SP2: KB5021657

Microsoft says:

If you are using security only updates for these versions of Windows Server, you only need to install these standalone updates for the month of November 2022. Security only updates are not cumulative, and you will also need to install all previous Security only updates to be fully up to date. Monthly rollup updates are cumulative and include security and all quality updates. If you are using Monthly rollup updates, you will need to install both the standalone updates listed above to resolve this issue, and install the Monthly rollups released November 8, 2022 to receive the quality updates for November 2022. If you have already installed updates released November 8, 2022, you do not need to uninstall the affected updates before installing any later updates including the updates listed above.

For users of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Microsoft says: "This update is not yet available. Please check here in the coming week for more information".

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