bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/microsoft-january-2024-patch-tuesday-fixes-49-flaws-12-rce-bugs/
bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/windows-11-kb5034123-update-released-with-security-and-wi-fi-fixes/
bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/windows-10-kb5034122-update-released-with-fix-for-shut-down-bug/
Today is Microsoft's January 2024 Patch Tuesday, which includes security updates for a total of 49 flaws and 12 remote code execution vulnerabilities.Only two vulnerabilities were classified as critical, with one being a Windows Kerberos Security Feature Bypass and the other a Hyper-V RCE.
The number of bugs in each vulnerability category is listed below:
10 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
7 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
12 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
11 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
6 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
3 Spoofing Vulnerabilities
Alongside of the Patch Tuesday updates, but not included in them, Microsoft updated the tool you need to use if you've suffered from the bug where printers were changed to HP. And problems with WiFi from the last Patch Tuesday updates have also been fixed.
This month's initial issue concerns Win10 -- more issues will probably surface as the updates are installed on more PCs -- and has to do with the Recovery Partition. In Many cases KB5034441 is showing an error with a link to retry, & to make things worse, users are seeing the wrong error message: "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE". The Recovery Partition is where Microsoft stores a subset of the Windows setup files that are used when you recover or reset Windows from the special boot menu you see when Windows fails to start 2 or 3 times in a row. Turns out there's a bug in that subset of setup files that can be used to bypass BitLocker disk encryption -- KB5034441 is supposed to fix that. One problem is that the Recovery Partition often isn't turned on &/or working, and problem two is that if the Recovery Partition is working, installing the patch requires a larger Recovery Partition than what's commonly available. I'd assume it's safe to ignore that failure if you don't use BitLocker, BUT, I don't know if that failed update is going to hang around, permanently occupying the space where you normally see the button to check for updates. At any rate, the problem appears to be so wide spread that hopefully Microsoft will roll out a fix fairly quickly, especially since Microsoft's currently published fix is known to have a 50/50 chance of success [or less].
Right now Microsoft says you're supposed to enlarge the Recovery Partition, which means moving or recreating it, giving it a special name & ID, then turning it on. Shrinking the Windows partition, which normally comes just before the Recovery Partition, is easy enough in an app like AOMEI Partition Assistant. So is moving the existing Recovery Partition & then enlarging it, or deleting it & creating a new one. Unfortunately you have to use the archaic Windows Disk Part to give it its name & ID, then re-enable it at the command prompt. It's a bit of work that doesn't -- I've tried the procedure 4 times, and had it work once, and that was just to get the Recovery Partition working, never-mind installing the update. Bleeping Computer confirms the iffy nature of Microsoft's approach. If you want to see if the Recovery Partition is working BTW, type reagentc /info at the Command Prompt and press Enter.
neowin[.]net/news/kb5034123-microsoft-fixes-windows-11-wi-fi-not-showingconnecting-bugs/
bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/microsoft/windows-10-kb5034441-security-update-fails-with-0x80070643-errors/
support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/topic/kb5034441-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-january-9-2024-62c04204-aaa5-4fee-a02a-2fdea17075a8