Vista SP2 Blue Screens Can Be Caused by Antivirus and Firewall WFP Callout Drivers

While not all STOP: 0x0000000A error messages can be blamed on third-party security solution, it appears that in certain scenarios antivirus and firewall programs are indeed responsible for causing blue screens of death for Windows Vista Service Pack 2. Affected are not just Vista SP2 editions, but also Windows Server 2008 SP2 SKUs, Microsoft informs. At fault is a third-party Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) callout driver, according to the Redmond company.

“After the third-party WFP callout driver intercepts a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet, the driver clones and then holds back the cloned UDP packet. Then, the driver checks the cloned UDP packet and injects the cloned UDP packet back. If the WFP callout driver does not finish checking and injecting the cloned UDP packet back, the WFP callout driver will try to intercept a second UDP packet. This causes a race condition to occur,” Microsoft explained.

WFP callout drivers are, as a general rule, associated with third-party antivirus and firewall solutions. Installing a WFP callout driver on Vista SP2 generates a Stop error message on a blue screen, the software giant explains. “The Stop error message resembles the following: “STOP: 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.” The four parameters in the Stop error message may vary, depending on the configuration of the computer,” the company added.

Microsoft underlines that STOP: 0x0000000A error messages as well as the accompanying blue screen of death can have additional causes beyond those described in this article. The Redmond company did not specify which were the antivirus and firewall products that fail to play nice with Windows Vista SP2.

However, customers impacted by this problem can now access a fix from the company. A hotfix is available for download from Microsoft Support, but users should be aware of the fact that it is designed to resolve only the specific issue discussed above.