McAfee security products also impacted, Microsoft confirms

Apr 19, 2019 04:51 GMT  ·  By
The issue affects Windows 7 devices, but McAfee indicates Windows 10 could be impacted as well
   The issue affects Windows 7 devices, but McAfee indicates Windows 10 could be impacted as well

Microsoft has just confirmed that McAfee security products are also impacted by a bug in Windows 7 monthly rollup KB4493472.

Previously, the company said that devices running Avast, ArcaBit, Sophos, and Avira antivirus software failed to start or became unresponsive after installing the April 2019 monthly rollup for Windows 7.

In an updated KB page, Microsoft says that systems with McAfee Endpoint Security Threat Prevention and McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention installed could also experience issues when trying to boot after installing the monthly rollup.

“Microsoft and McAfee have identified an issue on devices with McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x or McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0 installed. It may cause the system to have slow startup or become unresponsive at restart after installing this update,” Microsoft explains.

Windows 10 also affected?

The software giant says it’s currently working with McAfee on investigating the issue and links to additional support articles for McAfee Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x and McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0.

While McAfee confirms that devices running its software could experience slow boot times or degraded performance, the company also indicates that Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 devices could be impacted in addition to Windows 7.

“Changes in the Windows April 2019 update for Client Server Runtime Subsystem (CSRSS) introduced a potential deadlock with ENS,” McAfee says. “McAfee is investigating this issue and will resolve it in a future update. A Proof of Concept (POC) build to test a fix is currently available. Escalate a Service Request to Technical Support to obtain the POC.”

The workaround, according to the McAfee, is to “disable any access protection rule that protects a service.”

There’s no ETA as to when a fix could land. The next Patch Tuesday update cycle takes place on May 14.