Microsoft Fixes .NET Framework Bug Caused by July 2018 Updates

Microsoft has released fixes for a .NET Framework bug introduced by the July 2018 updates and breaking down applications on all Windows versions.

The software giant originally published July updates on Patch Tuesday for all supported Windows versions, and they included a fix for a .NET Framework security feature bypass vulnerability (detailed in CVE-2018-8356).

Microsoft acknowledged on July 20 that it was aware of a .NET Framework bug produced by the latest updates causing applications to fail to start or run correctly, so it decided to pull the updates completely to prevent more systems from being impacted by the issue.

“If you installed the July 2018 update and have not yet seen any negative behavior, we recommend that you leave your systems as-is but closely monitor them and ensure that you apply upcoming .NET Framework updates,” the company said in the July 20 advisory.

Only offered as a manual download

On July 30, Microsoft has finally released a fix for all affected .NET Framework versions, and the company says that computers which were impacted by the said bug are recommended to install it as soon as possible. Otherwise, it’s better to wait until the next regular update, Microsoft says.

“Today, we released the July 2018 Update that fixes an issue in .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5, 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2. We recommend that you apply this update if you are experiencing the issue described in the known issues Knowledge Base article 4345913,” Microsoft says.

Very important to know is that the update isn’t shipped automatically to Windows systems via Windows Update, but is only offered as a manual download from the Microsoft Update Catalog. This means that systems impacted by the said bug won’t get the fix until the next Patch Tuesday cycle unless the fix is downloaded and installed for each device.

Here’s the full list of download links for each Windows versions and .NET Framework release: