14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has warned of a new issue affecting Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022, with the company explaining that some devices could end up experiencing data damage when they are equipped with the newest supported processors.
“Windows devices that support the newest Vector Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (VAES) instruction set might be susceptible to data damage. The affected Windows devices use one of the following on new hardware: AES XEX-based tweaked-codebook mode with ciphertext stealing (AES-XTS); AES with Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) (AES-GCM),” the company warns.
The Redmond-based software giant says it has already released a patch, and it is available in the late-May and June updates. In other words, if your device is already up-to-date, the fixes should be there on your device.
Latest updates also resolve the slowdown
However, the company says that devices where these patches have already been deployed could experience performance degradation, especially when using BitLocker, TLS, or disk throughput.
“To prevent further data damage, we addressed this issue in the May 24, 2022 preview release and the June 14, 2022 security release. After applying those updates, you might notice slower performance for almost one month after you install them on Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11 (original release),” Microsoft says.
In some cases, the AES-based operations could be two times slower.
Microsoft, however, has already addressed the slowdown, and users are now being told to install the June 23 or July 12 updates for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.
“We added new code paths to the Windows 11 (original release) and Windows Server 2022 versions of SymCrypt to take advantage of VAES (vectorized AES) instructions. SymCrypt is the core cryptographic library in Windows. These instructions act on Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) registers for hardware with the newest supported processors,” Microsoft further notes.