Important: Windows Server 2012 has reached the end of mainstream support and is now in extended support. Starting in July 2020, there will no longer be optional releases (known as "C" or "D" releases) for this operating system. Operating systems in extended support have only cumulative monthly security updates (known as the "B" or Update Tuesday release). Verify that you have installed the required updates listed in the How to get this update section before installing this update.  For information about the various types of Windows updates, such as critical, security, driver, service packs, and so on, please see the following article. To view other notes and messages, see the Windows Server 2012 update history home page.

Improvements and fixes

This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:

  • Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Cloud Infrastructure, Windows Authentication, Windows Fundamentals, and Windows Storage and Filesystems.

For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Security Update Guide.

Known issues in this update

Symptom

Workaround

After installing this or later updates, apps accessing event logs on remote devices might be unable to connect. This issue might occur if the local or remote has not yet installed updates released June 8, 2021 or later. Affected apps are using certain legacy Event Logging APIs. You might receive an error when attempting to connect, for example:

  • Error 5: access is denied

  • Error 1764: The requested operation is not supported.

  • System.InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetEventLogCommand

  • Windows has not provided an error code.

Note Event Viewer and other apps using current non-legacy APIs to access event logs should not be affected.

This is expected due to security hardening changes relating to Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) for CVE-2021-31958. This issue is resolved if the local and remote devices both have installed updates released June 8, 2021 or later.

Certain operations, such as rename, that you perform on files or folders that are on a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) may fail with the error, “STATUS_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL (0xC00000A5)”. This occurs when you perform the operation on a CSV owner node from a process that doesn’t have administrator privilege.

Do one of the following:

  • Perform the operation from a process that has administrator privilege.

  • Perform the operation from a node that doesn’t have CSV ownership.

Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

How to get this update

Before installing this update

We strongly recommend that you install the latest servicing stack update (SSU) for your operating system before installing the latest Rollup. SSUs improve the reliability of the update process to mitigate potential issues while installing the Rollup and applying Microsoft security fixes. For general information about SSUs, see Servicing stack updates and Servicing Stack Updates (SSU): Frequently Asked Questions.

If you use Windows Update, the latest SSU (KB5001401) will be offered to you automatically. To get the standalone package for the latest SSU, search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog

REMINDER If you are using Security-only updates, you will also need to install all previous Security-only updates and the latest cumulative update for Internet Explorer (KB5003636).

Install this update

Release Channel

Available

Next Step

Windows Update and Microsoft Update

No

See the other options below.

Microsoft Update Catalog

Yes

To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

Yes

This update will automatically sync with WSUS if you configure Products and Classifications as follows:

Product:  Windows Server 2012, Windows Embedded 8 Standard

Classification: Security Update

File information

For a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for update 5003696.

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