Description of the security update for SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016: January 12, 2021

Summary

This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Office file. To learn more about these vulnerabilities, see the following security advisories:

Note To apply this security update, you must have the release version of Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016 installed on the computer.

This public update delivers Feature Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2016. Feature Pack 2 contains the following feature:

SharePoint Framework (SPFx)

This public update also delivers all the features that were included in Feature Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2016, including:

Administrative Actions Logging
MinRole enhancements
SharePoint Custom Tiles
Hybrid Taxonomy
OneDrive API for SharePoint on-premises
OneDrive for Business modern user experience (available to Software Assurance customers)

The OneDrive for Business modern user experience requires an active Software Assurance contract at the time that the experience is enabled, either by installation of the public update or by manual enablement. If you don't have an active Software Assurance contract at the time of enablement, you must turn off the OneDrive for Business modern user experience.

For more information, see the following Microsoft Docs articles:

Improvements and fixes

This security update enables the Search administrator to use the case-insensitive crawl behavior instead of case-sensitive crawling by setting the CaseSensitiveUrls property to 0. To do this, use the following PowerShell script:

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
$ssa.SetProperty("CaseSensitiveUrls", 0)
$ssa.Update()

This update also contains fixes for the following nonsecurity issues in Project Server 2016:

If you delete many thousands of timesheets, the process might be slow.

Going to the Approvals page may take much longer than expected.

How to get and install the update

Method 1: Microsoft Update

This update is available from Microsoft Update. When you turn on automatic updating, this update will be downloaded and installed automatically. For more information about how to get security updates automatically, see Windows Update: FAQ.

Method 2: Microsoft Update Catalog

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

Method 3: Microsoft Download Center

You can get the standalone update package through the Microsoft Download Center. Follow the installation instructions on the download page to install the update.