Monday, July 29th 2024
Windows 11 July Update Breaks Bitlocker, Forces Recovery
The Windows 11 "patch Tuesday" update for July 2024 breaks Bitlocker drive encryption, Microsoft notes in its issue discovery. The company releases monthly major update packages for Windows, timing them on every second Tuesday of the month. The July 2024 update carries the knowledge-base identifier KB5040442, and applies to Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2. Bitlocker is a first-party disk encryption feature by Microsoft that's included with Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, and Windows 11 Enterprise editions. You are prompted a disk decryption password at every system startup, the disk remains encrypted until either password is input, or a Bitlocker Recovery process is followed.
The KB5040442 causes Bitlocker to forget its own password, forcing you to clear the Bitlocker Recovery process. When you encrypt a volume with Bitlocker, you are given a recovery key that you're supposed to safekeep. Those with online Microsoft accounts have the option to get Microsoft to store their recovery keys, so they could log into their Microsoft account on another device (like a phone), and access the stored recovery key, which they then manually input on the borked machine to create a new Bitlocker password. Microsoft acknowledges that Bitlocker recovery is only a workaround, KB5040442 will cause machines to forget their Bitlocker passwords, and force a recovery. The company is working on an update that fixes this, so if you have an always-on machine with Bitlocker that just got patched to KB5040442, you might want to keep the recovery key handy.
Source:
Microsoft
The KB5040442 causes Bitlocker to forget its own password, forcing you to clear the Bitlocker Recovery process. When you encrypt a volume with Bitlocker, you are given a recovery key that you're supposed to safekeep. Those with online Microsoft accounts have the option to get Microsoft to store their recovery keys, so they could log into their Microsoft account on another device (like a phone), and access the stored recovery key, which they then manually input on the borked machine to create a new Bitlocker password. Microsoft acknowledges that Bitlocker recovery is only a workaround, KB5040442 will cause machines to forget their Bitlocker passwords, and force a recovery. The company is working on an update that fixes this, so if you have an always-on machine with Bitlocker that just got patched to KB5040442, you might want to keep the recovery key handy.
70 Comments on Windows 11 July Update Breaks Bitlocker, Forces Recovery
In the past they used to have a team that would manage 50 different computers and push for those updates on there.
Now the end users are the beta testers it seems, with financial, software or personal data loss as a risk.
Since you agreed to their TOS there's nothing you can do about it.
People need to either use atlasos.net/ (W10 based) or convert to Linux in it's total.
The more the better. This circus of BSODS cant happen. OS is to my disposal - not the other way around.
I have updates forced off. Idk if they will work if I turn them back on.
Even SCCM customers were bitten by the "new" Teams, and it's fair to say that Teams is a mandatory staple of all Microsoft 365 customers at this point.
I'm also thankful I don't work in an industry where drive-encryption is mandatory. All of my exposure to Bitlocker has left a sour taste in my mouth and I avoid it wherever and whenever possible.
Whatever software product you're using, whether it's something inside your PC, car, fridge, etc, you'd be amazed to find out just how little of it is developed or tested internally.
1. You are the paying customer
2. You are the product
3. You are the tester.
Vista was maligned by a new driver model which some vendors failed to properly support. I didn’t mind Vista, and really all the things Vista forced (many out of necessity) were mostly adopted by the time W7 came out.
Windows 8 was at least solid underneath. The UI was just atrocious. Start8+Win8 was a killer combo, IMO.
Do not install launch versions of any os regardless if Linux, macOS, Windows etc. always wait for the .1 release if possible.
Determine how actually “critical” an update is to YOU not how it’s labeled by the vendor. Security circumstances differ wildly between different people and organisations.
This should be common knowledge at this point :)
Case in point: I updated Windows 10 on the control PC of a specialised measuring machine. It’s an OFFLINE machine so I had to connect it to the net specifically to update it because I’m “smart”
The update broke the software & thus the machine so I had to spend multiple days with service techs remote accessing it and whatnot. To restore the status quo.
Why did I update an offline machine ?!?! Lessons learned.