Windows 11 July Update Breaks Bitlocker, Forces Recovery

[btarunr]

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.



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[theouto]

Bravo microsoft.
Every day that passes is a new incident that further convinces me to get a linux laptop if I ever need one.

 

[R0H1T]

Between Intel, Microsoft (plus Crowdstrike) & QC's poor(?) launch there's probably never been a better time to buy a Mac

 

[wNotyarD]

Microsoft just can't give anyone a break, can they?

 

[tommo1982]

Thankfully I didn't install Win11. Doesn't mean my Win10 is trouble free. Occasionally I'm getting WMD driver BSoD, usually after update, and that's a fresh install only a few months old.
I got so fed up with Windows and it's issues I use my second OS, which is Mint, even to play using Steam Proton.

 

[farjam]

Thankfully I'm well clear of Win11 and also Bitlocker

 

[Nanochip]

First crowdstrike’s issue now this Microsoft issue. What is it with bad updates this month that bork the boot process?

 

[Chaitanya]

What a fun last few weeks for idiots at MS secure boot compromized, Crowd strike causing global meltdown and now shitty bitlocker borked as well.

Thankfully I didn't install Win11. Doesn't mean my Win10 is trouble free. Occasionally I'm getting WMD driver BSoD, usually after update, and that's a fresh install only a few months old.
I got so fed up with Windows and it's issues I use my second OS, which is Mint, even to play using Steam Proton.

Win 10 is quite stupid on my PC it tries to do TRIM on HDDs and then it simply freezes(for hours on end or I need to hit reset button).

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

What great timing while MS announces plans to work with third party companies like CrowdStrike to not have issues like we just had.

 

[Klemc]

Why to lock computers anyway in the first place ?.. yeah, i'm an anti bitlocker man !

 

[Wirko]

Why to lock computers anyway in the first place ?.. yeah, i'm an anti bitlocker man !

You do it because you have to, not because you want to.

 

[Klemc]

You do it because you have to, not because you want to.

Yes true, i'm sure without all the security stuff OSs would be 1000x better easyly, but it's needed.

 

[Wirko]

Win 10 is quite stupid on my PC it tries to do TRIM on HDDs and then it simply freezes(for hours on end or I need to hit reset button).

Is it a shingled HDD by any chance? Those, at least some of them, can use the TRIM commands to better bury data under shingles. Anyway, it's an interesting issue - does Windows send TRIM to just any HDD or does it try to determine if it's necessary, and do 10 and 11 differ in that behaviour?

 

[R0H1T]

There are alternatives, although after Truecrypt went under I've not really seen anything like it cross-platform.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Every time i think i'm ready for Windows 11, a news post like this pops up and i'm sticking to Windows 10 for a little longer, because it works.

 

[Klemc]

Every time i think i'm ready for Windows 11, a news post like this pops up and i'm sticking to Windows 10 for a little longer, because it works.

You can also wait update, take the one from the past month and always skip the current !

 

[Easy Rhino]

How much you want to bet that the engineers and devs are using AI tools to push through this crap code?

 

[mb194dc]

Another Microsoft special...

 

[SL2]

What do you recommend as an alternative to Bitlocker, today? Not what was recommended in the past.

I have no idea, it's been years since I used Bitlocker.

 

[neatfeatguy]

@btarunr

Got an extra word in there, second paragraph, second sentence. You should take it out, it doesn't make sense.

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 can you're supposed to safekeep.

 

[Chomiq]

Microsoft two weeks ago:
"Hey, this is on CrowdStrike, we would have never released a broken update"

Microsoft today:
"Hey, it happens to the best"

Meanwhile I can't even play any of my Game Pass game that I have installed on my PC with valid Game Pass subscription. Time to cancel auto-renew.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Every time i think i'm ready for Windows 11, a news post like this pops up and i'm sticking to Windows 10 for a little longer, because it works.

I use if for work, and there's always a feel of incompleteness about it. Just last week, a coworker and I were watching the open programs in my taskbar shift a little to the right, then maybe 30 seconds later, they'd shift back to the left. Even if I just sat there doing nothing at all, this happened all day long. What was it doing? I have no idea. W11 has brought about so many odd little UI bugs that I don't think I've ever seen in my extensive Windows usage that goes all the way back to Windows 3.11. Windows ME and Vista did better than this.

 

[Wirko]

How much you want to bet that the engineers and devs are using AI tools to push through this crap code?

Those are the engineers who expressly want to be replaced by algorithms, not just use them as a helpful tool.
(Yes I'm aware this is an unfair statement, the decisions are made at the top, not at the bottom, but it still matters how those engineers think and act.)

 

[64K]

MS is an astonishing example of corporate indifference to their customers. A company with a 2023 revenue of 212 billion dollars and net income of 72 billion dollars can't be bothered to spend some money on QA before rolling out updates that bork their customers. I honestly don't understand why people apologize for them but I suspect some will just call me and others that point out the MS indifference as Microsoft haters. In my case the shoe fits mostly for many more reasons than just their OS incompetence.

 

[dicobalt]

There are alternatives, although after Truecrypt went under I've not really seen anything like it cross-platform.

Veracrypt is the successor, when Truecrypt went down they took over and also conducted a code review to ensure it was secure.