Microsoft Says October Updates Didn't Actually Fix VPN Issues (bleepingcomputer.com) 12
joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft says it mistakenly flagged a bug causing Always On VPN connection issues as fixed in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates. Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID-joined devices running Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. It runs in the background and establishes secure tunnels back to the user's corporate network whenever their device connects to the internet.
Microsoft first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, saying it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates when the initial Always On VPN connection failed (e.g., when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP). "When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed," it said. "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'"
After releasing the October 2026 Patch Tuesday Windows 11 cumulative updates, Microsoft marked the bug as resolved, but in a Tuesday update it said the issues weren't actually addressed and that a fix would ship later. "This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," it said in a service alert sent to IT admins. "A resolution for this issue is planned to be included in an update to be released in the coming weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion." While Microsoft continues working on a permanent solution, it shared a temporary fix that requires affected customers to choose one of two VPN tunneling protocols to work around the issue.
Microsoft first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, saying it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates when the initial Always On VPN connection failed (e.g., when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP). "When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed," it said. "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'"
After releasing the October 2026 Patch Tuesday Windows 11 cumulative updates, Microsoft marked the bug as resolved, but in a Tuesday update it said the issues weren't actually addressed and that a fix would ship later. "This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," it said in a service alert sent to IT admins. "A resolution for this issue is planned to be included in an update to be released in the coming weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion." While Microsoft continues working on a permanent solution, it shared a temporary fix that requires affected customers to choose one of two VPN tunneling protocols to work around the issue.
q4 2026 (Score:2)
We've reached hallucinated Patches. Good times.
Software QA is hard... (Score:2)
At least for Microsoft. So many errors to regression-test with each patch...
Re: (Score:2)
Did they not stop doing QA a while ago? Their bumbling about incompetently certainly seems to suggest so.
Re: Software QA is hard... (Score:2)
To be fair they were also bumbling about incompetently when they did QA testing.
Re: (Score:2)
MS doesn't even have QA testers anymore. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Micr... [duckduckgo.com]
To fix the issue ... (Score:2)
Microsoft will rename "Patch Tuesday" to "Patched? Tuesday" - problems solved. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Explosive Diarrhea Tuesday
Oh why did we have AI for dinner again? Swore not to do that after last time.
Yes, bug, right... (Score:2)
This explains it (Score:3)
I was wondering why so many companies use a third party VPN with Windows. I guess now I know.
VPN fixed enough (Score:3)
Re: VPN fixed enough (Score:2)
It's true. At best a VPN or firewall on a endpoint OS is a promise from that OS to behave correctly. A promise from Windows isn't worth much.