January Patch Tuesday Frequently Asked Questions
Brian Secrist
New year, new Patch Tuesday! The first Patch Tuesday of the year was January 8, and we hosted our monthly webinar analysis recapping the Microsoft and Third Party security patches released on Patch Tuesday. You can find the resources Ivanti provides on the Ivanti Patch Tuesday page.
During the webinar, we had a lot of great questions asked that we thought to share on the blog. Please reach out if you have any other questions.
Q: How do I sign up for all Patch Tuesday webinars in one click?
A: Just fill out the form on this site.
Q: Should we avoid the monthly patch for server 2008 R2?
A: That’s a great question but leaving a system vulnerable to any disclosed vulnerabilities can be risky. Microsoft’s list of known issues for both the Security-only and the Monthly Rollup did grow with a more notable issue around SMB shares, but this has since been resolved with KB4487345. Make sure to include the non-security in your patching cycle and as always, deploy to a test group first to see your impact.
Q: Are Windows security-only updates cumulative?
A: Security only updates are not cumulative. Each month is standalone. If your patching strategy only includes security-only updates, each month will need to be deployed to ensure full protection from their respective vulnerabilities.
Q: Are Sharepoint updates cumulative?
A: Yes and no. For Sharepoint 2016 and 2019 there is a single patch that rolls up from the previous release. For Sharepoint 2013, each component is patched separately, however Microsoft does offer a cumulative update each month. Here’s a great resource that goes over the update history.
Q: Windows 10 1809 initially had issues and was pulled by Microsoft. I know they've re-released it but haven't taken the time to look at it. Did Microsoft fully resolve the issues with 1809 so that it could be considered a "stable" update?
A: The issues that were initially found in the first 1809 around lost data and other various issues have been resolved in the re-release and in my experience version 1809 appears to be much more stable. Make sure to test this on any unique hardware, as there have been issues around driver compatibility.
Q: Does the April end of life for 1607 have anything to do server 2016?
A: Even though Windows 10 1607 is scheduled to end support on April 9th, Windows Server 2016 will remain supported until January 2027 according to Microsoft’s Windows Server Servicing information.
Q: Have we heard if that forced storage is going to be something we see on the server side?
A: The 1903 update doesn’t appear to contain a long term servicing branch (e.g. Server 2016 or 2019) of Windows Server, but most likely this will be present in the Semi-Annual Channel release for Windows Server. This reserved space for updates probably won’t be applied to earlier builds, so we will have to see how this is received by users in practice.
