Secure Boot Problem Arises After Windows Patch Day

We recently reported on significant post-patch-day issues with Windows Server 2022 and VMware. Microsoft and VMware confirmed that a Secure Boot bug is blocking reboots after the update. Now it is said that Windows Server is also directly affected.

According to the report, the error – contrary to what was initially assumed – is not limited to systems with VMWare or systems with virtual machines.

This takes the whole problem to a new level: According to the new report, Windows Server instances are generally affected. After updating KB5022842 from patch day February, Secure Boot with Windows Server 2022 can no longer be run for many users.

Boot manager with a security warning

Microsoft has at least confirmed this in connection with VMs with Windows Server 2022 and published an entry in the Windows Release Health Dashboard. It happens that the system tries to start the Secure Boot process but then aborts. The result is that the Windows Boot Manager issues a so-called “Security Violation” warning and the system does not boot.

One way to work around the problem is to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS. However, this is not what one would want as a solution, as Secure Boot is an important security feature. Secure Boot secures the system start and is intended to protect against manipulation. Without Secure Boot, there is no check-up when starting. So far, however, there has been no feedback from Microsoft on how the problem could otherwise be circumvented. Günter Born discovered some such cases without VMs on Reddit. Microsoft has not yet published any further details on the underlying problem.