Problem with Visual Studio 2015 update KB 4456688

Topic

New Reply

This from poster @deuxbits: 2018 August 18 Microsoft released a security update to Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 to deal with CVE-2018-0952 and CVE-2018
[See the full post at: Problem with Visual Studio 2015 update KB 4456688]

2 users thanked author for this post.

ch100, columbia2011

Reply | Quote

Replies

Not that I condone updates botching up previously good tools, but I wanted to mention that at my company we’ve embraced Visual Studio 2017 and it’s really turned out to be quite good. For example, they finally fixed some C++ optimizer deficiencies so that statements that really should compile to one machine instruction now do that.

Maybe this issue is an incentive for those of you still on VS 2015 to move up to the latest?

-Noel

Reply | Quote

Thank you Noel. I generally agree. One more peculiar note about the update. Removing it did not fix the problem… :-0

We have always had plans to move to move to VS2017 but we are ultra careful about changing production tools and since we rarely have a week go by without publishing an update to our software this makes roll out and testing of a new production tool a bit more of a task which has to be carefully scheduled. This incident has encouraged me to increase the priority of that roll out schedule. Of course many of our self developed build automation tools will need to be updated/modified since Microsoft radically changed the location of the build tools pattern for version 15, for example; “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe” versus “C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe” :-D. Reports from reliable developers do not indicate anything has been broken by VS2017 so the new proposed roll out schedule will be discussed today.

I also worry about the more frequent updates to VS2017 (now up to 15.8.2) and the increased load that will incur on our production tool testing in the future.  Also the inevitable kibitzing from already overworked developers having to relearn modified features, layout, etc. :-D. When can we all stop repeating the mantra “Agile is better” for everything? Doesn’t Microsoft’s Windows 10 new six month update frequency provide some data to contradict this?

Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing - Werner Von Braun

Reply | Quote

VS14 aka VisualStudio 2015 Start Debug takes about 4 minutes to start, during which time it is unresponsive. Windows 7.  Problem first appeared after  KB-4456688 update was applied. EricB

Reply | Quote

Does it go away if you uninstall the patch?

Reply | Quote

No, unfortunately, the problem continues after uninstall via

ControlPanel / Programs & Features / View Installed Updates / “Microsoft Visual Studio 2015” / KB4456688 / Uninstall

(Uninstall took a long time — about an hour. I rebooted afterward. )

So … either uninstall didn’t completely restore previous version, or the problem is caused by something other than KB4456688.

My machine also got these updates about the same time:

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 – Update ‘KB4344146’

Update for Windows (KB4344152)

Security Update for Windows (KB4343900)

Update for (?) (KB2504637)

BR, EricB

Reply | Quote

Hello, just want to add on that we encountered this same issue with VS 2015 after installing KB4456688

After installing the update, when a user starts Debug mode the application will hang for several minutes or indefinitely.

Uninstalling the KB4456688 does not resolve the issue – Debug mode continues to hang. Reinstalling VS 2015 also does not resolve the issue.

We have found a temporary workaround to this by Enabling “Use Managed Compatibility Mode” in Tools > Options > Debugging ; by enabling Compatibility Mode, we believe it is disabling whatever problematic background service or operation that was activated by the KB4456688, thus allowing Debug mode to operate smoothly.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, woody, Microfix

Reply | Quote

@ anon #214396, Good work, thanks for your valuable feedback on a workaround to this issue.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

Reply | Quote

EricB update: we found workarounds as follows

1) Uninstall KB4456688

2) Uninstall KB4344146

3a) Tools > Options > Debugging > Enable Diagnostic Tools while Debugging => OFF — fixes debug for native C++

3b) Tools > Options > Debugging > Use Managed Compatibility Mode => ON — fixes debug for managed C#

Thanks to previous poster for (3b)!

Not sure whether steps 1 & 2 are actually required; try (3a) and (3b) first.

Cheers, EricB

2 users thanked author for this post.

columbia2011, woody

Reply | Quote

THIS is the answer for us – at least, as a stopgap.

All our developers (VS2015 and VS2017) were able to resume their debugging after setting:
1b) Tools > Options > Debugging > Use Managed Compatibility Mode => ON — fixes debug for managed C#

We do have a concern that this is a temporary measure that will potentially limit our VS functionality by setting this setting this way.  I would very much like to know if this is something that Microsoft is aware of and has plans to correct with a future update.  Does anyone know?

Reply | Quote

Regarding the workaround options:

Tools > Options > Debugging > Use Managed Compatibility Mode

Enable Diagnostic Tools while Debugging

Anyone know where I would set these in the registry or in a configuration file?  For security reasons, my organization is being asked to deploy KB4456688 along with configuration of these settings.  Not quite sure how to do that, however.

EDIT html to text (use only Simple BB Codes): content may not appear as intended

Reply | Quote

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2018-0952
KB4463110 is released to replace KB4456688.
What it fixes is undocumented as usual.

Reply | Quote

Fortunately, KB4463110 does fix the issue for me.

Reply | Quote