Windows update KB3004394 issues

Right on for troubleshooting error!

There's a bug report on Oracle's VirtualBox ticket system that seems to be caused by KB3004394. For some, uninstalling the update resolves the VirtualBox failures.

VirtualBox Ticket 13677

Had a look at the VirtualBox breakage.

The problem seems to be that the update does not install any catalog file C:\Windows\System32\CatRoot and it's therefore impossible to verify the new crypto32.dll file that the it installs.  (Compare "sigcheck -i C:\Windows\System32\crypto32.dll" output before and after installing the update. Sigcheck says it's signed before and unsigned after.)

The Windows 8.1 version of the update works, i.e. installs C:\Windows\system32\CatRoot{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\Package_1_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.3.1.0.cat that we (and sigcheck.exe from microsoft/sysinternals) can successfully validate the DLL.  (I've only tried 64-bit Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, so I cannot tell exactly which updates are broken.)

The only way to make VirtualBox work again is reverting/removing the update, unless Microsoft fixes the missing .cat file issue.  I sincerely hope that Microsoft will update the update with a working cat file eventually...

-bird

PS. Would be really swell if files like crypto32.dll and wintrust.dll had embedded signatures instead of only external ones. It would not only do away with these kind of issues but also make it a lot easier to verify that the files haven't been tampered with.

Files containing "3004394" in c:\windows\system32\catroot on my Windows 7 x64 system with KB3004394 installed an no issues so far:

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name

----                -------------     ------ ----

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM      23488 Package_111_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM      27136 Package_112_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       7475 Package_113_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       7475 Package_114_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       9231 Package_39_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM      11567 Package_40_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM      12727 Package_75_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       9231 Package_76_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       7475 Package_for_KB3004394_SP1~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

-a--s        10/31/2014   2:45 PM       7475 Package_for_KB3004394~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.0.cat

Output of sigcheck:

C:\SysinternalsSuite>sigcheck.exe c:\Windows\System32\crypt32.dll

Sigcheck v1.71 - File version and signature viewer

Copyright (C) 2004-2010 Mark Russinovich

Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

c:\windows\system32\crypt32.dll:

        Verified:       Signed

        Signing date:   1:45 PM 10/31/2014

        Publisher:      Microsoft Corporation

        Description:    Crypto API32

        Product:        Microsoft« Windows« Operating System

        Version:        6.1.7601.18526

        File version:   6.1.7601.18526 (win7sp1_gdr.140706-1506)

I'm also not seeing any issues with Windows 7 32-bit or Windows Server 2008 R2.

If there are any things that I can assess in my environment to look for differences, let me know and I'll post a reply.

This update has broken a lot of things in my Law Firm. As an administrator, UAC prompts comes up every time I load Active Directory or Event Viewer. Remote assistant does not work either (msra.exe). Any MMC snippet prompts for UAC. It never use to prompt when loading AD or any MMC snippets directly such as DNS etc. My UAC settings are set to default settings which has always been like that.

It also broke my Virtual machines which are running on VirtualBox.

As soon as I uninstalled this update, everything is back to normal.

Corporate company running Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit. Home PC running on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I tried to remove update but stuck on preparing to configure Windows for hour!

Help can I get out of this?

All of this is so frikikin crazy. I'm having these update issues as well- and I'm so tired of having to hunt and search for these answers- often times never finding any. Users should NOT have to go through this kind of hell.

It's all so reminiscent of the ancient DLL HELL we used to have to go through. Windows Updates should be SEAMLESS to the user.