March 14, 2023—KB5023754 (Security-only update)

IMPORTANT As of January 10, 2023, Microsoft no longer provides security updates or technical support for Windows Server 2008 SP2. For customers who need additional time to upgrade and modernize their Windows Server 2008 SP2 on Azure, we offer one additional year of Extended Security Updates on Azure only, beginning on February 14, 2023 and ending on January 9, 2024. This also applies to Azure Stack HCI, Azure Stack Hub, and other Azure products.

We recommend that you upgrade to a later version of Windows Server.

Learn more about upgrading Windows Server

Summary

Learn more about this security-only update, including improvements, any known issues, and how to get the update.

REMINDER

As of July 2020, optional non-security releases (known as "C" releases) for this operating system are no longer offered. Operating systems in extended support have only cumulative monthly security updates (known as the "B" or Update Tuesday release).

Verify that you have installed the required updates in the How to get this update section before installing this update.

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Extended Security Updates third and final year of ESU ended on January 10, 2023. Many customers are taking advantage of Azures commitment to security and compliance and have moved to Azure to protect their Windows Server 2008 SP2 workloads with free Extended Security Updates.

For customers who need additional time to upgrade and modernize their devices running Windows Server 2008 SP2 on Azure, we offer one additional year of Extended Security Updates on Azure only, beginning February 14, 2023 and ending on January 9, 2024. This also applies to Azure Stack HCI, Azure Stack Hub, and other Azure products.

Customers who get the additional fourth year of free extended security updates (ESUs) must follow the procedures in KB4522133 to continue receiving security updates after extended support ended on January 10, 2023. For more information about ESU and which editions are supported, see KB4497181.

The steps to install, activate, and deploy ESUs remain the same. For more information, see Obtaining Extended Security Updates for eligible Windows devices for the Volume Licensing process. For embedded devices, contact your original equipment manufacturer (OEM). For more information, see the ESU blog.

Note For information about the various types of Windows updates, such as critical, security, driver, service packs, and so on, please see the following article. To view other notes and messages for Windows Server 2008 SP2, see the following update history home page.

Improvements

This update makes improvements for the following issues:

The Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (Lsass.exe) might stop responding after System Preparation (sysprep) is run on a domain-joined device.
By order of the Mexican government in October 2022, the United Mexican States will not observe daylight saving time (DST) in 2023. Key changes in the order include the following:
- Updated DST rules for Mountain Standard Time (Mexico) and Central Standard Time (Mexico) to no daylight saving time starting in 2023.
- Changed Chihuahua time zone from (UTC -7:00) Mountain Standard Time (Mexico) to (UTC -6:00) Central Standard Time (Mexico).
- Changed Ojinaga time zone from (UTC -7:00) Mountain Standard Time (Mexico) to (UTC -6:00) Central Standard Time (Mexico)
- Created a new time zone America/Ciudad_Juarez and mapped it to Mountain Standard Time (Mexico).
This update implements the final phase of DCOM hardening as described in KB5004442. This phase removes the ability to disable changes through the registry.

For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, please refer to the Deployments | Security Update Guide and the March 2023 Security Updates.

Known issues in this update

Symptom

Next step

After installing this update and restarting your device, you might receive the error, “Failure to configure Windows updates. Reverting Changes. Do not turn off your computer”, and the update might show as Failed in Update History.

This is expected in the following circumstances:

If you are installing this update on a device that is running an edition that is not supported for ESU. For a complete list of which editions are supported, see KB4497181.
If you do not have an ESU MAK add-on key installed and activated.

If you have an ESU key and have encountered this issue, please verify you have applied all prerequisites and that your key is activated. For information on activation, please see this blog post. For information on the prerequisites, see the "How to get this update" section of this article.

After this update or a later Windows update is installed, domain join operations might be unsuccessful and error "0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy" occurs. Additionally, text stating "An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Re-using the account was blocked by security policy" might be displayed.

Affected scenarios include some domain join or re-imaging operations where a computer account was created or pre-staged by a different identity than the identity used to join or re-join the computer to the domain.

For more information about this issue, see KB5020276—Netjoin: Domain join hardening changes.

Note Consumer Desktop editions of Windows are unlikely to experience this issue.

Please see KB5020276 for guidance on this issue.

Because this version of Windows is at or near the end of support (EOS), we recommend upgrading to a later version of Windows. For more information, see Get the latest Windows update.

How to get this update

Before installing this update

IMPORTANT Customers who get an additional fourth year of free extended security updates (ESUs) only on Azure for versions of this operating system must follow the procedures in KB4522133 to continue receiving security updates.

For more information on ESU and which editions are supported, see KB4497181.

Note For Windows Embedded Standard 7, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) must be enabled to get updates from Windows Update or Windows Server Update Services.

Language packs

If you install a language pack after you install this update, you must reinstall this update. Therefore, we recommend that you install any language packs that you need before you install this update.

Learn about adding a language pack to Windows

Prerequisite

You must install the updates listed below and restart your device before installing the latest Rollup. Installing these updates improves the reliability of the update process and mitigates potential issues while installing the Monthly Rollup and applying Microsoft security fixes.

The April 9, 2019 servicing stack update (SSU) (KB4493730). To get the standalone package for this SSU, search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog. This update is required to install updates that are only SHA-2 signed.
The latest SHA-2 update (KB4474419) released October 8, 2019. If you are using Windows Update, the latest SHA-2 update will be offered to you automatically. This update is required to install updates that are only SHA-2 signed. For more information on SHA-2 updates, see 2019 SHA-2 Code Signing Support requirement for Windows and WSUS.
To get this security update, you must reinstall the "Update for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) Licensing Preparation Package" (KB5016891) for Windows Server 2008 SP2 that is dated August 8, 2022 even if you previously installed the ESU key. The ESU licensing preparation package will be offered to you from WSUS. To get the standalone package for ESU licensing preparation package, search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog.
After you install the items above, we strongly recommend that you install the latest SSU. For Windows Server 2008 SP2, you must have the servicing stack update (SSU) (KB5016129) that is dated July 12, 2022 or later installed. For more information about the latest SSU updates, see ADV990001 | Latest Servicing Stack Updates. If you use Windows Update, the latest SSU will be offered to you automatically if you are an ESU customer. To get the standalone package for the latest SSU, search for it in the Microsoft Update Catalog. For general information about SSUs, see Servicing stack updates and Servicing Stack Updates (SSU): Frequently Asked Questions.
Download the ESU MAK add-on key from the VLSC portal and deploy and activate the ESU MAK add-on key. If you use the Volume Activation Management Tool  (VAMT) to deploy and activate keys, follow the instructions here.

IMPORTANT You do not need an additional key for deployment of the following:

You do not need to deploy an additional ESU key for Azure virtual machines (VMs), Azure Stack HCI.
For other Azure products such as Azure VMWare, Azure Nutanix solution Azure Stack (Hub, Edge), or for bring-your-own images on Azure for Windows Server 2008 SP2, you do need to deploy the ESU key. The steps to install, activate, and deploy ESUs are the same for the fourth year of ESU coverage.

REMINDER If you are using Security-only updates, you will also need to install all previous Security-only updates and the latest cumulative update for Internet Explorer (KB5022835).

Install this update

Release Channel	Available	Next Step
Windows Update and Microsoft Update	No	See the other options below.
Microsoft Update Catalog	Yes	To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)	Yes	This update will automatically sync with WSUS if you configure Products and Classifications as follows: Product: Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Classification: Security Updates

File information

For a list of the files that are provided in this update, download the file information for update KB5023754.

References

Learn about the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates.

March 14, 2023—KB5023754 (Security-only update)

Summary

Improvements

Known issues in this update

How to get this update

File information

References

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