Windows 10 update breaks printing for some users, again

By Mayank Sharma
published

Latest Patch Tuesday release included a supposed fix for the last of the PrintNightmare vulnerabilities

Printer
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
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Although Microsoft says it fixed the last of the notorious PrintNightmare (opens in new tab) vulnerabilities in September’s Patch Tuesday (opens in new tab) release, it appears that once again the patch has introduced another printing issue, much to the chagrin of administrators.  

Windows administrators have reportedly been complaining about printing issues with their network printers (opens in new tab) after installing the Patch Tuesday security updates released earlier this week.

One of the patched issues addressed the last of the PrintNightmare family of zero-day vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2021-26958. BleepingComputer claims that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild by numerous ransomware (opens in new tab) gangs and threat actors to immediately gain elevated privileges on vulnerable devices.

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However, many Windows system administrators are now reporting issues accessing their network printers, right after installing the latest round of fixes.

Broken update?

Multiple Windows admins narrated the same experience to BleepingComputer, adding that they could work with their network printers only after rolling back the updates.

“After yesterday’s Windows Update, none of the network computers can print to [the] Windows 10 (opens in new tab) computer we use as a print server," one admin told BleepingComputer.

Based on reports, the issue reportedly isn’t restricted to a particular manufacturer, and rather affects all network printers. 

Interestingly though, while all users are experiencing problems with network printing, not all of them experience the same errors.

For instance, while one admin shared that their devices were displaying a 4098 warning in the application event logs, another reported that their Printer ports tab was blank, while a third received "Access Denied" errors.

Microsoft hasn’t yet responded to the issues publicly, nor has it responded to BleepingComputer’s queries on the matter.

Via BleepingComputer (opens in new tab)

Mayank Sharma
Mayank Sharma

With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’s TechRadar Pro’s expert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.

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