Microsoft broke DHCP for Windows Server last Patch Tuesday
- Reference: 1750246391
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/18/windows_server_dhcp_broken/
- Source link:
The update, released June 10, contains an issue that can affect Windows Server 2025, 2022, 2019, and 2016. [1]According to Microsoft, "the DHCP Server service might intermittently stop responding after installing this security update. This issue affects IP renewal for clients."
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) automatically assigns IP addresses to devices or clients connected to a network. Periodically, those clients might check in with the server to refresh or renew their address.
[2]
Administrators can also give devices a fixed IP address, but using DHCP eases the administrative workload. It's a core piece of networking technology until it stops working.
[3]
[4]
It's not clear how Microsoft has broken the service, which has been a fixture since the early days of Windows NT, but, judging by the [5]complaints on social media, affected users are less than amused.
The problem is that clients cannot renew their IP addresses, which means they might abruptly have network connectivity problems. Affected users reported that the service fails shortly after patch installation.
[6]Microsoft patches the patch that can brick Surface Hub v1 screens
[7]Microsoft brings 365 suite on-prem as part of sovereign cloud push
[8]Microsoft adds export option to Windows Recall in Europe
[9]Danish department determined to dump Microsoft
There appears to be no workaround at present other than rolling back the patch, which is unfortunate since the update contains important security fixes. Microsoft said: "We are working on releasing a resolution in the coming days and will provide more information when it is available."
To be clear, it appears that only a subset of users are affected. While some customers reported problems on supported servers, others found no issues. The difficulty facing administrators is that now the issue has been identified, holding off on the update until it's resolved may be the prudent course of action since the impact on an organization could be severe.
[10]
Then again, few administrators would risk installing a Microsoft update directly into production without checking it out first in a test environment. Enterprises are unlikely to accept an excuse that involves finger-pointing at dodgy code from Redmond in the face of an unexpected loss of connectivity.
The June 2025 Patch Tuesday update is shaping up to be a classic. As well as breaking the DHCP service in some servers, Microsoft also managed to [11]brick a number of its own Surface Hub v1 devices, and had to release an out-of-band update in an effort to limit the damage. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/june-10-2025-kb5060842-os-build-26100-4349-d7d4793c-bb41-4e4a-bfbd-a0dbdb2f6055
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aFLilGotu-XtfvA9axcdiwAAA44&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aFLilGotu-XtfvA9axcdiwAAA44&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aFLilGotu-XtfvA9axcdiwAAA44&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1lcxns6/anyone_else_dealing_with_this_dhcp_mess_after_the/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/17/microsoft_surface_hub_v1/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/17/microsoft_365_on_prem_azure_local/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/16/microsoft_snapshot_export_recall/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/13/danish_department_dump_microsoft/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aFLilGotu-XtfvA9axcdiwAAA44&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/17/microsoft_surface_hub_v1/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"Enterprises are unlikely to accept an excuse that involves finger-pointing at dodgy code from Redmond in the face of an unexpected loss of connectivity."
I'm sure Enterprises are well acquainted to the fact that it's nearly always dodgy code from Redmond.....
Unless it's DNS, or soon to be featured in a "Who Me?"
Anyway, we monitor the DHCP service - if it stops, we'll know.
Maybe the service works and reports it is, but in reality it is not.
I dunno, not seen it, not doing infra any more and many places I have worked at do not us MS for DHCP .
I remember we were once bitten by a simple check of something running and monitors looking OK only to find it was anything but. It caused a few problems, but made me wise to that
Yay !
Congratulations Redmond, you've just found another justification in having revoked your QA department : you have your entire customer base doing it for you !
Isn't that the ultimate savings ?
Because none of them are going to leave, now are they ? Of course not. They stay tied hands and feet to your benevolence, and totally ignore how much money it costs them to remain under your control instead of hiring some competent network specialists and going to Linux, which would condemn you to the dustbin that you deserve.
Because that would mean making their management learn something, instead of going for the tried and true Excel charts and Powerpoint presentations.
Dear God forgive me, but sometimes I wish our entire economical world would collapse so that we could migrate to something that is actually functional.
Unfortunately, that would mean something like [1]this , and the cost in innocent lives would be more than I could bear.
So we'll just have to slog it through and wait for the current generation of useless manglement to die out before maybe having a chance at getting true performance and professionals back into the enterprise arena.
I'll be dead by then anyway, so good luck, kids.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/
Re: Yay !
You ok hun?
Third sigh this week ...
Of for fucks sake, who is running IT these days ? Single point of failure anyone ? Hello ?
My home setup is fully protected against the DHCP server disappearing. Using the power of bash and cron, and puppet, if DHCP is absent for more than 10 minutes, a fallback docker container with piHole is spun up, which reads the main config and runs as a spare DHCP server until I can figure out what happened.
The implication of this MS SOP breaking something, is that a lot of places had no idea about setting up a fallback service. In which case they deserve all they get.
Yes, MS fucked up. THAT'S WHAT THEY DO. But the job of IT *professionals* is to factor that into our lives and move on.
Still, if nothing else, this is todays "Is is such a good idea to be so dependent on MS" moment. Weather to follow.
Wouldn't it be amazing if there was some way of testing these sorts of things before release, but I guess a cash strapped outfit like Microsoft can't really afford a bunch of random PCs to update and see if it works...
It could have been worse. They could have borked one of the most basic networking protocols in existence that is required by a lot of their users. Oh wait.
I blame AI. Maybe they need AI to test the AI testing. Do they even test these patches anymore? Have they really gone to the assumption that our users will test it anyway? That's not going to end well.
Static IPs for all my friends at the Bar!
Or use something else to hand out DHCP addresses? I know that MS DHCP has always jus worked, and it pretty easy to implement, but how about plan B?
It just works . . .
Until it don't.
So many network admins these days were hired as digital natives. But, being born with digital tech in your hand does not make a competent technician.
No push back from greybeards that MS-DHCP is required, and redundancy is "built-in!" because the greybeards were too expensive and shown the door.
I'm one of those greybeards. I and my colleagues made sure critical servers had well documented, static IPs. Of course this meant ensuring MS-DHCP did not clobber those IPs. True backup DHCP was ready if needed, because functioning servers are of no use if clients do not have their IPs. Similar approach to the entire network.
The list of "critical" servers these days though has probably suffered mission creep and would be claimed to be unmanageable for manual "DHCP".
enshitification all around
Easy; Just blame AI
Headline says it all.