Windows 10 now blocks some third-party drivers from installing

 

Microsoft says that Windows 10 and Windows Server users will be blocked from installing incorrectly formatted third-party drivers after deploying this month's cumulative updates.

"When installing a third-party driver, you might receive the error, 'Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software'," Microsoft says.

"You might also see the error, 'No signature was present in the subject' when attempting to view the signature properties using Windows Explorer."

Triggered by broken driver catalog files

This issue is caused by improperly formatted driver catalog files that trigger the errors during the driver validation process as Microsoft explains.

Starting with the October 2020 updates, Windows requires DER-encoded PKCS#7 content to be valid and correctly embedded in catalog files. 

"Catalogs files must be signed per section 11.6 of describing DER-encoding for SET OF members in X.690," Microsoft adds.

Users who encounter these errors while attempting to install a third-party driver are advised to ask their driver vendor or device manufacturer (OEM) for an updated and correctly signed driver.

Affected Windows platforms include client (from Windows 8.1 up to Windows 004) and server versions (from Windows Server 2012 R2 up to Windows Server, version 2004).

Recently addressed known issues

Earlier this month, Microsoft said that customers who install the optional KB4577062 update for Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1909 may encounter issues upgrading on devices where HTTP Internet access for LOCAL SYSTEM accounts is blocked using a firewall.

Until a fix is available, the company encourages customers to work around this issue by re-enabling HTTP access to the Internet to the Windows 10 Setup Dynamic Update.

Microsoft also fixed Internet connectivity and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) issues with the release of the KB4577063 non-security preview cumulative update for Windows 10 2004.

The company also pulled the Cumulative Update package 7 (CU7) for SQL Server 2019 on September 24, after confirming a known reliability issue affecting customers who used the database snapshot feature.

One week later, Microsoft released SQL Server 2019 CU8 with a fix for the CU7 reliability issue.