Tracking December's Updates: Update KB3008923 Crashing IE9, Other Issues Reported

It's been a quiet day or so since December's Patch Tuesday, but that's usually the case as those in charge of patching are busy testing Microsoft's releases. It's been almost too quiet.

Well, that stillness is about to be broken. There are minor reports of specific issues with a couple of the updates already, but none of those are confirmed yet. One unconfirmed example I've been pointed to is an issue where Lync 2013 screen sharing breaks for Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9879. But, hey, Windows 10 is beta. Another unconfirmed problem may exist with KB3002339, which is an optional update for Visual Studio 2012. Some have reported that the update will not install correctly from Windows Update, but will install successfully if downloaded and installed manually.

There is one, though, that is starting to be gather momentum and is being reported as reproducible across computers and across multiple customers.

In some instances, Internet Explorer 9 will crash after KB3008923 (MS14-080: Cumulative IE update) is installed. The crash could be immediate, or, as some have reported, could happen 30 minutes after the browser is opened and left running. Uninstalling the update fixes the problem.

Just something to watch out for as more reports roll in.

UPDATE: One more update, KB3004394, is apparently causing issues for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Per a quickly growing thread in the Microsoft forums, the problem results in multiple problems from MMC access to the Windows Defender service not staring to even keeping other updates from installing. Crazy stuff. So, it looks like that quiet and calm I noted earlier, has just turned into an ear piercing roar. Stay tuned happy patchers. Update to the update: KB2004394 has also been expired. Update to the update to the update: KB3004394 Finally Pulled for an Additionally Reported Reason

UPDATE 2: KB3002339 is currently under internal review at Microsoft. Per, Barry Dorrans (@blowdart)...

UPDATE 3: KB3008923 crash problem has now been confirmed as a bug with a post to the Microsoft Connect site. Per the bug report:

We have an enterprise app that heavily uses modal dialogs. This morning we were greeted with a flood of support requests that after a Windows update last night, dialogs no longer work. We isolated the issue that window.dialogArguments on secondary window no longer works.

UPDATE 4: Silverlight Update has been pulled.

UPDATE 5: KB2553154, the security update for Microsoft Office 2010, breaks ActiveX controls and macros in Excel and Word. Per a thread in the Microsoft forums, it can be fixed by manually deleting some files in the Office directory structure.

UPDATE 6: A newly discovered issue with KB3008923 and IE11 now has its own FIX.