Why it issues: In keeping with Microsoft, an encryption bug in older variations of Home windows 11 and Home windows Server 2022 may result in information corruption on programs operating Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, or Rocket Lake CPUs. The corporate fastened the issue just a few months in the past via a patch that launched efficiency penalties, with the latest updates returning encryption pace to regular.
Microsoft has acknowledged a extreme bug in Home windows 11 and Home windows Server 2022 that ends in information harm for gadgets geared up with processors supporting the latest Vector Superior Encryption Customary (VAES) instruction set.
Solely newer CPU generations help VAES directions, together with Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, Rocket Lake, and AMD’s upcoming Zen 4. You may as well manually allow them on early Alder Lake processors on sure motherboards, though Intel has bodily fused off AVX-512 totally in newer CPU revisions.
Microsoft claims the issue stems from the brand new code paths added to SymCrypt (Home windows’s core cryptographic perform library) that make the most of VAES directions. Particularly, the affected machines use both AES XEX-based tweaked-codebook mode with ciphertext stealing (AES-XTS) or AES with Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) (AES-GCM).
The corporate initially addressed the info corruption challenge within the Might 24 preview launch and the June 14 safety replace. Nonetheless, these patches launched an enormous efficiency penalty for AES-based operations, with some capabilities reportedly taking twice as lengthy. In Microsoft’s testing, slowdowns occurred in Bitlocker and the Transport Layer Safety (TLS) protocol, with disk throughput additionally affected, particularly for enterprise prospects.
Luckily, Microsoft’s latest updates resolve these efficiency regressions. Customers can obtain the brand new patches mechanically by way of Home windows Replace or obtain them straight from Microsoft’s Replace Catalog.
Home windows 11 used to have one other challenge that led to degraded SSD efficiency. Microsoft’s first patch solely fastened the issue for some individuals, and it took a number of months for the corporate to launch an replace that restored disk efficiency to regular ranges for everybody. Some Home windows 11 PCs additionally include Virtualization-based Safety (VBS) enabled by default, which has a major efficiency influence in some situations, most notably gaming.
