Microsoft Clarifies VPN Bug Status After October Update

Microsoft has clarified that a bug affecting Always On VPN connection issues was mistakenly marked as resolved in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates.

Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID–joined devices running Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. It operates in the background, establishing secure tunnels back to the user’s corporate network whenever their device connects to the internet.

The company first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, stating that it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates. The initial Always On VPN connection failed, particularly when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP.

According to Microsoft, “When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed.” The alert also noted that subsequent connection attempts could display the error, ‘The specified port is already in use.’

Mistakenly Marked as Resolved

After the release of the October 2026 Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft incorrectly marked the bug as resolved. However, in a Tuesday update, the company stated that the issues were not actually addressed and that a fix would be included in a future update.

The company explained, “This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated.” A resolution for the issue is planned for an upcoming update, and Microsoft apologized for any confusion.

While a permanent solution is in the works, Microsoft provided a temporary workaround for affected customers. IT administrators can mitigate the issue by changing the Always On VPN profile from automatic protocol selection to a single protocol, either SSTP only or IKEv2 only, depending on their environment and configuration.

Organizations are advised to select the protocol based on their specific environment, security, and deployment requirements.

The September cumulative updates have been associated with multiple other problems affecting both home and enterprise Windows users. Following last month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released emergency out-of-band updates to address issues related to Hyper-V, Remote Desktop Services, and USB audio problems.

Additionally, the company shared a temporary workaround for an issue that prevented some Windows 11 users from logging in with valid domain credentials and announced that it is working to resolve another bug affecting the built-in File History backup feature.

Source: BleepingComputer