- Microsoft Defender bug mislabels SQL Server versions as unsupported software
- Fix rolling out to reverse code change behind inaccurate end-of-life tagging
- Recent Defender issues highlight ongoing reliability challenges across enterprise security tools
Microsoft is working to address an issue in its Defender for Endpoint enterprise security platform which mistakenly flagged supported versions of SQL Server as reaching their end-of-life.
The problem, which was revealed in a service alert spotted by Bleeping Computer, affects Defender XDR users running SQL Server 2017 and 2019.
The system incorrectly tagged both versions as unsupported, even though SQL Server 2017 won’t reach its end-of-life until October 2027 and SQL Server 2019 until January 2030.
Fix incoming
Microsoft attributed the error to “a code issue introduced by a recent change to end-of-support software.”
In its alert, the tech giant explained, “Users with SQL Server 2019 and 2017 installed may see inaccurate tagging within Threat and Vulnerability Management. Users may experience inaccurate end-of-life tagging for SQL Server within Microsoft Defender for Endpoint management.”
Microsoft said it is in the process of rolling out a correction designed to reverse the unfortunate code change.
“We’re continuing to deploy a fix that’s designed to reverse the offending change that introduced the code issue and will provide a timeline for its completion as one becomes available,” the company added.
As Bleeping Computer reports, this SQL Server tagging error follows a number of other Defender-related issues in recent weeks. One of these caused the platform to wrongly flag BIOS firmware on some Dell devices as outdated, while another bug led to black-screen crashes on macOS systems.
Microsoft also recently resolved a false positive that caused its anti-spam service to quarantine messages and block links for Exchange Online and Teams users.
This latest incident is being tagged as an advisory, which typically suggests only limited disruption.
Microsoft acknowledged that the problem could affect “all users that have SQL Server 2017 and 2019 installed,” but has not said just how many systems are likely to have been impacted.
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