Security News > 2023 > September > Microsoft calls time on ancient TLS in Windows, breaking own stuff in the process

Microsoft has reminded users that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will soon be disabled by default in Windows.

SQL Server 2008 R2 finally dropped out of Extended Security Updates in July, although Microsoft has published instructions for adding TLS 1.2 support.

The Redmond software giant said: "We have been tracking TLS protocol usage for several years and believe TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 usage data are low enough to act."

Although the company may be acting in the coming weeks and months - Windows Insiders will be the first to have TLS 1.0 and 1.1 disabled by default from September, followed by future Windows releases - the option to re-enable the protocols will remain.

The company thundered: "Re-enabling TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 on machines should only be done as a last resort and as a temporary solution until incompatible applications can be updated or replaced. Support for these legacy TLS versions may be removed completely in the future."

Stamping out deprecated versions of TLS has been a goal of the industry for several years; the US National Security Agency published guidance on eliminating the tech in 2021 and three years earlier, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla announced plans to move on from the outdated protocols.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/09/04/tls_windows_deprecation/