Microsoft announced the death of many old versions of .NET Framework

The .NET Framework is a longstanding and relatively well known free software development framework. It helps developers to build .NET applications, websites, and services, and users can run them on a variety of operating system platforms (including Windows), using different implementations. of .NET. If you've been using Windows for a long time, you've probably seen or heard of Microsoft .NET. Maybe it's because an app asks you to install it, or you see it in your list of installed programs.

'The .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6 and 4.6.1 will officially end of support on April 26, 2022, ' said Jamshed Damkewala, .NET's Chief Technical Officer. ' After that timeline, we will no longer provide any new updates, including security fixes or technical support for these versions of the .NET Framework .'

The only exception, however, is that the .NET Framework 4.6 version included with Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2015 will continue to be supported until October 2025, when the operating system platform is released. death (according to the plan).

It is recommended that .NET developers begin to move their applications to at least .NET Framework version 4.6.2 or higher by April 26, 2022 to continue receiving Security updates and technical support required.

The .NET Framework 4.6.2 (released almost 5 years ago) and the .NET Framework 4.8 (released two years ago) are both stable and 'on-premises' interoperability runtime, inherently " is widely deployed to hundreds of millions of computers through Windows Update (WU) ".

' If your applications are built to target .NET Framework 4 - 4.6.1, they will continue to run on .NET Framework 4.6.2 and above without any change in most cases. . For that reason, we strongly recommend that you perform the necessary testing procedures to ensure that the application's functionality is not affected when running on the newer runtime, before you deploy the new runtime in its development environment '.

Trends shift to SHA-2

As mentioned, one of the main reasons why Microsoft decided to terminate these versions of the .NET Framework because they were digitally signed using certificates using the legacy SHA-1 cryptographic hashing algorithm, is currently not still safe.

There have been several important reports regarding the links between the SHA-1 vulnerabilities and the attacks that could allow hackers to fake digital certificates to impersonate organizations and businesses. business or website.

Starting next month, specifically from May 9, all major Microsoft services and processes (including cryptographic signing, file hashing, and TLS certificates) will use the SHA-2 algorithm separately.

Microsoft also removed all SHA-1 Windows content from the Microsoft Download Center in August 2020, after changing the way Windows updates are signed using the SHA-2 algorithm a year earlier.

However, it should be noted that although Microsoft only supports SHA-2 signed official assets, Windows executables signed with an enterprise certificate or manually installed SHA-1 can run in the system. operating.

David Pac

Update 29 April 2021