KB4344167 security update breaks TLS Code

Question

Hopefully someone can help with this problem. Recently our machines were updated with KB4344167 which includes security updates for .NET 4.7.1. Unfortunately this update has broken our code for a Webrequest. When we run the code below we get this error:

The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel.

// Create a request for the URL.        
WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);
//specify to use TLS 1.2 as default connection
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls12 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls;
request.Timeout = int.Parse(configmanager.GetSetting("Webtimeout"));
// Set proxy
request.Proxy = WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy;
request.Proxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
// Define a cache policy for this request only. 
HttpRequestCachePolicy noCachePolicy = new HttpRequestCachePolicy(HttpRequestCacheLevel.NoCacheNoStore);
request.CachePolicy = noCachePolicy;
ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = (s, cert, chain, ssl) => true;
// Get the response.
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

When the security update is uninstalled from the machine the code executes fine. Are we missing something in the code above? Thats about the only thing I can think of.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

@Damien_The_Unbeliever had the correct answer. Ultimately the problem was the order of the ServicePointManager and the Webrequest.Create. Reversing those lines, so the ServicePointManager is defined before the Webrequest.Create fixed the issue. I still don't know why adding the ServicePointManager after the Create fixed our original issue when our server moved to TLS 1.2, but we're not going to worry about that now.

Answer 2

I ran into something similar. It appears MS may have broken something in their attempt to only enable TLS 1.2. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4458166/applications-that-rely-on-tls-1-2-strong-encryption-experience-connect

So far, I've tried adding the suggested config to the app.config and it worked like a charm. No more SSL/TLS errors.

<runtime> <AppContextSwitchOverrides value="Switch.System.Net.DontEnableSchUseStrongCrypto=false" /> </runtime>

NOTE: we found this on servers that are selectively patched, i.e. they don't yet have the MS fix. Our development machines never saw the problem.