The Veracrypt programmer announced some rather disabling news at the end of March. His Microsoft account was blocked, apparently for no reason. This blockage prevented it from signing and verifying new versions of its application intended for the Windows ecosystem.
Mounir Idrassi then explained this in a blog post, specifying that this blockage had occurred without notice from the Microsoft teams. And that his attempts to get in touch with someone at the publisher had been unsuccessful. “As things currently stand, I have no other solutions” summarized the developer.
VeraCrypt is openly licensed encryption software developed and maintained by the French company Idrix, headed by Mounir Idrassi. This tool became known in particular by resuming the work initiated by the Truecrypt project, the maintenance of which was suddenly abandoned by its developers in 2014.
Blocking without warning
The developer explains that this problem does not affect the Linux and MacOS versions of its application. But only Windows versions. While specifying that the Windows version of its software was the most popular with its users. In the absence of a Microsoft account, it is impossible to sign and verify software updates, exposing its users to possible unpatched security vulnerabilities if these were to be discovered.
Mounir Idrassi’s publication allowed several media to identify other developers affected by a similar problem: in an article published by TechCrunch, the developer of the Wireguard project also explained that he was affected by a blocking of his Microsoft account. In the process, another developer working on the Windscribe VPN project also published on the social network X to explain being in the same situation.
In the various cases, the affected developers explain that the accounts concerned are old Microsoft accounts, which worked perfectly before this and that the account blocks were carried out without warning. And they all explain having difficulty contacting human employees of the publisher capable of answering their questions.
A paperwork problem
The various publications relaying these calls for help nevertheless forced Microsoft to react. In messages published on Wednesday, the VeraCrypt developer explains that he was finally contacted by a Microsoft VP. On the social network X, Scott Hanselman, an employee at Microsoft, claims to have contacted the affected developers to resolve the problem.
At the origin of the problem, a Microsoft account verification measure for its Windows Hardware Program initiated in October 2025: as part of this campaign, the developers concerned were contacted by the publisher’s technical service in order to complete legal information on their companies for accounts that have not verified their identities since April 2024.
In the absence of a response from them, Microsoft reserved the right to block the accounts concerned. According to Hanselman, this device is the cause of the various account blockings.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
