Important Update: Changes to Sage 200 Subscription Licence Service

We recently announced upcoming changes to our Subscription Licence Service. Some customers asked for more clarity, so here’s everything you need to know.

🔒 Why Sage are making changes

To improve security, we’re strengthening how Sage 200 communicates with their Subscription Licence Service.
From 31 October 2025, they will block certain outdated encryption ciphers used by Windows and Windows Server.

These older ciphers aren’t part of Sage 200 itself, but they affect how your system connects to the Subscription Licence Service.

🔍 What are ciphers?

Ciphers are the encryption methods Microsoft uses to protect your data and ensure secure communication between Sage 200 and our licensing service.
For a secure connection, your app, operating system, and our service must all use compatible ciphers.

⚙️ What’s changing

We’ll be blocking outdated cipher suites — for example,
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA) — that no longer meet modern security standards.

For more technical detail, see Cloudflare’s developer guidance.

👥 Who’s affected

You may be affected if you use older versions of Windows or Windows Server, such as:

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8 or earlier

Even newer systems can be affected if custom cipher settings are in place.

🚫 What happens if your system can’t connect

If your system still uses one of the removed ciphers, it won’t connect to the Subscription Licence Service.
When this happens, a 30-day countdown will appear before your licence expires.

Sage have already contacted partners whose customers use outdated ciphers. However, if your system hasn’t connected recently, it may not have been identified — so please check your setup as soon as possible.

✅ What you need to do

To stay connected and avoid disruption:

• Check and enable the required ciphers using Microsoft’s guidance
• Upgrade the operating system where Sage software is installed
• Ensure Sage software is running on a supported operating system

Full details are available in sages compatibility guide.

💡 Help and support

• Sage can’t provide advice on system-level cipher configurations
• Please refer to Microsoft’s documentation for details on default cipher settings

‍

‍