Systemwide password amnesia (v2004 build 19041.173)

Anonymous
2020-04-10T20:46:55+00:00

I have a Surface Pro 5 with a Windows Hello camera that wasn't working and I wasn't able to fix it. Looked like I'd need to do a reset to fix the drivers, so instead I decided to give 2004 a try, hoping the update would refresh the camera drives. Indeed this worked, but I've been having a lot of problems since the update:

Seems like all sorts of applications and OS features won't remember my username/passwords anymore.

  • Every time I log in I have to sign into both one drive personal and one drive business.
  • Outlook keeps asking me to log into my office365 every few hours.
  • Acrobat keeps asking for my Adobe login every time a load a pdf if I haven't done so in a few hours.
  • Settings periodically makes me fix my insider account configuration by re-authenticating with Hello
  • Lastpass extention in Firefox keeps asking me to enter my password despite being configured to only require a fingeprint (it first asks me for my fingerprint, but then also asks for the password)
  • probably some stuff I can't recall right now.

I wasn't having any of these issues before the update.

I tried following Lastpass's support advice to fix it by reinstalling the extension and resetting several settings but this didn't help.

It's possible these are all individual issues, but since it seems to be an issue with remembering credentials across a variety of applications, I'm suspecting it's a system wide issue and maybe not specific to these applications.

I checked that the credential manager service is running. It was set to manual. I changed it to automatic and rebooted but this didn't seem to help.

Anyone have an idea what could be going on here?

Thanks!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2020-10-12T21:28:18+00:00

Update 2/8/21

This issue has been fixed by Windows in this Windows 10 update, February 2, 2021—KB4598291 (OS Builds 19041.789 and 19042.789) Preview (microsoft.com).

  • Addresses an issue in which using local Service for User (S4U) affects Data Protection API (DPAPI) credential keys and causes users to sign out unexpectedly.

I am updating the Outlook Known Issue article to reflect the same, Outlook and other apps won't remember password after Windows Updates - Outlook (microsoft.com).

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Sumit 44,306 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2021-02-10T03:14:41+00:00

Issue resolved in KB4601319 monthly update. If you continue to hit the issue, let us know.

February 2, 2021—KB4598291 (OS Builds 19041.789 and 19042.789) Preview (microsoft.com)

  • Addresses an issue in which using local Service for User (S4U) affects Data Protection API (DPAPI) credential keys and causes users to sign out unexpectedly.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-12-14T00:34:49+00:00

    This bug has been bugging me for months 🤮.

    Today I found myself out, that the problem is caused by scheduled tasks running with 'run whether use is logged in or not'. And with this knowledge I found this thread.

    What I found earlier might be of interest here, but might be already reported - I have not read all the post in this thread:

    The problem is the registry branch:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM\SAM\Domains\Account\Users\0000....

    and here the value in 'F'

    0000.... represents the user id e.g. 000001F4

    The correct id can be found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM\SAM\Domains\Account\Users\Names[your user name]

    When running a task with the mentioned setting the (binary) value in 'F' is modified. After this Outlook is unable to retrieve the stored passwords.

    So export that registry value, and when Outlook asks again for password(s), reimport it, log off and logon again.

    To ex- and import keys from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM\SAM.... you need the sysinternal tool psexec.exe

    Start regedit.exe on an elevated command line with this:

    psexec64.exe -s -i regedit.exe

    Then you can export the Key

    To import run 

    psexec64.exe -s -i regedit.exe /s [reg-file you saved]

    after that log off and log on is required.

    I would be very grateful if anyone knows a trick to get that working without log off and log on required.

    What I do not understand:

    It seems this bug is known by MS since April, why has this not yet been fixed, as this is really a nasty bug and has cost me (and many other people) many many hours and nerves.

    Hope there'll be a fix soon.

    Chris

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-12-13T01:36:35+00:00

    Hi,

    unfortunately in my case the

    • Get-ScheduledTask | foreach { If ((xml).GetElementsByTagName("LogonType").'#text' -eq "S4U") { $_.TaskName } }

    command, yields nothing.

    The problem persists, after the PC is shut down for a certain time both OneDrive and Office apps require me to sign in again... essentially at least once every single day.

    Konrad

    Check if your DPAPI is broken: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/data-protection-api-dpapi-seemingly-broken/3f37f1dc-2e74-4ee1-8de8-84a1923082a6

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  3. Sumit 44,306 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-12T16:17:01+00:00

    Hi,

    unfortunately in my case the

    • Get-ScheduledTask | foreach { If ((xml).GetElementsByTagName("LogonType").'#text' -eq "S4U") { $_.TaskName } }

    command, yields nothing.

    The problem persists, after the PC is shut down for a certain time both OneDrive and Office apps require me to sign in again... essentially at least once every single day.

    Konrad

    Konrad, unfortunately you would have to wait for Microsoft to come up for a fix. For some impacted users, this fix may not work.

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