June 2021 - Uwe Gradenegger

Remote desktop certificate request fails with error message "The requested certificate template is not supported by this CA."

Assume the following scenario:

Machines are configured by group policy to request certificates for the remote desktop session host.
However, the certificates are not applied for or existing certificates expire without renewal.
In the event log of the affected system, the event with ID 1064 of the source Terminalservices-RemoteConnectionManager is logged:

The RD Session Host server cannot install a new template-based certificate to be used for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0\Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) authentication and encryption. The following error occurred: The requested certificate template is not supported by this CA.

The local certificate store for trusted root certificate authorities is not synchronized from Active Directory

Assume the following scenario:

A certification authority hierarchy is established in the network and the root certification authority is mapped in the configuration partition of the Active Directory forest.
Domain members are configured to run the autoenrollment process to update trusted root certificate authorities from the Configuration partition.
However, this process does not work for some clients. The root CA certificates are not automatically downloaded and entered into the local trust store.
As a consequence certificate requests can failbecause, for example, the certification authority hierarchy is not trusted.

Certificate requests for the online responder (OCSP) fail sporadically with error message "The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate. 0x80092012 (-2146885614 CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK)"

Assume the following scenario:

An online responder (OCSP) is set up in the network.
The certification authorities report at irregular intervals that certificate requests for the OCSP password signing certificates fail with the following error message:

The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate. 0x80092012 (-2146885614 CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK).

Extensive whitepaper about attacks on and with Microsoft PKI published

Will Schroeder and Lee Christensen, under the title "Certified Pre-Owned - Abusing Active Directory Certificate Services" a comprehensive Whitepaper about attacks on the Microsoft PKI and with the Microsoft PKI, and announced to talk about it at this year's BlackHat (07/31/2021 to 08/05/2021) to report.

Almost in parallel to this, the article "Microsoft ADCS - Abusing PKI in Active Directory Environment" by Jean Marsault published.

Programmatically trigger the autoenrollment process for the logged-in user

Assume the following scenario:

You write a script or an application that should trigger the autoenrollment process for the currently logged in user.
You will find out that the scheduled task cannot be executed.
The error message reads:

The user account does not have permissions to run this task.

Enable logging for automatic certificate request (autoenrollment)

The following is an overview of the Windows Event Viewer events generated for Windows certificate clients, their activation, and their identification.

Troubleshooting for automatic certificate request (autoenrollment) via RPC/DCOM

Assume the following scenario:

A certificate template is configured for automatic certificate request (autoenrollment).
The certificate template is published on a certification authority (Enterprise Certification Authority) integrated into Active Directory.
However, the users or computers configured for automatic Certificate Enrollment do not apply for certificates as intended.

The following is a troubleshooting guide.

Details of the event with ID 1 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	1 (0x1)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Information
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client has been started successfully.
Event text (German):	The certificate service client was started successfully.

Details of the event with ID 502 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	502 (0x1F6)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Warning
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client failed to register Group Policy notifications. Error code: %1.
Event text (German):	Error registering group policy notifications by the certificate service client. Error code: %1.

Details of the event with ID 4 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	4 (0x4)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Information
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client has detected network dis-connectivity.
Event text (German):	No network connectivity was detected by the certificate service client.

Details of the event with ID 2 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	2 (0x2)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Information
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client has been stopped.
Event text (German):	The certificate service client has been stopped.

Details of the event with ID 1001 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	1001 (0x3E9)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Error
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client failed to load Provider %1. Error code %2.
Event text (German):	Certificate service client: the provider %1 could not be loaded. Error code %2.

Details of the event with ID 3 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	3 (0x3)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Information
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client has detected network connectivity.
Event text (German):	Network connectivity was detected by the certificate service client.

Details of the event with ID 501 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	501 (0x1F5)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Warning
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client is triggered with bad parameters: %1.
Event text (German):	The certificate service client is triggered with incorrect parameters: %1.

Details of the event with ID 1003 of the source Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient

Event Source:	Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient
Event ID:	1003 (0x3EB)
Event log:	Application
Event type:	Error
Event text (English):	Certificate Services Client failed to invoke the Providers in response to event %1. Error code %2.
Event text (German):	Certificate Service Client: Failed to invoke providers in response to event %1. Error code %2.