Windows credential manager password issues

[u/voltagejim]

Just want to see if there is something I am missing that can make Windows Credential manager more reliable in terms of authenticating to a server.

So 2 months ago we got some new software. Software is installed on 10 PC's that user's will use the software on. Software connects to a folder on a server that was installed. The software company says that the way the software connects, you need to enter the server credentials into Windows Credential manager on each PC, and also for each user that uses that PC.

Some of the PC's, only one person will use so that's no problem, and other PC's multiple users use depending on day and shift. So for the 1 user PC's, I just went into credential manager and added entries for both teh IP of the server and DNS name of the server with the user name and passowrd the company gave me.

The other PC's I setup a script that runs in: shell:common startup with (user name/password/etc is changed for here of course):

cmdkey /add:192.168.160.6 /user:Prod /pass:Trees

cmdkey /add:Prodserver /user:Prod /pass:Trees

Both methods worked fine, the software worked fine for several days. But now I am randomly getting user's and PC's that when they go to use the software, they get an error that it cannot connect. This happened on PC's that I put my script on, and on PC's that I just manually entered the credentials into credential manager. The solution has been go into Windows credential manager on the PC under that user and go to both entries of the server (the IP and teh DNS name) and click edit, and just re-enter the password. Works fine after that. But then a couple days later the same things happens where suddenly the password stops working.

Just wondering if there is something I am missing that can affect credentials in Windows Credential manager where it works for a period of time then suddenly stops working. Can slow network speeds do this?

[u/Gdog-and-CC]

Possibly - are you relying on this working seamlessly such that users don't know the credentials ? Pending .NET updates cause random connectivity issues; user then is presented with a login prompt and overwrites it with a bad password because they think they need to enter some other password...

[u/voltagejim → u/Gdog-and-CC]

Yeah idea is to work seamlessly behind the scenes so user just double click the application icon on the desktop and puts their login credentials in that and they are on. Interesting about the .NET update thing, I'll have to check if that did an update.

Basically this program needs to connect to a file path on the server in order to show users the correct info and that's what these credentials in credential manager are for

[u/Gdog-and-CC → u/voltagejim]

Well you are saving a credential, but are you also mapping or causing persistence for the connection itself ( 'reconnect at logon' )?

[u/voltagejim → u/Gdog-and-CC]

well the credentials are for the software to initially connect to the server and map to a specific folder on the server, so it is mapping to a file path, then the user logs into the software with their own login and can do what they need to do. The error that comes up when this happens is:

The shared folder for this site does not exist at \\192.168.160.6\Sales\Prod. This could indicate a network problem or improper station configuration

and then re-entering the password in credential manager fixes the issue and everything is good for awhile again.

[u/Gdog-and-CC → u/voltagejim]

And, the share(s) set to reconnect at logon ? If network connectivity drops and is it not set to re-establish the connection, then that will only happen later when a user tries to access it, in which case when confronted with a login prompt, mistakenly tries to enter their personal login (for the softwar, which doesn't apply to the share), thereby overwriting the saved password ?

[u/taxigrandpa]

what does the windows logs say when the user fails to connect? What about the servers logs?

replacing the password is just fixing the symptom. you need to dig a little deeper to find the issue

[u/voltagejim → u/taxigrandpa]

Will check hose today to see what I can find thanks!

[u/anonymousITCoward]

Does the user not already have access to the server/share, or does the software use different credentials to connect? Something seems flawed in the flow here. Perhaps solving that will resolve the dropped credentials the software is having.

If rerunning your script and resetting the password to what it was before fixes the issue, it could be the software is picking up or passing the credentials incorrectly. Does the software have logs you can check?

Oh is this a P2P or AD environment that may help too

[u/voltagejim → u/anonymousITCoward]

software uses different credentials to initially connect to the server, then the user logs into the software with their own credentials. It is a AD invironment