Always On VPN Updates for Windows 10 2004

Always On VPN Updates for Windows 10 2004Microsoft recently made available an update for Windows 10 2004 that includes many important fixes for outstanding issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN. KB4571744 (build 19041.488) addresses many challenges faced by Always On VPN administrators today, including the following.

TPM

This update addresses an issue that prevents hash signing from working correctly using the Microsoft Platform Crypto Provider for Trusted Platform Module (TPM). This issue can occur when administrators configure Always On VPN to use Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) with client certificate authentication using a FortiGate security device.

Sleep/Hibernate

This update also addresses issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN failing to automatically reconnect when resuming from sleep or hibernate. I’ve written about issues with Always On VPN and sleep/hibernate in the past. This is an issue that has plagued Always On VPN since its introduction, so let’s hope this finally provides some meaningful relief from this persistent problem.

Certificate Authentication

When both the Always On VPN device tunnel and user tunnel are provisioned to a Windows 10 clients, user tunnel connections may be authenticated using the machine certificate and not EAP/PEAP. This can result in connections that are not validated as intended, and allowing a user to bypass configured NPS policies, MFA requirements, or conditional access rules. This update includes a fix for this issue, restoring proper authentication for the user tunnel when the device tunnel is also provisioned.

Device and User Tunnel Coexistence

A bug that first appeared when Windows 10 2004 was introduced prevented a device tunnel and user tunnel Always On VPN connection from being established to the same VPN server if the user tunnel used Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2). This update restores full functionality under those conditions.

Update KB4571744

To resolve these issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN as well as others, download and install update KB4571744 today. If you are experiencing any of these issues with releases of Windows 10 prior to 2004, look for updates for those build to come later this year.

Additional Information

September 3, 2020 – KB4571744 (OS Build 19041.488) Preview

Windows 10 Always On VPN Connection Issues after Sleep or Hibernate

Windows 10 Always On VPN Bug in Windows 10 2004

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 3

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2When implementing Windows 10 Always On VPN, administrators may encounter errors 691 or 812 when establishing a VPN connection. There are several different configuration issues that will result in these errors. For example they may occur when TLS 1.0 has been disabled on the RRAS server when installed on servers prior to Windows Server 2016. It can also happen if a user’s Active Directory account is configured to deny dial-in access and the NPS server is not configured to ignore user account dial-in properties. Another scenario that can result in 691/812 errors is when the Active Directory security groups are configured as conditions on the Network Policy Server (NPS) Network Policy. See below for more details.

SSTP and Error 691

When attempting to establish an Always On VPN connection using the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), administrators may encounter the following error message.

“The remote connection was denied because the user name and password combination you provided is not recognized, or the selected authentication protocol is not permitted on the remote access server.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

In addition, an error 691 with event ID 20227 from the RasClient source can be found in the Application event log on the client.

“The user <domain\user> dialed a connection named which has failed. The error code returned on failure is 691.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

IKEv2 and Error 812

When attempting to establish an Always On VPN connection using Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2), administrators may encounter the following error message.

“The connection as prevented because of a policy configured on your RAS/VPN server. Specifically, the authentication method used by the server to verify your username and password may not match the authentication method configured in your connection profile. Please contact the Administrator of the RAS server and notify them of this error.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

In addition, an error 812 with event ID 20227 from the RasClient source can be found in the Application event log on the client.

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

NPS Event Log

On the NPS server the administrator will find an entry in the application event log with event ID 6273 from the Microsoft Windows security auditing source and the Network Policy Server task category indicating the network policy server denied access to the user. Looking closely at this event log message shows Reason Code 48 and the following reason.

“The connection request did not match any configured network policy.”

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2Group Membership

As stated earlier, another scenario in which administrators will encounter errors 691 and/or 812 is when the Network Policy on the NPS server is configured incorrectly. Specifically, and administrator may wish to grant access to more than one group but intend for access to be granted to users who are a member of any of them. Conversely, they may wish to require access in all specified groups to gain access to the VPN. Configuring each of these conditions is subtly different, however.

Open the NPS management console on the NPS server and follow the steps below to configure user group conditions correctly for the following scenarios.

Any Group

1. Right-click the Always On VPN network policy and choose Properties.
2. Click on the Conditions tab.
3. Click the Add button.
4. Click User Groups.
5. Click Add.
6. Click Add Groups.
7. Enter the name of the group you want to grant access to.
8. Click Ok.
9. Repeat the steps 6-8 above to specify additional groups.

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Errors 691 and 812

All Groups

1. Right-click the Always On VPN network policy and choose Properties.
2. Click on the Conditions tab.
3. Click the Add button.
4. Click User Groups.
5. Click Add.
6. Click Add Groups.
7. Enter the name of the group you want to grant access to.
8. Click Ok.
9. Repeat steps 3-8 above to specify additional groups (you must go back to the Add button on step 3!).

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Errors 691 and 812

Additional Information

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 1

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Custom Cryptography Native Support Now in Intune

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Custom Cryptography Native Support Now in IntuneMicrosoft recently announced support for native Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel configuration in Intune. Previously administrators had to use the complicated and error-prone custom XML configuration to deploy the Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel to their clients. That is no longer required with this recent Intune update. In addition, administrators may now specify custom cryptography settings for IPsec Security Association (SA) parameters for IKEv2 for both device tunnel and user tunnel connections. This effectively eliminates the requirement to use custom ProfileXML for most deployment scenarios.

Device Tunnel Configuration in Intune

Follow the steps below to configure and deploy a Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel using the native Intune user interface.

Create Profile

1. Open the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center (devicemanagement.microsoft.com).
2. Navigate to Devices > Configuration Policies.
3. Click Create profile.
4. Choose Windows 10 and later from the Platform drop-down list.
5. Choose VPN from the Profile drop-down list.
6. Click Create.

Profile Settings

Proceed with the profile configuration as you would normally, providing the VPN connection name, VPN server name(s), and choosing the option to register IP addresses with internal DNS. Next use the following steps to define a device tunnel connection and specify custom cryptography for IPsec SA parameters for IKEv2.

Configure a Device Tunnel

1. Select IKEv2 from the Connection type drop-down list.
2. Click Enable in the Always On section.
3. Select Machine Certificates from the Authentication method section.
4. If the computer certificate is provisioned using Intune, select the client authentication certificate (not required if the computer certificate is provisioned using on-premises Active Directory).
5. Click Enable in the Device Tunnel section.

Define Custom Cryptography

Follow the steps below to implement minimum security baseline cryptography settings for IKEv2.

IKE Security Association Parameters

1. Select AES-128 from the Encryption algorithm drop-down list.
2. Select SHA2-256 from the Integrity check algorithm drop-down list.
3. Select 14 from the Diffie-Hellman group drop-down list.

Child Security Association Parameters

1. Select CBC-AES-128 from the Cipher transform algorithm drop-down list.
2. Select HMAC-SHA256-128 from the Authentication transform algorithm drop-down list.
3. Select 14 from the Perfect forward secrecy (pfs) group drop-down list.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Custom Cryptography Native Support Now in Intune

Important Note: The IPsec security association parameters outlined above are the minimum recommend security baseline for IKEv2 and are compatible with all supported versions of Windows Server RRAS. It is recommended that authenticated cipher suites (GCM) be used whenever possible. However, GCM ciphers are not supported for encryption prior to Window Server 1803. Administrators should review these security settings and adjust the parameters to meet their specific security requirements.

Server Configuration

When defining custom cryptography settings for IKEv2 for device tunnel deployment, it is critical that the server be configured using identical parameters. Failure to use matching cryptography settings on the client and server will result in error code 13868, which indicates an IPsec policy mismatch.

A PowerShell script to configure IKEv2 security association parameter minimum security baselines on the RRAS server as outlined above can be found here. The commands to make these changes on the Azure VPN gateway can be found in this post.

Caveats

While Microsoft has made great strides to ensure better support for Always On VPN configuration using the native Intune UI, there are a few critical settings are still not supported. In these scenarios the administrator must deploy Always On VPN using custom XML, as described here and here.

Custom Cryptography

IKEv2 custom cryptography settings are only exposed when IKEv2 is selected as the connection type. It appears that defining custom cryptography settings for IKEv2 when the connection type is set to Automatic is not supported at this time. If you wish to specify the Automatic connection type and use custom cryptography settings for IKEv2 you will need to deploy the device tunnel using custom ProfileXML.

IPv6

IPv6 routing when configuring split tunneling for Always On VPN in Intune is not supported.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Custom Cryptography Native Support Now in Intune

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Policy Mismatch Error

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Load Balancing and NAT

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Fragmentation

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Security Configuration