All posts tagged 853

Always On VPN Error 853 on Windows 11

Recently I did some validation testing with Always On VPN on Windows 11, and I’m happy to report that everything seems to work without issue. However, a few readers have reported 853 errors when establishing an Always On VPN connection after upgrading to Windows 11.

Can’t Connect

After upgrading to Windows 11, an Always On VPN connection may fail with the following error message.

“The remote access connection completed, but authentication failed because the certificate that authenticates the client to the server is not valid. Ensure the certificate used for authentication is valid.”

Error 853

In addition, the Application event log records an event ID 20227 from the RasClient source that includes the following message.

“The user <username> dialed a connection name <connection name> which has failed. The error code returned on failure is 853.”

Server Identity

This error will occur when using Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) authentication. Specifically, it can happen when the option to verify NPS server validity by its certificate is selected, and an explicit list of NPS servers is defined, as shown here.

Case Sensitive

In this specific scenario, Windows 11 now appears to be case-sensitive when it compares the NPS server name entered in the NPS configuration to the Subject Name on the certificate returned by the server. For example, if the Subject Name (or Subject Alternative Name, if present) entry on the NPS server certificate is nps.lab.richardhicks.net, using NPS.lab.richardhicks.net will not match and return an 853 error.

Windows 11

Case matching when validating the NPS server certificate is a change in behavior from Windows 10. Before Windows 11, this comparison was case-insensitive, and any combination of case would match if the entire hostname matched. Going forward, it appears Microsoft has also decided to require case matching to validate the server certificate.

Recommendations

Administrators should look carefully at the server certificate issued to the NPS server and ensure their client configuration accurately reflects the hostname in a case-sensitive manner to ensure a smooth migration from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

Additional Information

Troubleshooting Windows 10 Always On VPN Error 853

Windows 10 Always On VPN Network Policy Server (NPS) Load Balancing

22 Comments

by Richard M. Hicks on September 23, 2021 • Permalink

Posted in Always On VPN, AOVPN, authentication, certificates, EAP, Enterprise, enterprise mobility, extensible authentication protocol, Mobility, Name Resolution, network policy server, NPS, PEAP, Protected EAP, Remote Access, Security, troubleshooting, VPN, Windows 11

Tagged 853, Always On VPN, AOVPN, certificate, certificates, error, Mobility, network policy server, NPS, Remote Access, troubleshooting, VPN, Windows, Windows 11

Posted by Richard M. Hicks on September 23, 2021

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2021/09/23/always-on-vpn-error-853-on-windows-11/

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 853

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Error 691 and 812 – Part 2

Using Windows Server Network Policy Server (NPS) servers is a common choice for authenticating Microsoft Windows 10 Always On VPN user tunnel connections. The NPS server is joined to the domain and configured with a Network Policy that defines the authentication scheme used by clients for authentication when establishing an Always On VPN connection. Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) using client authentication certificates recommended for most Always On VPN deployment scenarios.

Experiencing error 853 on Windows 11? Click here for more information.

Can’t Connect

Users establishing an Always On VPN user tunnel connection using PEAP and client authentication certificates may encounter a scenario in which a VPN connection attempt fails with the following error message.

“The remote access connection completed, but authentication failed because the certificate that authenticates the client to the server is not valid. Ensure that the certificate used for authentication is valid.”

Error 853

In addition, the Application event log records an event ID 20227 from the RasClient source that includes the following error message.

“The user <username> dialed a connection named <connection name> which has failed. The error code is 853.”

Missing NTAuth Certificate

Error code 853 is commonly caused by a missing issuing Certification Authority (CA) certificate in the NTAuth store on the NPS server. The NPS server must have the issuing CA certificate included in this store to perform authentication using client certificates. You can see the contents of the NTAuth certificate store by opening an elevated command window on the NPS server and running the following command.

certutil.exe -enterprise -viewstore NTAuth

Install Certificate

To install the issuing CA server’s certificate into the NTAuth store, copy the CA certificate to the NPS server, open an elevated command window, then run the following command.

certutil.exe -enterprise -addstore NTAuth <issuing CA certificate>