Strong Certificate Mapping for Intune PKCS and SCEP Certificates

Always On VPN LockDown Mode

With the October 2024 Intune update, Microsoft introduced support for strong certificate mapping for certificates issued by Intune via the Intune Certificate Connector. Enabling strong certificate mapping support in Intune is an important change for those organizations using Microsoft Intune to issue and manage certificates for their users and devices, as it resolves a critical implementation blocker.

Note: This post was updated to clarify that adding the {{OnPremisesSecurityIdentifier}} for PKCS certificates is not required. This variable is only used for SCEP certificates.

Background

In May 2022, Microsoft released security update KB5014754, which added functionality to domain controllers and enterprise issuing certification authority (CA) servers, allowing the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) to enforce strong certificate mapping. Specifically, with KB5014754 installed, issuing CAs now add the requesting principal’s Security Identifier (SID) to the certificate in a new certificate extension. Domain controllers can be configured to reject authentication requests using certificates that do not include this information.

Today, DCs with KB5014754 installed will still allow authentication without strong certificate mapping. However, Microsoft has stated they will begin enforcing strong certificate mapping in February 2025, with an option to disable it via the registry. Starting in September 2025, full enforcement will be mandatory.

Reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5014754-certificate-based-authentication-changes-on-windows-domain-controllers-ad2c23b0-15d8-4340-a468-4d4f3b188f16

Limitation

The initial changes in KB5014754 applied only to online certificate templates, meaning those that build the subject name from Active Directory. However, deploying certificates with Intune using either PKCS or SCEP requires using an offline certificate template that allows the requestor to supply the subject name in the request. When using offline templates, a certificate is issued but does not embed the SID in the certificate. Using offline templates presents unique challenges to organizations moving to modern management with Intune and Entra ID.

Intune Changes

The October 2024 Intune update addresses this limitation by providing a method to include SID information in certificates using either SCEP or PKCS.

SCEP

To include the SID information in SCEP certificates, create or edit an existing SCEP device configuration policy and define a URI Subject Alternative Name (SAN) attribute with the value {{OnPremisesSecurityIdentifier}} as shown here.

PKCS

To include SID information in PKCS certificates, administrators must ensure the Intune Certificate Connector is updated to at least version 6.2406.0.1001. In addition, a registry setting must be enabled on the Intune Certificate Connector server.

On the server where the Intune Certificate Connector is installed, open the registry editor, navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MicrosoftIntune\PFXCertificateConnector, and change the value of EnableSidSecurityExtension to 1.

Optionally, administrators can update this setting at the command line by running the following PowerShell command.

Set-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MicrosoftIntune\PFXCertificateConnector’ -Name EnableSidSecurityExtension -Value 1 -Force

Once complete, restart the Intune Certificate Connector server for the changes to take effect.

Certificates

SID information is added to certificates differently depending on which Intune device configuration policy type is used.

PCKS

PKCS certificates have the SID embedded in the certificate extension 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.2, as shown here.

SCEP

SCEP certificates have the SID embedded in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field in the format “tag:microsoft.com,2022-09-14:sid:<SID>” as shown here.

Migration

When making these changes to embed the SID in Intune-issued certificates in an existing Intune PKCS or SCEP configuration policy, the change will only affect certificates issued after the change is made. To update all certificate holders, you must create and deploy a new device configuration policy to targeted users or devices. Deleting the old profile (or ensuring it no longer applies) will remove the old certificate from the endpoint. If you’ve configured your Intune Certificate Connector to support revocation, the old certificate will also be revoked.

Entra Conditional Access

Entra Conditional Access certificates have included SID information since July 2023. More details here.

Intune Cloud PKI

The changes above will also work with certificates issued by Cloud PKI for Intune.

Other Cloud PKI Providers

Many other Cloud PKI providers, such as SCEPman and KEYTOS, already include the embedded SID in their certificates. Other cloud PKI providers may also include embedded SID. Consult your provider to confirm.

Additional Information

Microsoft Intune October 2024 Strong Certificate Mapping Update

Microsoft Intune Certificate Connector Strong Certificate Mapping Update for PKCS

Entra ID Conditional Access Certificates with SID Information Now Available

Implementing Strong Certificate Mapping in Microsoft Intune PKCS and SCEP Certificates

Certificate-Based Authentication Changes and Always On VPN

Troubleshooting Intune Failed PKCS Request

Always On VPN administrators deploying on-premises enterprise PKI certificates using Microsoft Intune with PKCS may encounter a scenario where a certificate fails to be issued to a user or device. In this post, I’ll share some things to investigate when troubleshooting this issue.

Event 1001

To begin, open the Event Log and navigate to Applications and Services > Microsoft > Intune > CertificateConnectors > Admin. You will likely find an event ID 1001 from the CertificateConnectors source with the following error message.

Failed to process PKCS request.

Prerequisites

Validate the following prerequisites have been met on the issuing Certification Authority (CA) server.

Certificate Template

Ensure the certificate template used for PKCS has the correct permissions and is published on an issuing CA server. Open the Certificate Templates management console (certtmpl.msc), right-click the certificate template, choose Properties, and then click on the Security tab. The certificate template must grant the Intune Certificate connector server’s computer account (or the PKCS connector’s service account if running as a service and not SYSTEM) the Read and Enroll permissions on the template.

CA Permissions

In addition to the permissions on the certificate template, ensure the correct permissions have been configured on the issuing CA itself. Right-click on the CA in the Certification Authority management console (certsrv.msc) and choose Security. Ensure the Intune Certificate connector server’s computer account (or the PKCS connector’s service account, if running as a service and not SYSTEM) is granted The Issue and Manage Certificates and Request Certificates permissions.

Intune Policy

Ensure the Intune device configuration policy is configured correctly. These three fields are critical and can result in failed PKCS certificate deployment if misconfigured.

Certification Authority

Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the on-premises issuing CA server in this field.

Certification Authority Name

Enter the common name of the issuing CA in this field. You will find this information by running the following command on any domain-joined Windows system.

certutil.exe -dump

Certificate Template Name

Enter the name of the certificate template in Active Directory. Be aware that the template name and template display name are two different things. The template name is usually the template display name without spaces. However, that’s not a guarantee. On the General tab of the certificate template, look at the template name field on the certificate template to confirm.

Summary

This article is not a comprehensive troubleshooting guide for problems associated with failed PKCS certificate deployment using the Microsoft Intune Certificate connector and PKCS. However, it covers some of the more common problems administrators will likely encounter. If you cannot provision PKCS certificates correctly, drop me a note and I’ll provide further guidance.

Additional Information

Troubleshooting Failed Intune Certificate Connector Configuration – Part 1

Troubleshooting Failed Intune Certificate Connector Configuration – Part 2

Intune Certificate Connector Service Account and PKCS

Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI

Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI and Certificate Templates

Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI and Active Directory

Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI and Active Directory

Recently, Microsoft introduced a new PKI-as-a-Service offering called Cloud PKI. This cloud-based PKI can issue and manage certificates to Intune-managed endpoints. Administrators can now deploy user and device authentication certificates using Intune Cloud PKI without deploying Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) on-premises. Numerous blog posts and YouTube videos show how to configure and deploy Intune Cloud PKI, so I won’t reinvent the wheel with a complete configuration guide here. This article will focus instead on integrating Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI with on-premises Active Directory (AD).

Note: Administrators must deploy certificates to all enterprise domain controllers and RADIUS servers to support certificate-based authentication with AD. However, Cloud PKI for Intune can only issue certificates to Intune-managed endpoints today. It cannot issue certificates to servers. Administrators must use another CA (AD CS or another Cloud PKI solution) to issue and manage domain controller and RADIUS server certificates on-premises to support this scenario.

AD Integration

While Intune Cloud PKI eliminates the need for on-premises AD CS infrastructure, there will be times when Cloud PKI-issued certificates will be used to authenticate to on-premises AD, either through a RADIUS server such as Windows Network Policy Server (NPS), which is common for VPN and Wi-Fi deployments, or other methods. Additional configuration is required to support this scenario.

Publish Root/Issuing CA Certificates

The Intune Cloud PKI root and issuing CA certificates must be published in AD to support on-premises AD authentication using Intune Cloud PKI-issued certificates. Follow the steps below to complete this task.

Note: Arguably, you could skip publishing the Intune Cloud PKI root and issuing CA certificates in on-premises AD because Cloud-PKI certificates can only be issued to Intune-managed endpoints, in which case you are likely already deploying the Cloud PKI root and issuing CA certificates using Intune. I’m including these steps for completeness. However, publishing the Intune Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate in the NtAuthCA certificate store in AD is required to support on-premises AD authentication using Intune Cloud PKI-issued certificates, so that step is mandatory.

RootCA Store

On a domain-joined computer on-premises, open an elevated PowerShell or command window and run the following command to publish the Intune Cloud PKI root CA certificate to the RootCA certificate store in AD.

certutil.exe -dspublish -f <path to Cloud PKI root CA certificate> RootCA

SubCA Store

Next, run the following command to publish the Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate to the SubCA certificate store in AD.

certutil.exe -dspublish -f <path to Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate> SubCA

NtAuthCA Store

Finally, run the following command to publish the Intune Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate to the NtAuthCA certificate store in AD. Publishing the Intune Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate in the NtAuthCA store in AD allows certificates issued by Intune Cloud PKI to be used to authenticate on-premises AD if required. Be sure to run this command even if you did not run the previous commands to publish the Intune Cloud PKI root and issuing CA certificates in AD.

certutil.exe -dspublish -f <path to Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate> NtAuthCa

GUI

If you have an existing on-premises AD CS deployment, you can use the Enterprise PKI management console to publish the Intune Cloud PKI certificates in AD as an alternative to the command line. First, open the Enterprise PKI tool (pkiview.msc) on an existing on-premises Certification Authority (CA) server. Right-click the Enterprise PKI root node and choose Manage AD Containers. Add the Intune Cloud PKI root CA certificate to the Certification Authorities container. Next, add the Intune Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate to the Enrollment Services container. Finally, add the Intune Cloud PKI issuing CA certificate to the NTAuthCertificatesContainer.

Summary

Administrators can use the Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI solution to issue and manage user and device authentication certificates for their Intune-managed endpoints. Using the commands above, administrators can also integrate their Intune Cloud PKI with on-premises Active Directory to support user and device authentication for common workloads such as Wi-Fi and VPN. Critically, when integrating Cloud PKI with on-premises Active Directory, your Intune administrators should be considered Tier-0 administrators, and appropriate security controls should be enforced.

Additional Information

Microsoft Intune Cloud PKI

Mastering Certificates with Microsoft Intune Training Course – May 14-16, 2024