Many administrators are now beginning to test Always On VPN functionality on the latest Microsoft Windows client operating system, Windows 11. Initially, Microsoft had some issues with provisioning and managing Always On VPN profiles on Windows 11 using Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune, but those have been resolved. However, some lingering problems may delay enterprise deployments of Always On VPN on Windows 11 for some organizations, specifically those using PowerShell with Active Directory group policy startup scripts or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).
Important Note: The issues outlined in this article have been resolved! The fix for the WMI enumeration bug is addressed in the following updates:
Microsoft has published guidance for deploying Always On VPN profiles using PowerShell with their MakeProfile.ps1 script. This script extracts configuration details from a template VPN profile to create another PowerShell script called VPN_Profile.ps1, which is used to create the Always On VPN profile. SCCM administrators commonly use VPN_Proifle.ps1 to deploy Always On VPN profiles. However, running this script on Windows 11 fails and returns the following error message.
“Unable to create [VPN profile name] profile: A general error occurred that is not covered by a more specific code.”
This issue appears to be related to a problem with the WMI-to-CSP bridge, specifically enumerating the MDM_VPNv2_01 class in the root\cimv2\mdm\dmmap namespace. Here you can see the template VPN profile with PowerShell and Get-VpnConnection.
However, attempts to view the MDM_VPNv2_01 class of this VPN profile using PowerShell and Get-CimInstance fail.
New-AovpnConnection.ps1
Interestingly, administrators may find that my Always On VPN PowerShell deployment script works more reliably on Windows 11, although not always. In my experience, I’ve found that it sometimes fails once (profile is loaded, but the configuration is incomplete), then works after deleting the profile and creating it again. If the Microsoft-provided script isn’t working, give mine a try and see if it works better for you.
Note: When deploying Always On VPN profiles using my PowerShell deployment script via Active Directory startup scripts, it seems to fail consistently for some reason. Go figure. 😉
Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1
The issues described previously with Windows 11 are also negatively affecting some of my other PowerShell scripts. For example, running Remove-Aovpnconnection.ps1 on Windows 11 fails and returns the following error message.
“A general error occurred that is not covered by a more specific error code.”
Current Status
Microsoft is currently aware of this issue. However, I am aware of no timeframe for resolution at the time of this writing. Hopefully, Microsoft addresses this soon so organizations can move forward with their Windows 11 migration projects.
When configuring and deploying Windows Always On VPN using Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM)/Intune, administrators may find that some settings are not exposed in the MEM UI. In some cases, deploying the configuration profile using custom XML is the workaround. However, many crucial Always On VPN settings are not exposed using either method. Here, administrators must resort to editing settings in the VPN configuration file on the client after provisioning the VPN profile.
Phonebook
A file called rasphone.pbk stores all Windows VPN settings on the endpoint. It includes name/value pairs that correspond to many settings administrators change manually in the GUI. Other settings can be changed using PowerShell. Depending on the connection type, the file can be found in one of two locations.
User Tunnel: $env:AppData\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk
Documentation for Windows VPN client phonebook entry settings can be found here.
Limitations
Unfortunately, editing the rasphone.pbk file isn’t always convenient. Making the changes is technically easy. Administrators can write a simple PowerShell script to update the text file as required. However, automating this at scale is challenging. Thankfully, Intune Proactive Remediations can help.
Proactive Remediations
With Intune Proactive Remediations, administrators can create and deploy script packages to monitor and optionally update specific configuration settings. The package includes two scripts, a detection script, and a remediation script. The detection script looks at the current value of a particular setting and reports on its compliance. The remediation script is triggered to update the setting if the value is incorrect.
Requirements
Intune Proactive Remediations has some specific licensing requirements. Administrators must also enroll devices into Endpoint analytics and provision a Windows Health Monitoring configuration profile. There are also limitations on the size and type of scripts that administrators can use. More information on prerequisites can be found here.
Script Packages
Administrators can create detection and remediation PowerShell scripts to update settings in rasphone.pbk, or optionally, they can download sample scripts from my GitHub repository here. This repository contains user and device tunnel detection and remediation scripts for many popular settings in rasphone.pbk. Examples include updating the VPN Strategy, changing VPN interface metrics, disabling class-based default routes, and many more.
Note: The scripts in my GitHub repository are examples only. While they can be used in production environments, they are basic and may not work as expected in all scenarios. For example, the scripts as written today assume only a single VPN profile provisioned. Unexpected results may occur if more than one VPN profile exists. Please use them at your own risk.
Deployment
In this example, we’ll deploy a Proactive Remediation to disable IKE mobility for user tunnel VPN connections. To configure an Intune Proactive Remediation, open the Microsoft Endpoint Manager portal (https://intune.microsoft.com/) and navigate to Devices > Remediations. After creating or downloading the detection and remediation scripts, perform the following steps to create and deploy a Proactive Remediation script package.
Click Create script package.
Enter a name for the package in the Name field.
Enter a description for the package in the Description field (optional).
Click Next.
Click the blue folder icon next to the Detection script file field and upload the detection script.
Click the blue folder icon next to the Remediation script file field and upload the associated remediation script.
For user tunnel connections, click Yes next to Run this script using the logged-on credentials. For device tunnel connections, click No.
Click Next.
Define scope tags as required.
Click Next.
Assign a group and choose a schedule. The detection script can be run once, daily, hourly, or on an hourly interval.
Click Next, then click Create.
Click Refresh to update the UI to display the newly created script package.
Caveats
Be advised that timing issues could lead to delays in functionality. For example, if there’s a change to an Always On VPN profile after a Proactive Remediation detection script runs, the changes will not be detected until the detection script runs again. Also, changes made while the VPN is active will not take effect until after restarting the connection.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Tom Klaver at Inspark for turning me on to this feature. It has been an absolute lifesaver for sure!
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a term that administrators are likely familiar with, as it is one of the hottest marketing buzzwords in circulation today. ZTNA can mean different things depending on the deployment scenario. ZTNA is fundamentally about enforcing the principle of least privilege for endpoints connecting remotely to the corporate network when it comes to enterprise mobility and remote access.
Trusted Access
Historically, VPNs and even DirectAccess granted full, unrestricted network access to authenticated devices and users. Once the endpoint has an IP address, and in the absence of other controls (routing limitations, firewall access controls, etc.), the user could access any resource on the internal network. The rationale was that authenticated devices and users should be considered “trusted”.
Limitations
The Trusted Access model has some significant limitations. It assumes that all traffic from authorized users and devices is legitimate. However, if an endpoint is compromised, an attacker has broad access to the internal network, which is not ideal from a security perspective.
Zero Trust
Zero Trust Network Access is a concept where administrators define explicitly the minimum level of access required to support remote workers. Instead of granting full network access to the endpoint, controlling access using fine-grained policies is enforced on the VPN connection. Configuring limited network access for Always On VPN clients dramatically reduces exposure of the internal network to compromised endpoints.
ZTNA Management
There is a significant management burden associated with this approach, however. Administrators must identify each application requiring VPN access and determine all associated protocols and ports to be allowed, and internal resources to which they will communicate. Although this task isn’t difficult if clients require access to a small subset of internal resources, it can be a substantial undertaking if clients require access to many internal resources from numerous client applications.
Moving Targets
Making things more challenging is that application and network infrastructure often change constantly, requiring administrators to manage network access continually to ensure application availability. When adding new applications or changing the internal infrastructure, updating the configuration on all remote endpoints will be required.
Updating Always On VPN configuration for devices managed with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (formerly Intune) isn’t difficult. However, it can be more challenging when using PowerShell with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or another endpoint management platform.
Traffic Filters
ZTNA can be configured with Always On VPN using Traffic Filters. With Traffic Filters, administrators can apply fine-grained access control for VPN traffic based on a combination of the following.
Source IP address (IP address, address range, or subnet)
Destination IP address (IP address, address range, or subnet)
Protocol (TCP, UDP, IP, etc.)
Source Port
Destination Port
Endpoint Manager Configuration
Configuring Traffic Filters for Always On VPN connections can be performed using Microsoft Endpoint Manager. Open the Endpoint Manager management console (https://endpoint.microsoft.com), navigate to the Always On VPN device configuration profile, then perform the following steps.
Expand App and Traffic Rules.
Click Add next to Network traffic rules for this VPN connection.
Enter a descriptive name in the Name field.
Select Split tunnel from the Rule type drop-down list.
Enter “6” in the Protocol field.
Enter “3389” in the Lower port and Upper port fields in the Remote port ranges section.
Enter an IPv4 address in the Lower IPv4 address field.
Enter an IPv4 address in the Upper IPv4 address field. Enter the same IPv4 address as the lower address to specify a single host.
Click Save.
The example above shows a traffic filter restricting access to TCP port 3389 (Remote Desktop Protocol) from all VPN clients to the 172.16.0.0/24 network.
Note: Repeat these steps to create as many traffic filters as required for any processes or applications that must communicate over the Always On VPN connection.
XML Configuration
Traffic Filters can also be configured using custom XML. To implement the same Traffic Filter described previously, add the following code between the <VPNProfile> and </VPNProfile> tags in your XML configuration file.
Note: Address ranges used in Traffic Filters can be defined using CIDR notation in XML, but they are not supported using Microsoft Endpoint Manager today.
Default Deny
When configuring a Traffic Filter for an Always On VPN profile, an implicit “deny all” rule is automatically enabled. Any traffic not explicitly defined in a Traffic Filter will be denied, including unsolicited inbound traffic, which has crucial implications for the device tunnel because it is used commonly for system management of remote devices.
Direction
Traffic Filters are enabled for the Outbound direction only, by default. Beginning with Windows 10 2004, Microsoft introduced support for Inbound traffic filters. Before Windows 10 2004, configuring a Traffic Filter on the device tunnel would break manage-out scenarios by denying all unsolicited inbound network access.
As of this writing, configuring inbound Traffic Filters using Microsoft Endpoint Manager is not supported. They are only configurable using custom XML.
To implement a Traffic Filter to allow inbound RDP access from the internal network over the device tunnel, add the following code between the <VPNProfile> and </VPNProfile> tags in your XML configuration file.
Note: When configuring inbound Traffic Filters, specify the port of the listening process or application using the LocalPortRanges field.
Application Filters
Administrators can combine Application Filters with Traffic Filters to control network access over the Always On VPN connection even more granularly. Applications can be defined by the following.
Package Family Name (PFN) – This is the unique name of a Microsoft Store application. Use the Get-AppxPackage PowerShell command to find the PFN for an application.
File Path – This is the full path to any executable on the file system. For example, c:\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe.
SYSTEM – This allows Windows kernel-mode drivers (such as ping.exe and net.exe) to send traffic over the Always On VPN connection.
As of this writing, configuring Application Filters using Microsoft Endpoint Manager is not supported. They are only configurable using custom XML.
Application Filter Examples
Below are three examples showing different Application Filters based on file path, Package Family Name, and SYSTEM.
File Path
This example shows a Traffic Filter configured to allow RDP access to an internal subnet using the native Windows Remote Desktop client (mstsc.exe).
Note: Ping uses ICMP (IP protocol 1), which is a network layer protocol. As such, defining ports for the filter is not required.
IPv6 Compatibility
Sadly, the filtering techniques described in this article do not work when also configuring IPv6 on the Always On VPN connection. As of this writing, enabling Traffic Filters when an IPv6 address is assigned to the VPN interface is not supported. More details can be found here.
Configuring Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with Windows 10 Always On VPN is not trivial. Still, with attention to detail, it can be a highly effective tool to enforce fine-grained network access policies and reduce exposure of the internal network to compromised endpoints. Combining Traffic Filters with Application Filters allows administrators to tightly control Always On VPN access and ensure the principle of least privilege is applied.