I got some strange issues / problems while testing a Sophos UTM appliance with 9.004-34 software. The Web Security feature is filtering requests and using client authentication. The proxy is using Standard Mode with Active Directory SSO authentication. I testing the proxy by changing the proxy settings on a Citrix server. Everything was working without any problems. Next I tried some standalone workstations and laptops, including my own.

I wasn’t able to authenticate. I got an Authentication Failed in my browser and noticed the following entry in the Web Filter logging.

adir_auth_process_negotiate (auth_adir.c:311) gss_accept_sec_context: An unsupported mechanism was requestedNo error

I didn’t know where to look. I tried different things, like rejoining the Sophos UTM in Active Directory, rebooting the appliance and changing the proxy settings. When using the IP address of the Sophos UTM in the proxy settings the authentication mechanism NTLM is being used. When using the hostname or an DNS alias the authentication mechanism Kerberos is being used.

After some more testing I noticed that authentication failures only occurred when using Kerberos authentication. I did some more research on the internet and I found a lot of people complaining about this issues and blaming the “Windows Live ID Sign-In” component. My browser included this add-on. I disabled it in Internet Explorer, but that didn’t help. I stopped the service via msconfig, but that didn’t help either. Eventually I uninstalled the complete Windows Live Essentials suite from my laptop. This solved the problem!!!

Uninstalling the Windows Live Essentials component from the other laptops and workstations also resolved their problems. Till now I still don’t know why Windows Live Essentials “breaks” the Kerberos authentication process.

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René Jorissen

Co-owner and Solution Specialist at 4IP Solutions

René Jorissen works as Solution Specialist for 4IP in the Netherlands. Network Infrastructures are the primary focus. René works with equipment of multiple vendors, like Cisco, Aruba Networks, FortiNet, HP Networking, Juniper Networks, RSA SecurID, AeroHive, Microsoft and many more. René is Aruba Certified Edge Expert (ACEX #26), Aruba Certified Mobility Expert (ACMX #438), Aruba Certified ClearPass Expert (ACCX #725), Aruba Certified Design Expert (ACDX #760), CCNP R&S, FCNSP and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEF) certified. You can follow René on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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