Account lockout event also stored in Security event log on domain controller (182918)

SYMPTOMS

When users enter a series of incorrect passwords in an attempt to log on to Windows NT using domain accounts and the Bad Logon Attempts limit for the account is reached, the account is locked out at the domain controller.

Windows NT generates an account lockout event (Event ID: 539) on the workstation where the failed logon attempts occurred if the audit policy on that workstation enables auditing of failed logon/logoff events. However, no event is logged at the domain controller. Administrators must search the event logs of all client systems to locate the computer where the bad password attempts originated.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152734 How to obtain the latest Windows NT 4.0 service pack

Hotfix information

Before you apply the hotfix

Because this hotfix makes a modification to the on-disk storage of the LSA data information, Microsoft does not recommend that it be uninstalled. Perform the following steps to ease the transition back to a pre-LSA2-fix configuration in case you experience problems with the hotfix:

Perform a Full System Backup.
Run Rdisk /s. Using the /s command-line switch with Rdisk.exe causes the Sam._ and Security._ databases to be copied to the %Systemroot%\Repair folder.
Create a temporary folder under the %Systemroot% folder called Lsabackout.
Copy the following files from the %Systemroot\System32 folder to the %Systemroot%\Lsabackout folder as they are updated by LSA2-fix:
Eventlog.dll
Lsasrv.dll
Msaudite.dll
Msv1_0.dll
Netcfg.dll
Samlib.dll
Samsrv.dll
Services.exe
Srvmgr.exe
Xactsrv.dll
Create an updated Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) which updates the on-disk SAM and Registry information in the %Systemroot%\System32\Config folder.

Note This hotfix supersedes the fix referred to in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 154087
TITLE : Access Violation in LSASS.EXE Due to Incorrect Buffer Size

ARTICLE-ID: 174205
TITLE : LSASS May Use a Large Amount of Memory on a Domain Controller

ARTICLE-ID: 129457
TITLE : Anonymous Connections May Be Able to Obtain the Password Policy

This hotfix has been posted as Lsa2fixi.exe (x86) and Lsa2fixa.exe (Alpha). For your convenience, the English version of this post-SP3 hotfix has been posted to the following Internet location. However, Microsoft recommends that you install Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 to correct this problem.

NOTE: An updated version of this hotfix was posted on July 20, 1998 and provides an additional security level to systems running Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40/hotfixes-postSP3/lsa2-fix/

If you run Systems Management Server on systems where this hotfix is applied, the SNMP Event Log Extension Agent (Snmpelea) generates the following Event ID 3007 error:

   Error opening event log file Security.
   Log will not be processed.
   Return code from OpenEventLog is 1314.

The SNMP Event Log Extension Agent requires an update to manage the security event log. To resolve the SNMP Event Log Extension Agent problem, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 183770
TITLE : SMS: Snmpelea Unable to Open Security Event Log