Local Admin Passwords Page

Microsoft LAPS agent

If you plan on using Lithnet Access Manager to read Microsoft LAPS passwords, you'll need to delegate permission for the AMS service account to read those passwords. You can use the built-in cmdlets from the AdmPwd PowerShell module, or click the Delegate Microsoft LAPS Permissions button to generate a script to do this automatically.

Copy or save the script, modify the $OU variable as appropriate, and run it in with domain admin rights.

Lithnet Access Manager agent

If you want to use the Lithnet Access Manager agent instead of the Microsoft LAPS agent, to take advantage of the password history and encryption capabilities, then you'll need to delegate appropriate permission for the AMS service account to read those passwords.

Click the Delegate Lithnet AMA Permissions button to generate a script to do this automatically.

Copy or save the script, modify the $OU variable as appropriate, and run it in with domain admin rights.

Encryption

Each forest in the domain must have an encryption certificate published in order to deploy the Lithnet Access Manager Agent. Select a forest from the drop down list, to see the encryption certificates available for that forest. Only one certificate can be published at any one time.

You can rotate these certificates as often as you like, but you need to ensure that the certificate used to encrypt a given password is available for as long as it is stored in the directory. Agents cannot decrypt their own passwords, so once they have encrypted it with a given certificate, it can only be decrypted with the same certificate.

List columns

Subject

Shows the forest that the encryption certificate was issued for

Issued

Shows the date that the certificate was generated

Expiry

Shows the date that the certificate will expire

Published

Indicates whether the certificate is correctly published in the directory. Clients in this forest will currently use this certificate to encrypt their passwords.

Has private key

Indicates whether the private key for the certificate is available on the server. If the certificate's private key is not available, then passwords that were encrypted by the key cannot be recovered.

Ensure you have backups of your private keys and keep them safe and secure.

Private key permissions

Indicates whether the AMS service account has permission to read the private key. You can use the Reset permission button to try and fix the permissions on the key. This may happen if you restore a key from a backup by manually importing it.

Generating a new encryption certificate

At any time you can generate a new encryption certificate by clicking the Generate new button. Clients will not use this new certificate until you publish it in the directory. Use the Publish button to generate a script to deploy the public key into the forest. This script must be run as a member of the domain admins group in the root domain of the forest. Publishing a new certificate will overwrite any existing certificate in use.

If there are previously used certificates shown here, don't remove them. If clients have encrypted their passwords or password history with these old certificates, the AMS service will need them to be able to decrypt them.

Backing up the private key

It is imperative that you have a safe and secure backup of your encryption keys. Select a certificate to back up and click View Certificate. From the Details tab, click Copy to file.... This will launch the export certificate wizard, which will allow you to export the certificate and private key to a PFX file. Choose a strong password for the PFX, and store the file somewhere safe. It's best to have multiple copies of the file, including an 'offline' copy.

See the guide on restoring an encryption certificate from backup for details on how to restore an existing key from a backup.

If you've lost the private key, you can force the agents to set new passwords and encrypt them with a new key by reading the recovering from a lost encryption certificate guide. Unfortunately, there is no way to recover the encrypted password history.