Users Cannot Change Password When Logging On

When a user on a computer running Windows NT Workstation logs on with an expired password and is prompted to change the password, he or she receives either of the the following errors: -or-

Users can receive the above error messages under a variety of conditions. The underlying cause for these errors is a security registry change involving the RestrictAnonymous value. For additional information about the RestrictAnonymous value, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Scenario 1

In this scenario, the following conditions are true:

• RestrictAnonymous is enabled on the PDC.
• The primary domain controller (PDC) is running Service Pack 3 (SP3).
• The clients are running SP3.
• Strong passwords are enforced on the domain, either by Passfilt.dll or Passprop.exe from the Windows NT resource kit, or a minimum password length is specified in the Account Policy in User Manager for Domains.

If the client attempts to change an expired password when logging on and it does not meet the password requirements, the following error message will be displayed:
If the password meets the password requirements, the password should be changed successfully. The error text is reported incorrectly and should state that the user's password does not meet the domain policy. This issue is addressed in SP4.

Scenario 2

In this scenario, the following conditions are true:

• RestrictAnonymous is enabled on the PDC.
• The PDC is running Service Pack 4 (SP4).
• The clients are running SP3.

If the client attempts to change an expired password when logging on, the following error message will be displayed: Because a null session is used for this password change, the operation fails.

Scenario 3

In this scenario, administrators can have the "Users must log on in order to change password" account policy enabled. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To work around this problem, remove the RestrictAnonymous entry or set the value to 0, and then restart the PDC. This workaround will resolve both scenarios above. In scenario 2, upgrading the clients to Service Pack 4 will also resolve the problem.

For additional information, see the following article or articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: