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A Certification Authority can't use a certificate template

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This article provides a solution to an issue where a certificate template is unable to load and certificate requests are unsuccessful using the same template.

Applies to:   Windows Server 2012 R2
Original KB number:   283218

Summary

When Certificate Services starts on a Certification Authority (CA), a certificate template is unable to load and certificate requests are unsuccessful using the same template.

More information

The behavior occurs because the Authenticated Users group is removed from the template's access control list (ACL). The Authenticated Users group is on a template ACL, by default. (The CA itself is included in this group.) If the Authenticated Users group is removed, the (enterprise) CA itself can no longer read the template in the Active Directory, and that's why certificate requests can be unsuccessful.

If an administrator wants to remove the Authenticated Users group, each and every CA's computer account must be added to the template ACLs and set to Read.

If authenticated users have been removed from the ACLs of a template, the following errors may be observed when the CA starts and when a certificate is requested against the template.

Errors observed when enrollment is unsuccessful

  • For the client:

    Enrollment by means of a Web page:

    Certificate Request Denied
    Your certificate request was denied.
    Contact your administrator for further information. Enrollment by means of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC): Certificate Request Wizard: The certification authority denied the request. Unspecified error.

  • For the CA:

    Event Type:Warning
    Event Source:CertSvc
    Event Category:None
    Event ID: 53
    Date: <DateTime>
    Time: <DateTime>
    User:N/A
    Computer: MUSGRAVE
    Description:
    Certificate Services denied request 9 because the requested certificate template is not supported by this CA. 0x80094800 (-2146875392). The request was for TED\administrator. Additional information: Denied by Policy Module. The request was for certificate template (<template name>) that is not supported by the Certificate Services policy.

Error on CA When Certificate Services starts

Event Type:Error
Event Source:CertSvc
Event Category:None
Event ID: 78
Date: <DateTime>
Time: <DateTime>
User:N/A
Computer: MUSGRAVE
Description:
The "Enterprise and Stand-alone Policy Module" Policy Module logged the following error: The <template name> Certificate Template could not be loaded. Element not found. 0x80070490 (WIN32: 1168).