Where to find cached credentials

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These users are unable to access their machines because: They have forgotten their Windows 10 or 7 cached passwords. Remote users mostly use locally cached Active Directory credentials to log on to their machines. So even if the help desk team updates the remote user's password, they won't be able to access their machine, as the Active Directory cached credentials are still not updated.

Their cached credentials have expired. Some users connect to their corporate network via a virtual private network VPN or use remote connections RDP , and thereby are not prompted to change their soon-to-expire Active Directory passwords from their Windows taskbar. What are Active Directory cached credentials? If the user decides to save the information, Credential Manager receives and stores it. System population When the operating system attempts to connect to a new computer on the network, it supplies the current user name and password to the computer.

If this is not sufficient to provide access, Credential Manager attempts to supply the necessary user name and password. All stored user names and passwords are examined, from most specific to least specific as appropriate to the resource, and the connection is attempted in the order of those user names and passwords. For user credentials to be stored in the local cache, the user must log on to the computer at least once. By default, Windows 10 and Windows Server stores credentials of 10 recently logged users.

You can change this value with the following GPO option — Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache in case domain controller is not available.

You can set any value from 0 to Using GPO, you can display a notification of using cached credentials to log on. It depends on the length and complexity of the password. If a password is complicated , it takes a huge amount of time to brute the password. So it is not recommended to use caching for users with local administrator permissions or, moreover, domain admin account. To mitigate security risks, you can disable credential caching on office and administrator computers.

For example, a maximum of 50 unique password user accounts can be cached on a Windows system, but only 25 smart card user accounts can be cached because both the password information and the smart card information are stored. Cached credentials allow a remote user, without access to a domain controller, log in to the machine locally.

But, it can also cause account lockouts. Suppose a remote end-user is using cached credentials to log in to a domain-joined laptop locally. A user in this account scenario may assume the password is the same for any corporate resource to which they attempt to connect. What if they continue to attempt to connect to their web email using the old password? Additionally, suppose they connect to the corporate network with a VPN connection. When this happens, the domain controller views the authentication attempts as failed logins, resulting in an account lockout after the specified failed login threshold is reached.

Specops Software provides a free tool that allow organizations to deal effectively with cached credentials, especially for remote employees. One of the challenges for remote employees that leads to issues is the lack of visibility when account passwords expire.