Windows 8 with LiveID login authenticates as Guest to remote SQl Server
- by Tim Long
I have a network where several users are using Office Accounting 2009 in multi-user client/server mode. OA is built on SQL Server. One PC acts as the 'server' and has the SQl Server instance, the others have only the application installed and no SQL instance, all of the apps connect remotely to the SQL instance on the 'server'.
I'm using the term 'server' loosely here, it is just a normal workstation that happens to be designated as the server and runs the SQL instance. There is no NT domain, all user accounts are local accounts.
The way that OA works in multi-user mode is that each user is required to have a local account with the same username and password on both the client and 'server' PCs. This has been working well, no along comes Windows 8. I use my 'Microsoft Account' aka LiveID to log into Windows 8.
Office Accounting runs fine and attempts to connect to the database, but fails, 'you do not have permission to perform this operation'.
In the SQL logs, I get this error:
2012-10-28 17:54:01.32 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 11.
2012-10-28 17:54:01.32 Logon Login failed for user 'SERVER\Guest'. Reason: Token-based server access validation failed with an infrastructure
SERVER is the hostname of the server. So it seems to be authenticating as 'Guest'??
To verify this, I enabled the Guest account on the 'server' PC and then added Guest as an allowed user within Office Accounting (this simply creates the user in SQL and gives it an appropriate database role).
Sure enough, My Windows 8 PC was then able to connect to the database when using Office Accounting.
Clearly, having users authenticate as 'Guest' stinks from a security and auditing standpoint. So what I need are some ideas for how to work around this. I've tried switching the Windows 8 PC to a 'local account' and that works too, but requires giving up significant functionality on the Windows 8 PC. What I really need is a way to force the Windows 8 PC to use a specific set of credentials when connecting to the remote SQL instance. Office Accounting takes the logged in username, which is my LiveID and doesn't correspond to any Windows user name.
Anyone solved this issue?
