Could not get public key from server

[jmw]

I got this error after entering username, password, and vault server into the import tool dialog. What would cause this... how do I get this resolved... thanks.

[lbauer]

This error is caused when the ASP.Net process account that the Vault web service is running does not have the correct security rights on the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys folder. To correct this, go through the following steps:

1. Determine which account is being used by the Vault Service. The system started message in the Vault server log file will contain a line stating "Identity = USER", where user is ASPNET, SYSTEM, NETWORK SERVICE, or the user that is being impersonated.

2. Make sure that the user specified above has read / write / modify permissions to the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
3. If the problem persists after adding these permissions, stop IIS, and find a file that starts with "edb3...." in the directory mentioned earlier. Delete it, and then restart IIS. Then try to log into Vault.

This occurs most often for internationalized versions of Windows, where the NETWORK SERVICE account has been internationalized to a name in the local language. The Vault installer uses the english name, and doesn't have access to the correct localized name.