Unable to activate Microsoft Office 2013 or Windows 8 through ProxySG or Advanced Secure Gateway appliance

Products

• ProxySG Software - SGOS

Issue/Introduction

Attempts to activate Office 2013 or Windows 8 through a ProxySG or Advanced Secure Gateway appliance fail.

Cause

The servers involved in the activation are signed by an untrusted certificate authority.

A policy trace shows the following:

  POST https://activation.sls.microsoft.com/SLActivateProduct/SLActivateProduct.asmx?configextension=o14

  user: unauthenticated
  authentication status='not_attempted' authorization status='not_attempted'
  EXCEPTION(ssl_domain_invalid): Request could not be handled
  url.category: Technology/Internet@Blue Coat
  server.certficate.hostname.category: Technology/Internet@Blue Coat

Resolution

To resolve the issue:

1. Create a new rule in an SSL Access Layer.
2. Set the Destination to a Request URL, simple match "activation.sls.microsoft.com".
3. Create a new object in the Action field.
4. Select Server Certificate Validation, and then select the Disable server certificate validation option.
5. Copy the rule. In the new rule, set the Destination to "validation.sls.microsoft.com".

See the following example: