Single vSphere guest operation API call that tries to authenticate to a Windows VM with an invalid guest username or password results in multiple failed guest login attempts.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When invoking an API that authenticates with guest username and password, such as ValidateCredentialsInGuest(), with invalid credentials on a Windows VM, a single API call results in three failed login attempts being recorded.

This can cause confusion in monitoring systems and may trigger unnecessary account lockouts or alerts.

Environment

Windows Virtual Machine

VMware Tools 13.0.x where x< 5, 12.5.x where x < 4, 12.4.x where x < 9, or any other earlier versions of VMware Tools.

Cause

This behavior is due to a bug in older versions of VMware Tools where the API implementation incorrectly retries authentication multiple times on a windows VM for a single API call.

The bug was fixed in VMware Tools 13.0.5, 12.5.4, and 12.4.9.

Resolution

Upgrade VMware Tools version to 13.0.5 or later, or version 12.5.x where x is 4 or greater, or 12.4.x, where x is 9 or later.