Microsoft KB Archive/290278

PRB: Error 0x8007202f When You Use ADSI 2.5 to Set Password in Active Directory

Q290278

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Active Directory Service Interfaces, version 2.5
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SYMPTOMS

When you use Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) 2.5 to set a password on an object in the Active Directory (AD), you receive error 0x8007202f (ERROR_DS_CONSTRAINT_VIOLATION) or the following error message:

Automation error: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password

CAUSE

This error occurs when the password for the object is not enclosed in quotation marks.

RESOLUTION

To set a password that is enclosed in quotation marks, use the following code samples as an example.

In Microsoft Visual Basic or VBScript:

oUser.SetPassword Chr(34) & "newPassword" & Chr(34)

In Microsoft Visual C++:

  // 0x22 = 34 decimal
  wsprintf(buffer, "\x22%s\x22", sPassword);
  hrSet = pNewUser->SetPassword(buffer);

MORE INFORMATION

When a password is set, the Active Directory expects that the password string be enclosed in quotation marks. When you use ADSI 2.5 over a 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection, you must enclose passwords in quotation marks. Later versions of ADSI will enclose the password string in quotation marks by default so that the programmer does not have to add quotation marks to the password string.

If you use later versions of ADSI, or if you use ADSI 2.5 and do not use a 128-bit SSL connection, the password is set with the additional quotation marks. For example, if the password string is 'dog', and you call the IADsUser::SetPassword method, the password string is enclosed in quotation marks so that the password is set to '"dog"'.

REFERENCES

You can download the Active Directory Client for Microsoft Windows NT from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/adclients

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q264480 Description of Password-Change Protocols in Windows 2000

Q216290 INFO: Determining Which Version of ADSI Is Installed

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbADSI kbVBp kbVC kbDSupport
Issue type : kbprb
Technology : kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000Serv kbwin2000ServSearch kbwin2000Search kbAudDeveloper kbADSISearch kbWinAdvServSearch kbADSI250