Connecting to management Interface failed error on Windows 10

honor_the_vpn

Hello everyone,

In March In iused the OpenVPN 2.5.1-l601 amd64 installer to install the OpenVPN client and had been connecting to VPN successfully for the next two months. On May 13 I ran Windows updates and installed the kb5003173 update (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/may-11-2021-kb5003173-os-builds-19041-985-19042-985-and-19043-985-2824ace2-eabe-4c3c-8a49-06e249f52527). After rebooting I was no longer able to connect to VPN.

I continually got the following error: Connecting to management Interface failed. (the following screenshot shows a different version of the client because i found that screenshot online)

When I look at the verb 3 logs I see the following:

2021-05-13 14:32:20 DEPRECATED OPTION: --cipher set to 'AES-256-CBC' but missing in --data-ciphers (AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM). Future OpenVPN version will ignore --cipher for cipher negotiations. Add 'AES-256-CBC' to --data-ciphers or change --cipher 'AES-256-CBC' to --data-ciphers-fallback 'AES-256-CBC' to silence this warning.
2021-05-13 14:32:20 OpenVPN 2.5.1 x86_64-w64-mingw32 [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [PKCS11] [AEAD] built on Feb 24 2021
2021-05-13 14:32:20 Windows version 10.0 (Windows 10 or greater) 64bit
2021-05-13 14:32:20 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.1j  16 Feb 2021, LZO 2.10
Enter Management Password:
2021-05-13 14:32:20 MANAGEMENT: TCP Socket listening on [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:25340
2021-05-13 14:32:20 Need hold release from management interface, waiting...
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: Client connected from [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:25340
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'state on'
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'log all on'
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'echo all on'
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'bytecount 5'
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'hold off'
2021-05-13 14:32:21 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'hold release'
2021-05-13 14:32:23 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'username "Auth" "*****"'
2021-05-13 14:32:23 MANAGEMENT: Client disconnected
2021-05-13 14:32:43 MANAGEMENT: Client connected from [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:25340
2021-05-13 14:32:46 MANAGEMENT: Client disconnected

I found this on the forums but its several years old and using an earlier version of the client- https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/1051

Has anyone seen the "Connecting to management Interface failed" on a modern version of Windows 10?

TinCanTech

honor_the_vpn wrote I continually got the following error: Connecting to management Interface failed.

Actually, your log shows that you were disconnected not a failure to connect.

honor_the_vpn

TinCanTech wrote
honor_the_vpn wrote I continually got the following error: Connecting to management Interface failed.
Actually, your log shows that you were disconnected not a failure to connect.

Thanks TinCanTech.

I found a screenshot online to show the error I was referring to:

That screenshot was not from my machine but my machine is saying the same thing. The error is saying that connecting to the management interface failed.

TinCanTech

Your log file is more important than a random screen shot you found online ...

Try again or re-install or something.

honor_the_vpn

The screenshot was not random. I included it because that is the same exact response I get with my client.

Before submitting my original post I already tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I also tried uninstalling an earlier version, 2.4.9. In both cases my vpn connection attempting is erroring/disconnecting with exit code 1 without event prompting me for credentials.

Has anyone seen anything like this?

honor_the_vpn

I uninstalled 2.4.9, rebooted, and reinstalled 2.5.1. When I tried to launch the connection it did not prompt me for credentials and I got the following logs which repeared infinitely until I finally hit the disconnect button:

2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 OpenVPN 2.5.1 x86_64-w64-mingw32 [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [PKCS11] [AEAD] built on Feb 24 2021
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 Windows version 10.0 (Windows 10 or greater) 64bit
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.1j  16 Feb 2021, LZO 2.10
Enter Management Password:
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_INIT maxevents=1 flags=0x00000002
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_INIT maxevents=1 capacity=2
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 MANAGEMENT: TCP Socket listening on [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:25340
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 Need hold release from management interface, waiting...
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=1000
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=526384 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 WE_WAIT leave rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 MANAGEMENT: Client connected from [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:25340
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=1000
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=542007 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 WE_WAIT leave rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=1000
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=546512 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=662478 WE_WAIT leave rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=662478 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'state on'
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=662478 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:09:16 us=662478 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=0
...
...
...
2021-05-21 13:13:35 us=751504 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:13:35 us=751504 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=1000
2021-05-21 13:13:35 us=751504 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:13:36 us=754350 WE_CTL n=0 ev=0000000000F28280 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:13:36 us=754350 WE_WAIT enter n=1 to=1000
2021-05-21 13:13:36 us=754350 [0] ev=0000000000000160 rwflags=0x0001 arg=0x0
2021-05-21 13:13:37 us=756769 Signal received from management interface, exiting
2021-05-21 13:13:37 us=756769 PKCS#11: pkcs11_terminate - entered
2021-05-21 13:13:37 us=765263 PKCS#11: pkcs11_terminate - return

TinCanTech

Please add your client config file to this thread.

honor_the_vpn

This is my config (address & certificate info have been redacted). The config was not changed between when the VPN was working and when it stopped working. There were no changes to the server during that period and no one else on my team has reported a problem like this.

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote ***.***.***.*** 1194
resolv-retry 1
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
remote-cert-tls server
auth SHA512
cipher AES-256-CBC
auth-user-pass
verb 10
keepalive 10 60
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
...
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
...
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>
<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
...
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>
<tls-auth>
-----BEGIN OpenVPN Static key V1-----
...
...
...
-----END OpenVPN Static key V1-----
</tls-auth>

TinCanTech

You don't want to use verb 10, use verb 4 then read your log.

honor_the_vpn

So I figured out the issue and I'm embarrassed to say that it has nothing to do with OpenVPN or the Windows update. I recently migrated from one password manager to another. During the migration process it looks like the export/import added a character my OpenVPN password but I hadn't noticed that due to the length of the password.
**facepalm**

honor_the_vpn

My embarrassment aside I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my thread @TinCanTech.

TinCanTech

There is no need to feel embarrassment, with a little guidance you solved the problem yourself.

And then you also fed back to the community, Kudos 8-)

We all have to start somewhere.