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CI_E_LOGON_FAILURE
Authentication or logon rights prevent the content-index operation
CI_E_LOGON_FAILURE is HRESULT 0x8004181C (-2147215332 signed; 2147751964 unsigned). Its severity bit is 1, facility is 4 (FACILITY_ITF for these values), and code field is 0x181C. Standard HRESULT severity rules classify the value as a failure. AllStat describes the value as “A logon permission violation caused a failure.”
API stage and meaning
This result belongs to accessing a protected local or remote resource under the indexing identity. The decisive interpretation is that credential validation or required logon privilege fails before the resource can be used. Keep the symbolic constant and method stage together in logs; its hexadecimal value alone cannot identify the owning transition or input.
The legacy content-index helper layer has explicit object, catalog and service states. In the result investigation, a generic retry can hide lifecycle, ordering or policy defects. This context narrows the responsible component without replacing the code-specific checks below.
Failure paths
- The result investigation should record stored credentials are invalid or expired.
- The result investigation should record the service account lacks an allowed logon type.
- The result investigation should record domain trust or ticket acquisition fails.
- The result investigation should record the request crosses a network boundary without usable delegation.
The useful hypothesis for it must explain both accessing a protected local or remote resource under the indexing identity and the documented condition. Compare the failing case with a control that preserves account identity without secrets and changes only target resource and logon type; this prevents unrelated environment differences from dominating the result test.
Observability checklist
- At step 1 for it, account identity without secrets
- At step 2 for it, target resource and logon type
- At step 3 for it, security audit event and status
- At step 4 for it, domain/controller and ticket context
Capture account identity without secrets before releasing objects, closing handles or reconnecting. Retain the raw HRESULT with target resource and logon type, component version, UTC timestamp and correlation ID. Bound the result telemetry to diagnostic metadata because document content, credentials and unrestricted query text may be sensitive.
How to isolate the cause
- Reproduce under the exact service identity. Associate this observation specifically with this result.
- Inspect security logs for the specific logon failure.
- Separate authentication from later ACL authorization.
- Correct account rights through supported policy. Associate this observation specifically with it.
Change one variable per it control run. Preserve the component version and target identity, then alter only the condition described as credential validation or required logon privilege fails before the resource can be used. This isolates whether it is causal rather than merely repeatable.
Remediation policy
Repair credentials, trust or logon rights, then establish a fresh security context. Do not repeatedly submit bad credentials. Record whether accessing a protected local or remote resource under the indexing identity produced any content, update or state transition before returning. If completion remains unknown, the path must not replay non-idempotent work until the owner confirms final state.
The retry gate for it should be a concrete change in account identity without secrets or target resource and logon type. A timer alone cannot demonstrate that the result contract condition has changed.
Wrong conclusions to avoid
It does not prove the authenticated account lacks file ACL permission after logon. Without the call boundary for accessing a protected local or remote resource under the indexing identity, it also cannot identify which wrapper or configuration layer introduced the condition.
Comparison
FILTER_E_ACCESS is a generalized content access result; this HRESULT specifically records logon/authentication failure. In it telemetry, preserve neighboring constants separately because the same visible symptom may require a different caller action, owner or recovery gate.
Developer and administrator actions
- It: At the code boundary, keep account identity without secrets beside the returned HRESULT.
- It: In telemetry, correlate target resource and logon type with the target and component generation.
- It: For regression coverage, force the documented condition: credential validation or required logon privilege fails before the resource can be used.
- It: For operations staff, expose the corrective state change rather than a generic retry button.
- It: After remediation, validate one known-good control and the original failing case.
Worked scenario
A remote catalog crawl uses a service account whose password was rotated. Security-event correlation identifies the stale credential. In this scenario, handling it at its real contract boundary prevents the application from collapsing a precise state into an unhelpful generic “search failed” message.
Official Microsoft references
- Microsoft: content-indexing helper-function values — official contract information relevant to it.
- Microsoft: Content-Indexing values
- Microsoft: HRESULT values
- Microsoft: filter handlers in Windows Search
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