MS Hotfix KB2592687 and its prerequisite, KB2574819, breaks Thin Client Bundle

  • 7013051
  • 15-Aug-2013
  • 27-Feb-2014

Environment

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2 Bundles
Remote Desktop Protocol - RDP

Situation

After MS Hotfix KB 2592687 and its prerequisite, KB 2574819, are applied Thin Client Bundles do not run.  Nothing appears on screen, no RDP traffic appears on the wire.

Resolution

This is fixed in version 11.3 - see KB 7014213 "ZENworks Configuration Management 11.3 - update information and list of fixes", which can be found at https://www.novell.com/support/7014213

Additional Information

Steps to recreate/troubleshoot

Create a ThinClient Bundle:
  • ZCC > Bundles > Create New Bundle > Windows Bundle > Thin Client Application > RDP Session > etc
When run from a Windows 7 device with 11.2.3MU1 it will open up an RDP session as specified.

Now apply the following MS Hotfix to the device and the same bundle will fail:
A network trace shows that no RDP traffic leaves the device so it can be deduced that it is unlikely that the RDP Client is being rejected by the client machine; i.e., this is not a protocol/security issue.

Using Process Explorer from http://sysinternals.com it can be seen that the bundle spawns the following command line:

"C:\Program Files\Novell\ZENworks\bin\ZENRdpClient.exe" "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-16'?> <RDPData xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'> <Display xmlns='https://www.novell.com/ZENworks/Actions/v1.0'> <FullScreen>true</FullScreen> <DesktopWidth>640</DesktopWidth> <DesktopHeight>480</DesktopHeight> </Display> <Program xmlns='https://www.novell.com/ZENworks/Actions/v1.0'> <Server>floyd.nts.ukb.novell.com</Server> <Port>3389</Port> <Command>c:\temp\test.exe</Command> <ServerDomain /> <WorkDir>c:\temp</WorkDir> </Program> <AdvancedSettings2 xmlns='https://www.novell.com/ZENworks/Actions/v1.0'> <RedirectDrives>false</RedirectDrives> <RedirectPorts>false</RedirectPorts> <RedirectPrinters>false</RedirectPrinters> <RedirectSmartCards>false</RedirectSmartCards> </AdvancedSettings2> </RDPData>" "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\2a855c78-26e7-4001-8e7e-2bfcbe662e6d\8b9e5d84943fe40b7e79d4d242bcde54Output.txt" Administrator novell

Which can be pasted to the command line on any Windows 7 machine and tested.  Devices without the hotfix work and those with the hotfix fail.

Without hotfix (working):
   mstsc.exe 6.1.7601.17514
   mstscax.dll 6.1.7601.18079


With hotfix (failing):
   mstsc.exe 6.2.9200.16398
   mstscax.dll 6.2.9200.16398