Sitecore - System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException

Question

Hi and thank you for your help. We're trying to keep a Sitecore site up and running on a WS 2008 R2 Standard server but keep running into the following exception:

System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException

The site is set up to run in its own App Pool with the 2.0 framework version selected and integrated pipeline mode.

The site will run fine for a few minutes but then the app pool ends up being stopped with the following details:

"Application pool '######' is being automatically disabled due to a series of failures in the process(es) serving that application pool."

Checking the Application log show the following:

An unhandled exception occurred and the process was terminated.

Application ID: /LM/W3SVC/4/ROOT

Process ID: 5156

Exception: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException

Message: The system cannot find the path specified.

StackTrace: at System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException.ThrowCryptogaphicException(Int32 hr) at System.Security.Cryptography.SafeKeyHandle._FreeHKey(IntPtr pKeyCtx) at System.Security.Cryptography.SafeKeyHandle.ReleaseHandle() at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.InternalFinalize() at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.Dispose(Boolean disposing) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.Finalize()

A tip on one site I found said to make sure that the account that the site is running under is a member of the Cryptographic Operators group which I did. Sadly the site continued to fail.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

EDIT

After I implemented the first answer below I took another look at the server Application logs and it looks like every time the app pool goes down the following warning happens first:

Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards.

Event 1530, User Profile Service DETAIL - 2 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965: Process 3260 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965 Process 3260 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates

And another example:

Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards.

DETAIL - 13 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965: Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965 Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965 Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965 Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965 Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\TrustedPeople Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\trust Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\SmartCardRoot Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\My Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\CA Process 5228 (\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-82-3231641130-1035467585-39029555-2466166849-1382764965\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Disallowed

Answer 1

This might help.

It basically says to add this in your global.asax:

public void Application_Start() {
  System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider.UseMachineKeyStore = true;
  System.Security.Cryptography.DSACryptoServiceProvider.UseMachineKeyStore = true;
}

Answer 2

See if this can help: http://sdn.sitecore.net/Scrapbook/Fixing%20Cryptographic%20Errors.aspx