After monthly patching, many users report that intranet links now prompt for login credentials. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

After monthly patching, many users report that intranet links now prompt for login credentials. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

• A. SSO issues
• B. Password expiration
• C. Account lockout
• D. Certificate expiration

Answer: (A)

Single Sign-On is what lets you sign in once and access multiple intranet resources without retyping credentials. When you click intranet links, the site relies on the SSO service or identity provider to supply a valid session token. If that SSO flow is working, you don’t see login prompts; if it fails, the site cannot validate your session and prompts you to authenticate manually. A patch can disrupt this flow by changing the authentication subsystem, certificates, endpoints, or token signing keys, or by causing time synchronization issues. When the SSO trust or token validation breaks, the intranet site can’t reuse an existing session and asks for credentials again. That’s why, after patching, widespread prompts for login strongly point to an SSO issue rather than the other possibilities.

Single Sign-On is what lets you sign in once and access multiple intranet resources without retyping credentials. When you click intranet links, the site relies on the SSO service or identity provider to supply a valid session token. If that SSO flow is working, you don’t see login prompts; if it fails, the site cannot validate your session and prompts you to authenticate manually.

A patch can disrupt this flow by changing the authentication subsystem, certificates, endpoints, or token signing keys, or by causing time synchronization issues. When the SSO trust or token validation breaks, the intranet site can’t reuse an existing session and asks for credentials again. That’s why, after patching, widespread prompts for login strongly point to an SSO issue rather than the other possibilities.