Desktop display blanking out when 1password app is open

ckp

Win 7 x64 SP1 computer at work.
1Password 4.6.0.585
Double click 1p tray icon and unlock with password.
Monitor starts blanking out and coming back on and off but only while 1p window is open. Happens a lot.
Anyone ever heard of this??

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1Password Version: 4.6.0.585
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Win 7
Sync Type: Not Provided

ckp

Win 7 x64 SP1 computer at work.
1Password 4.6.0.585

clicking 'unlock on secure desktop' -> prompt for password -> start typing password, but before finished typing, 1p app crashes hangs.
have to kill 1p app with task manager which also shows the app as 'not responding'

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1Password Version: 4.6.0.585
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: win 7
Sync Type: Not Provided

ckp

i took a 1password process memory dump during 'hang' if you want it.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

That sounds like Windows 7 is failing to create a secure desktop (which creates a blank but isolated desktop before presenting the unlock dialog), do you recall if you've configured 1Password to unlock on a secure desktop?

Try this:

1. Open the main 1Password program, unlock and click on the Preferences button
2. Go to the Browsers tab and uncheck the box next to Unlock on Secure Desktop
3. Save and try again, does it fix the problem?

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

I saw your other related thread and have merged it in, it seems the issue is the same, Windows can't create a secure desktop for you.

Try to disable it and see if 1Password is more stable now.

ckp

The setting 'Unlock on Secure Desktop' was already unchecked.

ckp

If I open regedit or other privilege system apps, I get a UAC prompt for password and regedit or whatever opens fine. So UAC and secure desktop "seems" to be working ok for other apps?

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

Can you send us your 1Password diagnostic report, please use this guide to generate a diagnostic report to email to us and, in the email, also include the link to this thread along with your forum username.

Let us know here when you've sent it, so we can look for it, and confirm we got the email.

ckp

ok, i sent it.

AGAlumB

Thanks! I see that we've received your email, so we can continue the conversation there. We'll take a look at the diagnostics and get back to you shortly! :)

ref: ABK-92152-689

ckp

Thanks. In case it helps, this is an enterprise desktop, so it has Symantec Endpoint Protection, Trusteer Apex Advanced Malware Protection, and Symantec Encryption Desktop (maybe this is causing you problems?).

AlexHoffmann

@ckp It seems like you're in an environment dominated by IBM software (maybe even at IBM). Do you know if any of the anti-malware software packages you've listed have the power to prevent other apps from calling the UAC or secure desktop features or trying to elevate a part of their process?

ckp

I would have to imagine almost any anti-malware software has the ability to prevent other apps from calling uac. However, I have never encountered any problems with other random apps I've installed, even ones that need to run in elevated mode.
When I access this computer through Logmein (like remote desktop), like now, 1p doesn't seem to have any problems. I'll try excluding the 1p directory from Trusteer Apex Advance Malware Protection to see if it helps. The logs are binary or encrypted so I can't tell if it is the culprit.

ckp

however, even through logmein, i can't use 'unlock on sure desktop' because your app will hang. i just type in the password without the secure desktop option, at least through logmein i don't get the screen blanking.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

Unfortunately, 1Password is often hit by anti-malware programs more than any other programs due to the existence of crypto libraries it contain and the way it has multiple integrations with IE and other browsers as well as a mouse/keyboard hook for activity monitoring to use for the auto-lock feature. In other words, 1Password does so much that it looks identical to a malware.

So, while other apps might be fine, it doesn't mean 1Password would be fine either. We've been trying to make 1Password more friendly with these tools but it is a slow process.

With that aside, just to be clear:

1. Through logmein, there is no blanking and you're able to unlock fine via the regular unlock. Secure Desktop unlock would hang the app instead.
2. On the PC itself, it blanks as long as the main 1Password is open (not related to unlock/lock) and it hangs only via secure desktop unlock.

Do I have that correct? By the way, any issues trying to unlock 1Password via the browser extension, not the main program?

In order for us to reproduce this and to narrow this down, let's not worry about loginme or remote desktop, we need to only focus on 1Password on the actual PC itself. If we can figure it out and fix it, it is likely will work behind remote desktop as well.

One more thing, I notice you're syncing the 1Password data. Do you have this problem on other computers with 1Password?

ckp

Through logmein, there is no blanking and you're able to unlock fine via the regular unlock. Secure Desktop unlock would hang the app instead.

Correct. I can also do a regular unlock ok in front of the local computer, but it often starts blanking on me when local.

On the PC itself, it blanks as long as the main 1Password is open (not related to unlock/lock) and it hangs only via secure desktop unlock.

Correct. After entering the regular unlock password locally in front of the computer, if the 1p app is in focus and i'm trying to use it, the monitors will blank out off and on until i close the 1p gui window. Secure Desktop button hangs 1p in any of my situations.

When I unlock the program as described above, it is in the 1p app gui window itself which comes up when i double click the 1p sys tray icon. So, the the blanking problem occurs when I'm trying to use your gui app after logging into it with my password.

I have not seen this problem on my other computers, but I am only using 1p on my Mac as my other computer. On my Mac, I love it and everything works nicely. Yes, I sync 1p vault through dropbox. I also have 1p on my iPhone 6 and iPad.

Since I don't use 1p on my Windows PC as much as my personal Mac, I can live with this annoyance. But I am trying to exclude 1p from every security program on my system to see if it helps. I have to reboot to see if it helps, but I can't reboot for at least a few days.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

You said monitors as in more than one, is it a dual monitor set up and if yes, does it occur on either monitor? Do you use any special app that manages your dual desktops? We've seen a few weird issues in the past where a desktop manager would interfere with how 1Password works.

ckp

It is a Thinkpad laptop (closed lid) in a docking station that has two DVI outputs to two external monitors and the second monitor is just set as an extended desktop. Both monitors blank out and back when this happens.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

What about just disconnecting both monitors and only doing it on the laptop's screen, same thing? You may have to reboot before testing it, Windows 7 is known for being problematic with type of windowing setup.

ckp

I really don't think the external monitors have anything to do with this. I don't want to remove them and use the laptop screen because it will squish all my app windows. In any case, I need to use 1p with my external monitors. I mentioned already that I have excluded 1p from my security software, and that I can't reboot for a few days (I am remote for a few days, so I cannot reboot or the laptop will be stuck at a boot up password prompt). So, probably Wednesday I can reboot to see if excluding 1p from security programs worked or not. I'm surprised you don't want me to send you my memory dump from the time 1p hung when clicking the unlock secure desktop button as it may well give you a clue about what other program is involved with 1p hanging up. Or maybe you have a debug version of 1p (or extra logging) to have me run that might provide you with some useful info rather than have me try a million different things.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

In nearly all cases, the memory dump doesn't point to anything and often is a red herring. It is also a security issue, we do not want any dumps of your memory, it can contain some information of what 1Password was dealing with at that moment, which is isolated to what you were looking at or were entering into 1Password, and everything else that was in your memory not related to 1Password. While we do not decrypt all of your items at once and only the item you were looking at the time is decrypted (thus shown in memory), it is our policy to not receive these data in any conditions to protect you.

The diagnostic report would give us more information but only if 1Password caught it in advance. This isn't possible on a secure desktop because the nature of a secure desktop is to prevent all processes except the 1Password app from running, this means the same for a debug build, it won't be possible to do this there. If you can reproduce it via the regular desktop, we can do something with this.

I would recommend deleting your memory dump securely or put it on a secure drive for now.

Unfortunately, none of us have seen this blanking issue before, so it is difficult to pinpoint this to anything, thus we're asking you to try anything that would change the behavior. The blanking part sounds like a bad video driver, which for some reason again is what 1Password can worsen. We've seen bad mouse and printer drivers that go glitchy because of 1Password.

One more thing you can try on Wed; boot into the safe mode and see if you can reproduce the blanking issue with 1Password.

Do you have a smartphone that can record a video? I wonder if it is possible for you to record the blanking, maybe we can get a better picture of understanding the issue if we can see it visually. If you are going to do this, please turn off the audio and do not show your keyboard to prevent anyone from figuring out the password.

ckp

Ok, since adding security software exclusions and rebooting, I haven't seen the flashing issue yet.
However, the 1p app button "Unlock on Secure Desktop" still causes 1p to hang until killing the process. After clicking the button, a quick small 1p password prompt comes up then disappears right away leaving the regular 1p app window hung sitting on the lock screen that has the password input field (not responding). Kill 1p process, relaunch gui app window, and then unlock it without using "Unlock on Secure Desktop" works fine.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

Ok, since adding security software exclusions and rebooting, I haven't seen the flashing issue yet.

I'm glad to hear that.

However, the 1p app button "Unlock on Secure Desktop" still causes 1p to hang until killing the process.

The security software exclusions you've added for 1Password, try also adding consent.exe from your Windows > System32 directory, that's the file Windows use to handle the secure desktop.

ckp

i added consent.exe to exclusions and disabled my security software temporarily to try "Unlock on Secure Desktop", but still have the same problem.

MikeT

Hi @ckp,

Unfortunately, I am not sure what else we can try. Secure Desktop is handled by Windows, not by 1Password, and that makes it difficult for us to issue fixes for it. We have investigated some reports of Secure Desktop not working on Windows 7 (which apparently was resolved when some of the affected users upgraded to 8 or 10) but we have not found any solutions. In the end, the feature is not supported for some users on Windows 7. This is also the reason why we haven't enabled this by default in 1Password since it does provide a good security benefit.