As of late April 2022, the newest version of AVG/Avast anti-virus has a feature called "LSA Protection" that appears to block AuthLite from operating, as a side effect of its protection.

This will cause problems on an increasing number of machines as the AV engines update over time.

AVG has responded to several customers as of May 10th:

Until we implement the controls of the LSA Protection in our policies, managed devices will need to perform the following to disable the feature:

  • Disable Self-Defense from the policy where the affected devices are assigned: Login into your Console > Polices > your Policy > General Settings > Troubleshooting > disable self defense > save.
  • Then you will need to create a reg file or registry change via Group Policy/some management tools you may use, to apply it for all Devices on your Network: 
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AVAST Software\Avast\properties\settings\SelfDefense]
     "LsassProtection"="0"
  • Once the registry change has been propagated to devices, re-enable Self-Defense.


Also for individual machines, we have determined the following UI workaround to be successful:

  • In Avast/AVG Menu -> Settings -> General -> Troubleshooting, disable "LSA Protection"
  • Then reboot

We will continue to update this KB if we hear of new information that AVG releases to its customers.