#585 PWSafe causes CardSpace to crash

[Steve Sidner]

If I have PWSafe (v3.07) running and I try to use an InfoCard, CardSpace will pop up but then abend shortly, leaving IE7 hung.

I then have to bounce the Windows CardSpace service to free up the browser (or wait 15 minutes for the icardagt.exe to exit.)

See the thread in http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1992010&SiteID=1 (CardSpace exits after a few seconds and leaves IE7 hung) for much more detail about this.

I unchecked the System tab option in PWSafe for "Put in System Tray" and just minimized PWSafe. The problem still occurs even though PWSafe is minimized!

[Rony Shapiro]

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Originator: NO

Hi Sid,

The only thing that PasswordSafe does with the desktop is a simple check to determine if the workstation is locked or not. This is done if the Manage->Options->Security->"Lock password database on workstation lock" is selected.

Could you uncheck this item and tell me if the problem still occurs?

Rony

[Steve Sidner]

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Originator: YES

I tried unchecking that Security option. No change. I tried unchecking all the other options. No change. I tried everything that I could think of. No change.

Twice, PWSafe and CardSpace coexisted happily. But if I exited PWSafe and started it again, PWSafe crashed CardSpace.

To summarize:
1) Without PWSafe running, CardSpace never crashes.
2) With PWSafe running, CardSpace almost always crashes.
3) If CardSpace crashes, it will continue to fail everytime until I exit PWSafe.

I am guessing the folks on the MSDN forums will help you.

To reproduce this, first get CardSpace working:
1) Install IE7.
2) Goto sandbox.netfx3.com. Join, and then try to add an Information Card to your profile. This will bring up a dummy IE7 page, with a link to download .NET3.0. After this completes, make sure PWSafe is not running and try adding an Information Card again. This time CardSpace will popup. You can add a card and send it to the site. Now you can sign out and sign back in again with your card.

Next here is the test cycle.
1) Run PWSafe.
2) Try to login to sandbox.netfx3.com with an InfoCard. After about 4 seconds, your desktop should brighten and the IE window will be hung.
3) Open up the Services msc and restart "Windows CardSpace". Halfway through this, when the CardSpace server is dead, IE will come back to life. This indicates the the icardagt.exe process has been killed.

Note: Atif Aziz (atifaziz) reported this bug first in case #1726628 "Conflict with Windows CardSpace control panel UI"