A fatal error occurred while creating an SSL client credential. The internal error state is 10013

We keep receiving the following message on our computer, every minute or so. It seems associated with a locally synced SharePoint document library. Here is the message:

Something went wrong. We couldn't start your program. Please try starting it again. If it won't start, try repairing Office from 'Programs and Features' in the Control Panel. You can go online to find more help.

What we have tried:

Restart the program.
Restart the computer.
Repair Office from 'Programs and Features.' We did this for both Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, because both are installed.)
Uninstall both versions of Office.
Reinstall Office 365 ProPlus.

In the Event Viewer, we see the following messages:

The server {E844CD23-864D-4921-B18B-ED60A150E112} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

A fatal error occurred while creating an SSL client credential. The internal error state is 10013.

The latter message, about the SSL client, appears about 50 times. We have looked at this article. It suggests that we enable System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing, though we are not sure whether that will be necessary or not.

Shaun Luttin

Posted 2016-01-09T01:26:43.180

Reputation: 1 911

2Have you uninstalled Office then installed it again? A repair function is not identical to, removing a program and then installing it. What version of Office, based on the error, it appears your using Office 365 without the ability to connect Microsoft's servers. – Ramhound – 2016-01-09T01:34:39.713

2Please try doing that. Update your question the relevant information. "fatal error occurred while creating an SSL client credential. The internal error state is 10013." this error indicates a certificate store problem on your machine. – Ramhound – 2016-01-09T01:37:32.447

@Ramhound If it's an SSL client credential problem, then will uninstalling and reinstalling Office resolve that, or will we have to take further measures? – Shaun Luttin – 2016-01-09T01:43:19.723

1Only one way to find out – Ramhound – 2016-01-09T01:43:49.013

@Ramhound What do you think about our System cryptography FIPS setting being disabled? Does it seem likely that we need to have it enabled? I know very little about cryptography. – Shaun Luttin – 2016-01-09T01:58:10.417

1The default is disabled. – Ramhound – 2016-01-09T02:01:29.457

Answers

What worked was to uninstall and reinstall Office.

Shaun Luttin

Posted 2016-01-09T01:26:43.180

Reputation: 1 911

Please consider marking this the accepted answer if it indeed was the solution that worked for you. – I say Reinstate Monica – 2018-05-26T20:18:41.340

The following solution was posted on the Microsoft IIS forum:

According to the event log, the issue is related to Schannel. Please try the following steps:

In Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Local Security Policy.

In Local Security Settings, expand Local Policies, and then click Security Options.

Under Policy in the right pane, double-click System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing, and then click Enabled.

Run gpupdate /force

If it doesn’t work, please go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA and grant "Network Services" Read permission to "MachineKeys" folder. Then restart server to have a try.

Darkyyy

Posted 2016-01-09T01:26:43.180

Reputation: 11

I quote an answer (by Jeff) which I find helpful as a comment for this answer (he didn't have enough reputation to write this as a comment): The only problem with enabling FIPS compliance is that if you have hardened the server or pc to PCI compliance, it will turn back on TLS1.0, which violates PCI.

– Albin – 2018-10-26T19:42:01.910