{{unreferenced, date=February 2014 Credential lag usually occurs for a

user Ancient Egyptian roles * User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty * Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User" Other uses * User (computing), a person (or software) using an ...

who is attempting to log in to a system that relies on updating its cached or otherwise saved user credentials by conferring with

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. Windows Server operating systems include it as a set of processes and services. Originally, only centralized domain management used Active Direct ...

or similar database. When a user changes or resets their

password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

, it may take some time for the third party software to retrieve the new credentials from the active directory catalog; for instance, an

intranet An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in ...

service that queries AD for permissions.

Example

User "ANOther" is prompted to change her password as it has expired on her windows domain account. Once changed, Active Directory is updated, and the user proceeds to log in. However, it may be the case that the internal intranet site only refreshes every 15 minutes, therefore, until the intranet refreshes its credential database, the user is unable to log into the intranet service for up to 15 minutes.

References

Computer access control