Why is EngineLauncher causing LSASS to connect to godaddy.com?

My firewall is blocking an outbound IP connection request from the “Local Security Authority Process” application (system service) to IP 72.167.18.239 (p3plpkivs-v03.any.prod.phx3.secureserver.net) and the engine load stops at an “Error! No version information received” error.

What are you guys doing in the launcher that would trigger an IPC call over to LSASS and have it call out to such a strange IP address? I’m willing to grant apps like the UnrealEngine fairly open IP access, since I can then monitor the process’s file access activity if I want, but I’m not really too excited about opening a ring-0 process like LSASS to chitchat with GoDaddy.

The request seems to be safe, obviously. But this is something they’ve added only in the latest version of the launcher and I hope they change the way they connect to the web server.

Hi Dave,

I believe it’s your Antivirus software blocking the Launcher. Take a look at the “Error: No version info received” section in the link below and try the suggestions listed.

As for your connection request question, the developers in your forum post are discussing it.

Hi TJ,
Thanks for the suggestions. I don’t think it’s anti-virus, I only have MS Security Essentials installed, which comes with windows. The problem is that I have non-default Windows Firewall rules defined that disallow unauthorized network traffic - I need to know what apps are talking on the internet since often I work with significantly valuable IP assets.
My concern isn’t that the launcher app is reaching out to a CDN, it’s that the app is apparently triggering an external ring-0 process to connect to an untrusted (at least by me) server on the internet.
No app has behaved this way on my machine in the past, although I do run 99% of my software from within virtual machine guests where their file access is limited and not directly on the host. Unfortunately it isn’t possible with UE4 based software in a VM since it requires DX11 (at least on Windows) and my software (vmware workstation) only supports DX9 from within the VM.

Yep, 4.6 didn’t behave this way, which is why I’m bringing it up. Hopefully it’s something unintentional Epic can address soon. Otherwise I’m going to have to either set up yet another machine in my office, multiboot, or figure out some other way of getting the security I need.

Hi Dave,
I’ve alerted our online team about this answerhub issue and your forum post. They’re looking into your question and should reply back to either of your posts soon.

-Max B.

Thanks Max. Although I hope Epic addresses this issue I think I understand the reasons why it probably won’t. I added some suggestions that might help to the forum thread.

Thank you for the suggestions Dave. I have made the team aware of the issues your raised in your forum thread. I’m marking this thread as resolved for now but if you have any related issues with this please let us know.

-Max B.

Has there been any update on this? My launcher still fails to connect to the network unless I add a “-http=wininet” to the launch params.