Chef client installation - exception error through packer1.8.0

Packer
1

Hi, Till 2 days back i was able to use packer with out any issues in our production, but from today with out changed to the code we are seeing below error:

WARN: Authentication Hive and values not present in registry%!(PACKER_COMMA) creating them now

amazon-ebs:

amazon-ebs: Running handlers:

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] ERROR: Running exception handlers

amazon-ebs: Running handlers complete

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] ERROR: Exception handlers complete

amazon-ebs: Infra Phase failed. 0 resources updated in 10 seconds

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] FATAL: Stacktrace dumped to c:/windows/temp/packer-chef-client/local-mode-cache/cache/chef-stacktrace.out

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] FATAL: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] FATAL: PLEASE PROVIDE THE CONTENTS OF THE stacktrace.out FILE (above) IF YOU FILE A BUG REPORT

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] FATAL: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

amazon-ebs: [2022-10-28T02:02:35-07:00] FATAL: ChefPowerShell::PowerShellExceptions::PowerShellCommandFailed: Unexpected exit in PowerShell command: ["ConvertFrom-SecureString: Access is denied.\r\n\nAt line:2 char:18\r\n+ $secure_string = ConvertFrom-SecureString $encrypted_string\r\n+
2

I had similar error “WARN: Authentication Hive and values not present in registry creating them now Registry: error Access is Denied” after i update to a new version of chef workstation when trying to use knife and chef command.

  1. I ran ProcMon which was show access denied trying to access registry HKLM:\Software\Progress.
  2. Please check if you have a Reg Key name “\Progress” and “Progress\Authentication” under HKLM:\Software\ . If not create keys and then run your command as administrator to write your PFXPass key string value under HKLM:\Software\Progress\Authentication. Hope this helps in you scenario…