KAS IDE fails to load ESI files and display missing ESI files error messages when FIPS security policy is enabled

KAS IDE fails to load the ESI files from the ESI library and fails to add the EtherCAT devices to the project when the FIPS (Federal Information Process Standards) security policy is enabled on the computer.

This failure may be noticed when using the KAS v4.00.0.89724 or older releases.

The "Information and Logs -> Local Log" tab displays these error messages when launching the KAS IDE: 

Also, the EtherCAT window displays this "Missing ESI" message:

This failure is due to the KAS IDE used a hash algorithm for caching the ESI files that's not compliant with the FIPS standard. See 140sp2355.pdf (nist.gov) for more details. KAS v4.01 release (and higher) has a fix for this issue.

For previous KAS versions, it is possible to work around the problem by changing a setting in the Windows Registry Editor using this procedure:

1. Launch Windows Registry Editor as administrator.
   • In the search box on the taskbar, type “regedit", select “Registry Editor (App)” from the results, and select “Run as administrator”.
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\FipsAlgorithmPolicy.
3. Double-click on “Enabled” entry.
4. Change the "Value data" from “0” to “1”.