ERROR: SSPI handshake failed with error code … Error: 18452

We were trying to connect a remote SQL publisher to a local subscriber and on the subscriber get these errors, found in the SQL Errorlog.

Date		12/8/2016 6:52:42 AM
Log		SQL Server (Current - 12/7/2016 6:03:00 PM)

Source		Logon

Message
Error: 17806, Severity: 20, State: 14.

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Date 12/8/2016 6:52:42 AM
Log SQL Server (Current - 12/7/2016 6:03:00 PM)

Source Logon

Message
SSPI handshake failed with error code 0x8009030c, state 14 while establishing a connection with integrated security; the connection has been closed. Reason: AcceptSecurityContext failed. The Windows error code indicates the cause of failure. The logon attempt failed [CLIENT: 172.31.5.158]

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Date		12/8/2016 6:52:42 AM
Log		SQL Server (Current - 12/7/2016 6:03:00 PM)

Source		Logon

Message
Error: 18452, Severity: 14, State: 1.

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Date		12/8/2016 6:52:42 AM
Log		SQL Server (Current - 12/7/2016 6:03:00 PM)

Source		Logon

Message
Login failed. The login is from an untrusted domain and cannot be used with Windows authentication. [CLIENT: xxx.xx.x.xxx]

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However, the SQL login was coming from a domain that already HAD replication running on another database.

It turned out to be an incorrect login name, rather than an untrusted domain.

Never trust an error message.