Password Recovery on Pix 515E (I have tried the instructions from Cisco...)

Hello All,

I inherited a pair of Cisco PIX 515E firewalls. Unfortunately, nobody
seems to remember the old enable password. When I plug-in the console,
all I see is the prompt with very few options when I type "help".

I set up a tftp server and followed the recommended procedures from
Cisco. The firewall loaded the np63.bin image and prompted me about
erasing the passwords, including enable, aaa, etc, etc... After that,
the Pix rebooted normally and... Now what?

Trying "enable" on the console will ask me for a password. I tried a
blank password, "cisco", "password", "pix" and all those. Nothing.
According to the documentation, there's no default "enable" password
after the procedure, but the telnet password is set to "cisco". Of
course, the previous owner disabled telnet, http and any methods of
access through the ethernet ports, so I can't get in...

Did I paint myself into a corner? Is there an RMA coming my way?

Thanks,
-- Dr.171

 

Per Cisco - "The default Telnet password after this process is "cisco."
There is no default enable password. Go into configuration mode and issue
the 'passwd your_password' command to change your Telnet password and the
'enable password your_enable_password' command to create an enable password,
and then save your configuration"

If that doesn't work then perhaps you have a different version other than
6.3 on the units, so do a "show ver" at the telnet prompt to find out - you
need to use the appropriate version of the password recovery program.

np63.bin (6.3 release)
np62.bin (6.2 release)
np61.bin (6.1 release)
np60.bin (6.0 release)
np53.bin (5.3 release)
np52.bin (5.2 release)
np51.bin (5.1 release)
np50.bin (5.0 release)
np44.bin (4.4 release)
nppix.bin (4.3 and earlier releases)

These are available at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/110/npxx.bin where
xx=release.

Don Woodward

 

Hi,

There's something else I forgot to mention. The previous admin closed
all telnet ports! The npxx.bin images will set the *telnet* password
to cisco, but since all telnet ports are closed, I cannot telnet to
the Pix. There seems to be no way to access the thing from the
console. The only relevant console command available to non-privileged
users is "enable", and, as the documentation says, there is no default
"enable" password. I'm stuck...

I'd even accept a way to open them and physically reset them to their
default factory.

Regards
dr171

 

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/110/34.shtml
If telnet is blocked, you can still use the console port, cant you?

 

Hi,

Problem solved. First, the cisco documentation is confusing. When they
say there's "No Default Password", they really mean "There's no
password". I thought they had some kind of invalid password for
security reasons.

The main problem was hyperterminal (!!!). At some point, I had to
reboot the workstation connected to the PIX. Guess what? en <enter>
<enter> worked like a charm! I don't know what happens, but my guess
is that HyperTerminal was configured to send CRLF or something else. I
don't know. In any case, I should have used another terminal program.
Wasted 6 hours of my time (ARGH!).

Regards
dr171