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Martin GerlachFlag for United States of America

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Cisco ASA5510 Enable password doesn't work

Experts -

i did some changes on my ASA5510 (i barley remember them, please don't ask) and now my enable password doesn't work anymore. However I am sill able to connect with my Raidus account in read only mode.  Also everything like: Radius for the VPN users, Firewall Rules, etc seems to work with no issues.

I created a backup of the running-config before i did the changed but i assume i wont be able to reload the configuration without full access?

The changes i made i  believe where that i  removed the management interface settings (interface is not connected) and a object group service that what i believe shouldn't impact the enable password?

Another strange thing is i was able to connect to the ASA with only putting in the password, now its asking me also for a username which i don't know.

I attached the running config from before i made the changes. If you could give me any pointer of what i might have deleted that is causing this problem i would be very thankfull. I know for sure i didn't change the password.

Thank you


 EE-Runninig-Config.txt
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pitchford

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I was actually trying to avoid that since i am not at that office for a while and need a solution that can be done remotely. That will be hard if the ASA is down. Any other suggestions?
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pitchford

Brute force attacks...

Wouldn't be a good security device if you could crack it now would it? I have nothing better to tell you. Maybe someone else can provide further input.
Is there a default username for the ASA? When i connect over the serial port it wont let me leave it blank? Is there a key i can hit to leave the username blank?

I think the default is admin/cisco or cisco/cisco... But generally those are reset during normal setup procedures.
i tried those already. what about using a blank username? How can i leave the username blank using a serial port connection? Does the running config show any local usernames for the device?
Avatar of Ernie Beek
Did you try username: pix and password cisco ?
If i use the password recovering option, will it keep my current configuration?
Yes. It will just erase your account username/passwords...

*BUT IF YOU CAN SHOW YOUR CONFIG DO SAVE IT!!!! (just the disclaimer).

I've done this reset a time or two and it saves the config; which from a security standpoint I have an issue with.

I did it for a friend of mine and I was surprise that all I had to do was walk in (unannounced) plug in and reset. I could have taken over his network in a matter of seconds... =)
I can't do a "show configuration" command, i get a authorization failed. Does the ASA work the same as the Cisco router and switches, if you don't save the configuration after changing it and you power cycle the device the configuration wont be saved?
You are correct; all configurations are entered into running config until you 'write mem' or 'copy run start'. Running config is in RAM. If you power off without writing then you'll lose everything and at boot you'll be running with whatever is in startup...
Hmm.. Maybe i didn't save the mess i made, maybe if i power cycle the device i'll have my old configuration back. Or i make it worse anyhow be rebooting it?
Unless I am really missing something the config you posted seems to use the LOCAL security database for authorization and not radius.

There are two local user-ids jmoore and mgar.

Are you one of these?  Do you know the password?
Those where the previous administrators, so those are LOCAL accounts? i thought these where AD accounts. Let me see if i can find their old password and check if one of them works.

Nope, doesn't work either. Well i guess i'll start the procedure to reset the password. Any last advise, if i mess this up probably wont be online for some hours ;)
It's painfully simple. I always tell everyone to be cautious, but don't worry about screwing something up. You learn by doing. But, this isn't my equipment. =) The first time I did it I shared some of the same concerns, but ultimately I did it anyway and it worked out very well.

Best of luck to you!
I rebooted that thing and i am able to login now. Either I made a bad change and thank god didn't save it or something else was going on. Thank you guys for all your advise!

One more quick question, what would you recommend to get better security on the ASA. The IPS module or the content filter, anti virus module?
That's a loaded question. IPS sounds pretty cool, I don't have much experience with IPS. I highly recommend some sort of content filter, I've used both Barracuda and Websense. I personally liked Websense better, but that was almost 10 years ago. I'm of the mindset that most attacks will come from the inside, if you restrict what people access on the Internet you have much better control.... Just in my humble opinion...
Thanks Pitchford. I was actually referring to the ASA5500 modules you can add on to the device:

AIP SSM: Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module
CSC SSM: Content Security and Control Security Services Module
SSC: Security Services Card
SSM: Security Services Module

I am not sure which one would be fit best for my purposes, but maybe i should open a new question for this.
Obviouly you may want to review your config.  I have not reviewed it in detail, but at a minumum you have local userid from prior admins still in there and, again based on my understanding, you are using local security for ssh and telnet:

     aaa authentication ssh console LOCAL
     aaa authentication telnet console LOCAL

You do have radius servers defeind, but you seem to be using these for doing VPN authentication.

aaa-server radius_grp protocol radius
aaa-server radius_grp (inside) host
 key r@d!XXXXXXXX
aaa-server radius_grp (inside) host
 key r@XXXXXXX

tunnel-group softwarevpn general-attributes
 address-pool vpnpool
 authentication-server-group radius_grp
 authorization-server-group radius_grp
 default-group-policy softwarevpn


and, again based on my understaning, you are allpowing ssh in from your outside interface:

ssh  outside
ssh 9 outside
ssh 14 outside

I'm not sure what the second two ssh commands do, but I am fairly sure the 1st one allows any IP address to ssh into the outside interface.

If I am correct, your two old admins could ssh in from the outside and use their old user-ids and passwords to get in and mess within things.