Recovering a Password on a Cisco Switch

Recovering a Password on a Cisco Switch 2950 : 

Recovering a Password on a Cisco Switch 2950 Prepared By:- Sunil Kumar

Cisco Switch 2950 Series : 

Cisco Switch 2950 Series

Steps for recovering password on Cisco Switch 2950 : 

Steps for recovering password on Cisco Switch 2950 To recover a password on a Cisco switch, you will have to be connected to the console port of the Cisco switch using 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and xon/xoff flow control. I recommend using HyperTerminal that comes with Windows XP to do this. Once you are connected and see something on the terminal window when you press enter, unplug the power cable. Next, hold down the mode button on the front, as seen in the photo below, and connect the power cable.

Slide 4: 

3. Once you are connected and see something on the terminal window when you press enter, unplug the power cable. Next, hold down the mode button on the front, as seen in the photo below, and connect the power cable. It says that the password-recovery mechanism is enabled.

Slide 5: 

4. At the switch: prompt, type flash_init and press enter. You should see something like this:-

Slide 6: 

5. Now type load_helper and press enter. You should see something like this:

Slide 7: 

6. Now type dir flash: and press enter. You should see something like this:

Slide 8: 

7. The config.text file is what stores the administrative password that is keeping you from logging into the router. To get rid of this file, use this command: rename flash:config.text flash:config.backup

Slide 9: 

8. Next, boot the switch using the boot command, like this:

Slide 10: 

9. Once the system is booted, you will be asked if you want to enter the initial configuration dialog. Say no and press enter.

Slide 11: 

10. Next, enter enable mode with the en or enable command. Then, type the following commands: rename flash:config.backup config.text copy flash:config.text system:running-config

Slide 12: 

11. After each command, you will be prompted to confirm the name of the destination file. Do these by pressing enter each time. 12. Go into global configuration mode by typing config terminal. Next type no enable secret. 13. Now you can reset your enable password to whatever password you want. In the example below, we used the enable password Cisco to set the password to Cisco

Slide 13: 

14. Exit out of global configuration using the exit command and save your configuration with the copy running-config startup-config command. You will be prompted to confirm the name of the destination file. Press enter. 15. You have successfully reconfigured your switch’s enable password using the password recovery procedure