System information

29
How to add and remove users
Pre-encrypted passwords
The running-config output above includes the number 8 after the password parameter. This
indicates that the password is displayed in its encrypted form.
You can enter the number 8 and a pre-encrypted password on the command line. You may
want to pre-encrypt passwords if you need to load them onto switches via an insecure method
(such as HTTP, or by emailing them to remote users).
Caution: Only enter the number 8 if you are entering a pre-encrypted password—otherwise,
you will be unable to log in using the password and will be unable to access the switch through
that username. The next section describes why.
Testing this
feature
If you want to test the effect of this, create a new user for the test instead of using the
manager user. The test stops you from logging in as the test user, so you need to have the
manager user available to log in as.
The following output shows how specifying the number 8 puts the password into the running-
config exactly as you typed it:
After entering the command above, logging in as “Bob” with a password of “friend” does not
work. This is because the switch takes the password you enter (“friend”), hashes it, and
compares the hash with the string in the running-config (“friend”). The hashed value and
“friend” are not the same, so the switch rejects the login.
awplus(config)#username Bob privilege 15 password 8 friend
awplus(config)#show running-config |include username Bob
username Bob privilege 15 password 8 friend