System information

Recovering a Lost Password
Book Title
24-492
Step 6 Enter privileged mode by issuing the enable exec command.
Step 7 Enter the show configuration privileged exec command to see whether the password is
cleartext (is not encrypted) or if it is encrypted.
If the password is cleartext, go to Step 12.
or
If the password is encrypted, continue with Step 8.
Step 8 If the password is encrypted, enter the configure memory privileged exec command.
This writes the stored configuration into running memory.
Step 9 Enter the configure terminal privileged exec command to enter router configuration
mode.
Step 10 If you have lost the enable password, use the enable-password global configuration
command to configure a new password and press ^Z to exit configuration mode.
If you have lost the login password, configure the console line with a new password using
the login and password line configuration commands. Press ^Z to exit configuration
mode.
Syntax:
To enable password checking at login, use the login line configuration command:
login [local | tacacs]
Syntax Description:
• local—(Optional) Selects local password checking. Authentication is based on the
username specified with the username global configuration command.
• tacacs—(Optional) Selects the TACACS-style user ID and password-checking
mechanism.
Examples:
The following example sets the password letmein on virtual terminal line 4:
line vty 4
password letmein
login
Syntax:
To specify a password on a line, use the password line configuration command:
password password
Syntax Description:
• password—Character string that specifies the line password. The first character cannot
be a number. The string can contain any alphanumeric characters, including spaces,
up to 80 characters. You cannot specify password in the format
number-space-anything. The space after the number causes problems. For example,
hello 21 is a legal password, but 21 hello is not. The password checking is case
sensitive. For example, the password Secret is different from the password secret.
When an exec process is started on a line with password protection, the exec prompts
for the password. If the user enters the correct password, the exec prints its normal
privileged prompt. The user can try three times to enter a password before the exec
exits and returns the terminal to the idle state.