Password Recovery on the Cisco ASA Security Appliance

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In this article, I'll explain how to perform a password "reset" on your Cisco ASA security appliance. The more commonly used term for this procedure is "password recovery" which is left over from the days when you could actually view passwords in configuration files in plain text. Today, such passwords are encrypted and not actually recoverable. Instead, you will gain access to the appliance via the console port and reset the password(s) to known values.

This procedure requires physical access to the device. You will power-cycle your appliance by unplugging it at the power strip and plugging it back in. You will then interrupt the boot process and change the configuration register value to prevent the appliance from reading its stored configuration at boot. Since the device ignores its saved configuration on boot, you are able to access its configuration modes without passwords. Once you're in configuration mode, you will load the saved configuration from flash memory, change the passwords to a known value, change the configuration register value to tell the device to load its saved configuration on boot, and reload the device.

Caution: As with all configuration procedures, these procedures should be tested in a laboratory environment prior to usage in a production environment to ensure suitability for your situation.

The following steps were designed using a Cisco ASA 5505 Security Appliance. They are not appropriate for a Cisco PIX Firewall appliance.

1. Power-cycle your security appliance by removing and re-inserting the power plug at the power strip.

2. When prompted, press Esc to interrupt the boot process and enter ROM Monitor mode. You should immediately see a rommon prompt (rommon #0>).

3. At the rommon prompt, enter the confreg command to view the current configuration register setting: rommon #0>confreg

4. The current configuration register should be the default of 0x01 (it will actually display as 0x00000001). The security appliance will ask if you want to make changes to the configuration register. Answer no when prompted.

5. You must change the configuration register to 0x41, which tells the appliance to ignore its saved (startup) configuration upon boot: rommon #1>confreg 0x41

6. Reset the appliance with the boot command: rommon #2>boot

7. Notice that the security appliance ignores its startup configuration during the boot process. When it finishes booting, you should see a generic User Mode prompt: ciscoasa>

8. Enter the enable command to enter Privileged Mode. When the appliance prompts you for a password, simply press (at this point, the password is blank): ciscoasa>enable Password: ciscoasa#

9. Copy the startup configuration file into the running configuration with the following command: ciscoasa#copy startup-config running-config Destination filename [running-config]?

10. The previously saved configuration is now the active configuration, but since the security appliance is already in Privileged Mode, privileged access is not disabled. Next, in configuration mode, enter the following command to change the Privileged Mode password to a known value (in this case, we'll use the password system): asa#conf t asa(config)#enable password system

11. While still in Configuration Mode, reset the configuration register to the default of 0x01 to force the security appliance to read its startup configuration on boot: asa(config)#config-register 0x01

12. Use the following commands to view the configuration register setting: asa(config)#exit asa#show version

13. At bottom of the output of the show version command, you should see the following statement: Configuration register is 0x41 (will be 0x1 at next reload)

14. Save the current configuration with the copy run start command to make the above changes persistent: asa#copy run start Source filename [running-config]

15. Reload the security appliance: asa# reload System config has been modified. Save? [Y]es/[N]o:yes

Cryptochecksum: e87f1433 54896e6b 4e21d072 d71a9cbf

2149 bytes copied in 1.480 secs (2149 bytes/sec) Proceed with reload? [confirm]

When your security appliance reloads, you should be able to use your newly reset password to enter privileged mode.

Copyright (c) 2007 Don R. Crawley

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SQL Administrator Skills Required to Support Microsoft Great Plains

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Microsoft Great Plains is becoming more and more popular and we see new purchases among midsize and large corporations, where, in our opinion, Microsoft SQL Server DB administrator position is a must. If you are database administrator and you are part of the decision making team, purchasing Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains for your corporation, we would like to set your expectation on the level of SQL knowledge, skills and experience needed to support Microsoft Great Plains in-house

o Data querying. Microsoft Great Plains has decent ReportWriter, which allows users to create and modify existing reports, however the recommended tool, and you will soon understand that if you need really challenging reports (Sales Commissions, Bill of Lading, Sales Order Status with Purchasing info, Regional Sales, etc.) - you need to deploy Crystal Reports or Crystal Enterprise. Crystal Report itself is usually based on the view or stored procedure. So - you should expect to be familiar with Great Plains tables architecture and be capable to create select statement with multiple joins and unions

o Data Repair. You should be ready to save GP table prior to data repair: select * into SOP10100_Copy from SOP10100 and then use update statement to fix incorrect values. If you need to load SOP10100 back from the backup table - first drop DEX_ROW_ID column and then use: insert into SOP10100 select * from SOP10100_Copy.

o Backup and Restore. Great Plains has DYNAMICS database which stores system info, such as users, security, companies, etc. and each company has its own database. You should be able to restore mostly company databases from the backup. This seems to be trivial routine.

o Technical Support. When you have issues with posting or need help from Microsoft Business Solutions Technical Support, you place case through customer source and you should expect the technician provide you with SQL scripts to fix your data.

o Some Useful Scripts. You need to be able to delete locked user: delete activity where userid='TOM', also very popular is batch recovery script, you need to unlock the batch in SY00500 table: Posting Definition Master

o Do not expect. Replications (except probably snapshot) - it adds GUID column and then Great Plains Dexterity runtime can not upgrade the modified tables. Referential Integrity is not used, Varchar or NVarchar are not used - the reason is - Dexterity architecture, which was initially designed with database independence in mind. Logins and access management - Great Plains uses its own security, which is translated into SQL logins with encrypted password.

o Moving Great Plains on the new SQL Server. It is often confusing for the DB Admin. Besides physical move through backups or detach/attach DB you need special scripts to transfer GP security and users logins, these scripts are available through MBS tech support or feel free to call you MBS partner.

o Advanced Techniques. If you need to notify your GP users on the specific event in GP - such as invoice was paid, you can deploy SQL emailing: xp_send_mail. This procedure could be called in the trigger for the apply payments table.

o Data Integration. XML inbound and outbound streams for the integration stored procedures is becoming defacto standard. Also you should be familiar with heterogeneous SQL queries: OPENROWSET and linked server conceptions.

Happy implementing! You can always appeal to us to help you with your system. Give as a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

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