Password Recovery

Password recovery for a PIX Firewall is quite simple if you can get physical access to the device and know the version of the PIX OS. The actual steps depend on whether the unit has a floppy drive like the 520 model. This section looks at both the floppy disk models and the newer units.

To perform password recovery, you must have a PC that can create a terminal session with the PIX device, such as HyperTerm, and a Cisco configuration cable kit. The router has to be down for about ten minutes. For firewalls with a floppy disk drive, a 3.5” floppy is required and, for newer firewalls, a PC running TFTP server is needed. If necessary, the TFTP server software can run on the console PC and the software can be downloaded from Cisco.