Password Recovery for Catalyst 2950

[telecom1988]

A. PASSWORD RECOVERY
Step 1: Establish Console port of the switch.
Use the following terminal settings:
• Bits per second (baud): 9600
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop bits: 1
• Flow Control: Xon/Xoff
Step 2: Unplug the power cable.
Step 3: Power the switch and bring it to the switch: prompt:
Catalyst Switch Series LED Behavior and Mode Button
Release Action
2900XL, 3500XL, 3550 Release the Mode button when the LED
above Port1x goes out.
2940, 2950
Release the Mode button after
approximately 5 seconds when the
Status (STAT) LED goes out. When
you release the Mode button, the SYST
LED blinks amber.
2960, 2970
Release the Mode button when the
SYST LED blinks amber and then turns
solid green. When you release the
Mode button, the SYST LED blinks
green.
3560, 3750 Release the Mode button after
approximately 15 seconds when the
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SYST LED turns solid green. When
you release the Mode button, the SYST
LED blinks green.
Catalyst 3524XL
Catalyst 2950-24
For 2955 series switches only:
The Catalyst 2955 series switches do not use an external mode button for password recovery. Instead the switch
boot loader uses the break-key detection to stop the automatic boot sequence for the password recovery
purposes. The break sequence is determined by the terminal application and operating system used. Hyperterm
running on Windows 2000 uses Ctrl + Break. On a workstation running UNIX, Ctrl-C is the break key. For
more information, refer to Standard Break Key Sequence Combinations During Password Recovery.
The example below uses Hyperterm to break into switch: mode on a 2955.
C2955 Boot Loader (C2955-HBOOT-M) Version 12.1(0.0.514), CISCO DEVELOPMENT TEST
VERSION
Compiled Fri 13-Dec-02 17:38 by madison
WS-C2955T-12 starting...
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:0b:be:b6:ee:00
Xmodem file system is available.
Initializing Flash...
flashfs[0]: 19 files, 2 directories
flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
page 3 of 6
flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 7741440
flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 4510720
flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 3230720
flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 7 seconds.
...done initializing flash.
Boot Sector Filesystem (bs installed, fsid: 3
Parameter Block Filesystem (pb installed, fsid: 4
*** The system will autoboot in 15 seconds ***
Send break character to prevent autobooting.
!--- Wait until you see this message before
!--- you issue the break sequence.
!--- Ctrl+Break is entered using Hyperterm.
The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system to finish
loading the operating system software:
flash_init
load_helper
boot
switch:
Step 4: Issue the flash_init command.
switch: flash_init
Initializing Flash...
flashfs[0]: 143 files, 4 directories
flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 3612672
flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 2729472
flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 883200
flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 86 seconds
....done Initializing Flash.
Boot Sector Filesystem (bs installed, fsid: 3
Parameter Block Filesystem (pb installed, fsid: 4
switch:
!--- This output is from a 2900XL switch. Output from
!--- other switches will vary slightly.
Step 5: Issue the load_helper command.
switch: load_helper
switch:
Step 6: Issue the dir flash: command.
The switch file system is displayed:
switch: dir flash:
Directory of flash:/
2 -rwx 1803357 <date> c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin
!--- This is the current version of software.
4 -rwx 1131 <date> config.text
!--- This is the configuration file.
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5 -rwx 109 <date> info
6 -rwx 389 <date> env_vars
7 drwx 640 <date> html
18 -rwx 109 <date> info.ver
403968 bytes available (3208704 bytes used)
switch:
!--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from
!--- other switches will vary slightly.
Step 7: Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.
switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old
switch:
!--- The config.text file contains the password
!--- definition.
Step 8: Issue the boot command to boot the system.
switch: boot
Loading "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin"...###############################
################################################## ##############################
################################################## ####################
File "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry po
int: 0x3000
executing...
!--- Output suppressed.
!--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from other switches
!--- will vary slightly.
Step 9: Enter "n" at the prompt to abort the initial configuration dialog.
--- System Configuration Dialog ---
At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help.
Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt.
Default settings are in square brackets '[]'.
Continue with configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n
!--- Type "n" for no.
Press RETURN to get started.
!--- Press Return or Enter.
Switch>
!--- The Switch> prompt is displayed.
Step 10: At the switch prompt, type en to enter enable mode.
Switch>en
Switch#
Step 11: Type rename flash:config.old flash:config.text to rename the configuration file with its original name.
Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text
Destination filename [config.text]
!--- Press Return or Enter.
Switch#
Step 12: Copy the configuration file into memory.
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Switch#copy flash:config.text system:running-config
Destination filename [running-config]?
!--- Press Return or Enter.
1131 bytes copied in 0.760 secs
Sw1#
The configuration file is now reloaded.
Step 13: Overwrite the current passwords that you do not know. Choose a strong password with at least one
capital letter, one number, and one special character.
Note: Overwrite the passwords which are necessary. You need not overwrite all of the mentioned passwords.
Sw1# conf t
!--- To overwrite existing secret password
Sw1(config)#enable secret <new_secret_password>
!--- To overwrite existing enable password
Sw1(config)#enable password <new_enable_password>
!--- To overwrite existing vty password
Sw1(config)#line vty 0 15
Sw1(config-line)#password <new_vty_password>
Sw1(config-line)#login
!--- To overwrite existing console password
Sw1(config-line)#line con 0
Sw1(config-line)#password <new_console_password>
Step 14: Write the running configuration to the configuration file with the write memory command.
Sw1#write memory
Building configuration...
[OK]