CISCO ROUTER PASSWORD RECOVERY

1. Attach a terminal or PC with terminal emulation to the console port of the router.
Use these terminal settings:
 9600 baud rat
 No parity
 8 data bits
 1 stop bit
 No flow control

2. Power cycle the router.

3. Press Break on the terminal keyboard within 60 seconds of power up in order to
put the router into ROMmon.
4. ALSO TRY CNTRL+ALT+FN+Pause or CNTRL+ALT+FN+F12 if you can’t find
the break key

Operating
Software Platform Try This
System

Hyperterminal IBM Compatible Windows XP Ctrl-Break

Hyperterminal IBM Compatible Windows 2000 Ctrl-Break

Hyperterminal IBM Compatible Windows 98 Ctrl-Break

Hyperterminal
IBM Compatible Windows 95 Ctrl-F6-Break
(version 595160)

Ctrl-\l
Kermit Sun Workstation UNIX
Ctrl-\b

MicroPhone Pro IBM Compatible Windows Ctrl-Break

Minicom IBM Compatible Linux Ctrl-a f

DOS or
ProComm Plus IBM Compatible Alt-b
Windows

SecureCRT IBM Compatible Windows Ctrl-Break

Telix IBM Compatible DOS Ctrl-End

Ctrl-], then type send

Telnet N/A N/A
brk
 Telnet to Cisco IBM Compatible N/A Ctrl-]

Teraterm IBM Compatible Windows Alt-b

Break
Terminal IBM Compatible Windows
Ctrl-Break

Ctrl-], then Break or

Ctrl-c
Tip Sun Workstation UNIX
~#

VT 100 Emulation Data General N/A F16

Break-F5

Shift-F5
Windows NT IBM Compatible Windows
Shift-6 Shift-4 Shift-b
(^$B)

Z-TERMINAL Mac Apple Command-b

Connect pin 2 (X-mit) to

Break-Out Box N/A
+V for half a second
N/A
Cisco to aux port N/A Control-Shft-6, then b

IBM Compatible N/A Ctrl-Break

Standard Break Key Combinations

5. Type confreg 0x2142 at the rommon 1> prompt in order to boot from Flash.
This step bypasses the startup configuration where the passwords are stored.
6. Type reset or i at the rommon 2> prompt.
7. The router reboots, but ignores the saved configuration.
8. Type no after each setup question, or press Ctrl-C in order to skip the initial setup
procedure.
9. Type enable at the Router> prompt.
You are in enable mode and should see the Router# prompt.
10. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE EXISTING CONFIG THE GO TO STEP 17 otherwise
continue to step 10.

11. Type copy startup-config running-config in order to copy the nonvolatile RAM
(NVRAM) into memory
12. Warning: Do not type copy running-config startup-config or write. These commands
erase your startup configuration.
13. Type configure terminal.
The router(config)# prompt appears.
14. Type enable secret <password> in order to change the enable secret password. For
example:
hostname(config)#enable secret cisco
15. Issue the no shutdown command on every interface that you use.
16. If you issue a show ip interface brief command, every interface that you want to use
should display up up.
17. Type configure terminal.
router(config)# prompt appears.
Type config-register 0x2102
Example router(config)#config-register 0x2102
18. Issue the no shutdown command on every interface that you use.
19. If you issue a show ip interface brief command, every interface that you want to use
should display up up.
20. Press Ctrl-z or end in order to leave the configuration mode.
21. The hostname# prompt appears. Type ; write memory or copy running-config
startup-config in order to commit the changes.