Recovering lost admin shell password for management server

[the_rock]

Hey guys,

Wondering if someone may have an idea how to fix this, if its possible at all. This is the situation...customer we manage sadly could not log into web UI or ssh into their mgmt server and when we tried our own account, it was not working either. I sure hope its someone on their end that did this and possibly forgot to tell the IT manager, but saving grace is that at least smart console access works fine.

I suppose below can be done, but trying to see if there is more simple (or less painful) way:

https://community.checkpoint.com/t5/Management/How-to-recovery-lost-admin-password/td-p/54311

My colleague and I tried some lab tests, such as create a script to set new user, but that failed as well to log in. We even copied the hash we found in /etc/shadow file, but no joy.

Any way to recover this password and keep in mind, its NOT expert password, its shell one that does not work for any of the accounts, either for ssh or web UI.

I know they will be "retiring" this server in about a month, but just to be on safe side, I would still like to see if there is any way to recover this.

Tx as always for the help!

Andy

[the_rock]

Just tried that, but sadly, that does not work for web ui/ssh user, only smart console.

Andy

[AkosBakos]

The hashing algorithm between CP versions can be different.

Did you create the hash on the same version?

[Amir_Senn]

You need to be able to connect to either SSH/WebUI or MGMT server with SmartConsole/WebConsole IMO, otherwise it's no different than hackers.

What is the error message they're getting for SmartConsole/WebConsole? Is it "Authentication to server failed"? or something else?

If something else perhaps it's worth while to reboot the server and maybe something will shake up.

[G_W_Albrecht]

the_rock wrote: But saving grace is that at least smart console access works fine.

[the_rock]

Hey brother,

Smart console does work fine, just web ui and ssh fail. I will attempt what @G_W_Albrecht suggested in my lab and see if that works. I will also ask the guy if they can reboot the mgmt, though given the situation, he might not be willing to do so.

Andy

[_Val_]

Did you look into this: https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk106490?

Should work on the same management, I believe, although it is not much different from the SmartConsole script suggestion you already have. That must work, AFAIK.

Since you cannot get MGMT backup out, you might want another alternative. Set up a MGMT HA, sync, take the secondary to the lab, promote to primary, export config, reinstall you primary, import the DB.