How to Reset the Administrator Password

How to Reset the Administrator Password

405744
Created On 09/25/18 20:40 PM - Last Modified 02/06/21 04:39 AM


Symptom


The administrator password is lost or forgotten and the administrator needs to be reset the password.

Environment


  • Palo Alto Firewall.
  • Any PAN-OS.
  • Lost Administrator Password.

Resolution


Recovering the administrator password is not possible. The password must be reset by booting into maintenance mode and load a previously saved configuration of which the password is known.

  1. To boot into maintenance mode, connect to the console via the console port and terminal software.
  2. Reboot the firewall and keep pressing 'm' (or 'maint' for newer versions).
  3. The device boots into "Maintenance mode" 
  4. Once you load into maintenance mode, continue to the 'Select Running Config' option.

maintenance mode.png

  1. Choose a previous version of the running-config for which the administrator password is known and reboot the device with this config.


Note: If a previous config cannot be loaded or the password is unknown for all saved configs, the firewall will need to be factory reset in order to configure a new administrator password.
Other users also viewed:
Actions
  • Print
  • Copy Link

    https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClkxCAC&refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fknowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com%2FKCSArticleDetail

Choose Language