Password recovery on a router is easy, and it is even easier to find the steps if you dont know.
What if you forget the login and enable passwords, or you created a lockout situation because of AAA settings on a FWSM (Firewall Switch Module) blade inside a Cisco 6500 or Cisco 7600?
You have two options.
- The Cisco way
- The Alternative way (as always)
The Cisco way is not hard but needs understanding of the hardware. The FWSM has a 128-MB Flash memory card that stores the operating system, configurations, and other data. The Flash memory includes six partitions, referenced as ‘cf:n‘.
- Maintenance partition (cf:1) — Contains the maintenance software.
- Network configuration partition (cf:2) — Contains the network configuration of the maintenance software.
- Crash dump partition (cf:3) — Stores the crash dump information.
- Application partitions (cf:4 and cf:5)—Stores the application software image, system configuration, and ASDM. By default, the FWSM boots off and installs the IOS images on cf:4. You can use cf:5 as a test/backup partition. The contents of this partition (cf:4) is seen with the command ‘dir flash:’
- Security context partition (cf:6)—64 MB are dedicated to this partition, which stores security context configurations (if desired) and RSA keys in a navigable file system. The contents of this partition is seen with the command ‘dir disk:’
Step-1 : Determine the module number you FWSM is plugged into. Either look at the chassis or use the command:
show module
Step-2 : From the 6500/7600 CLI, you must boot the FWSM into the maintenance partition (cf:1) with the command:
hw-module module {MOD-NUMBER} reset cf:1
Step-3 : Session into the FWSM as usual
session slot {MOD-NUMBER} processor 1
Step-4 : To log into the maintenance partition Login is ‘root’ and default password is ‘cisco’
Login: root
Password: cisco
Step-5 : To clear the login and enable passwords, as well as the aaa authentication console and aaa authorization command commands, enter the following command:
clear passwd cf:4
Step-6 : Follow the screen prompts by going yes and yes
Step-7 : Then Reload the FWSM and login as normal
OR
Since you working with a 6500 or 7600 with 2 ‘Compact Flash’ slots, power down the FWSM blade from the CLI with the command:
hw-module module {MOD-NUMBER} shutdown
Slide out the FWSM blade, remove the Compact Flash and insert it into the second compact flash slot of the RP (Route Processor):
Then from the CLI you can now choose to either the delete the Management Context file on the disk with the command:
delete disk2:{man-context.cfg)
Or you can TFTP/FTP that .cfg file to a computer where you can edit it, change whatever details you want to and restore it back to the disk.
Routing-Bits 
