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Lost password recovery procedure on Network Active Bypass appliances

Troubleshooting


Problem

Users who lose all of the passwords for their Network Active Bypass (NAB) appliance must reset the device to regain access.

Resolving The Problem

There is no password recovery procedure for the NAB appliance. If the passwords for the device are lost, a user must reset the configuration of the device to regain access. The following instructions explain how to reset the NAB on the different firmware versions:

Configuring the serial connection
  1. Connect a serial cable from a local PC to the Network Active Bypass.
  2. Configure a terminal emulator with the following settings:

    Bits per second: 115,200
    Data bits: 8
    Parity: N
    Stop: 1
    Flow Control: None
    Emulation: VT100

    For more information, refer to the NAB User Guides (1 Gb and 10 Gb).
  3. You should now be able to see output from the Network Active Bypass on your terminal emulator. If you cannot, verify that the NAB is plugged in and the serial cable is properly connected.

Resetting to factory defaults on firmware 3.X or higher
  1. Unplug the ethernet cable that is connected the Management port on the NAB. This is to prevent malicious users from accessing the appliance while it is still in an unconfigured state.
  2. Unplug both power cables leading to the Network Active Bypass, then plug them back in.
  3. On the serial console, you should see output similar to the following:

    U-Boot 1.1.1 (Development build, svnversion: u-boot:exported, exec:exported)

    Once you see this line, press Enter to interrupt the boot process. You will see several more lines of output, followed by:

    boot#
  4. Enter the following command to boot in recovery mode:

    gunzip 0xbec80000 0xe00000 0x9f00000 0x2000000 ;bootoctlinux 0x9f00000 mtdparts=phys_mapped_flash:14m@512k(linux),-(jffs2) rdinit=/bin/sh

    You will then see a burst of messages as the Linux kernel boots, ending with:

    /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
    ~ #
  5. Enter the following commands to force all settings to their defaults (including passwords):

    mount -t proc /proc
    mount -t jffs2 mtd1 /flash
    rm -rf /flash/*
    umount /flash
  6. Power cycle the NAB and reconfigure the device with the preferred settings.

Resetting to factory defaults on firmware 2.X and earlier
  1. Unplug the ethernet cable that is connected to the Management port on the NAB. This is to prevent malicious users from accessing the appliance while it is still in an unconfigured state.
  2. Unplug both power cables leading to the Network Active Bypass, then plug them back in.
  3. On the serial console, you should see output similar to the following:

    U-Boot 1.1.1 (Development build, svnversion: u-boot:exported, exec:exported)

    Once you have seen this line, press Enter to interrupt the boot process. You will see several more lines of output, followed by:

    boot#
  4. Enter the following command to boot in recovery mode:

    gunzip 0xbec80000 0xe00000 0x9f00000 0x2000000 ;bootoctlinux 0x9f00000 mtdparts=phys_mapped_flash:14m@512k(linux),-(jffs2) rdinit=/bin/sh

    You will then see a burst of messages as the Linux kernel boots, ending with:

    /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
    ~ #
  5. Enter the following commands to force all settings to their defaults (including passwords):

    mount /flash
    mv /flash/db.conf /flash/db.conf.old
    umount /flash
  6. Power cycle the NAB and reconfigure the device with the preferred settings.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSB2MD","label":"IBM Security Network Active Bypass"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Other Configuration","Platform":[{"code":"PF009","label":"Firmware"}],"Version":"1.0;3.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB24","label":"Security Software"}}]

Historical Number

5813

Document Information

Modified date:
25 January 2021

UID

swg21437286

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