Cisco FDM reset admin user credential

NCC-1701 — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 07:52:29 GMT

Hi All,

In the event that the admin user needs to be reset on the FDM, the following procedure can be followed. One of the basic requirements is to have a user on which to log in, and it must have conf privileges.

Once you have logged in via external authentication, you can perform the actual magic to reset the admin user's password.

First we need to access the linux shell and elevate our access rights, by typing expert and elevate via sudo -i followed by the external authentication password - in other words, the same password used to access SSH itself.

Once our privileges have been elevated, the fun can begin and we can reset the administration password.

Type passwd admin
You will then be asked for your new password, type in the one you wish to use in the future - a confirmation prompt will follow to ensure that the passwords match.

> expert
ava-ftd01:~$ pwd    
/ngfw/Volume/home/bob-admin <--- Verify I am logged in as external user
ava-ftd01:~$ sudo -i
Password: <Password-of-bob-admin-ext-user>
root@ava-ftd01:~# passwd admin
New password: <New-admin-password>
Retype new password: <New-admin-password>
passwd: password updated successfully
root@ava-ftd01:~#

Once this has been done you’ve successfully recovered/reset the admin password, and you should be able to initiate another SSH session to the FTD and able to login as “admin” with your new password.

> expert
admin@ava-ftd01:~$ pwd
/home/admin <--- Verify I am logged in as admin user

Notes
once reset with root privileges, it will only work on first access. To make this change permanent, it is necessary to log back onto the Firewall MGMT and reset the password again using the following commands :

> configure password

will first ask you for the password you have just reset and then for the new one.

We have test this procedure on Cisco FPR1140 with vesion 7.2.9

Regards

Re: Cisco FDM reset admin user credential

jamking1 — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:38:56 GMT

What if not able to log into the device with SSH, how would you go about resetting admin from console? Would this same procedure work or are there added steps

topic Cisco FDM reset admin user credential in Network Security

Cisco FDM reset admin user credential

Re: Cisco FDM reset admin user credential