You might want to disable password recovery to ensure that unauthorized users cannot use the password recovery mechanism to compromise the security appliance. To disable password recovery, enter the following command:
hostname(config)# no service password-recovery
On the ASA 5500 series adaptive security appliance, the no service password-recovery command prevents a user from entering ROMMON with the configuration intact. When a user enters ROMMON, the security appliance prompts the user to erase all Flash file systems. The user cannot enter ROMMON without first performing this erasure. If a user chooses not to erase the Flash file system, the security appliance reloads. Because password recovery depends on using ROMMON and maintaining the existing configuration, this erasure prevents you from recovering a password. However, disabling password recovery prevents unauthorized users from viewing the configuration or inserting different passwords. In this case, to recover the system to an operating state, load a new image and a backup configuration file, if available. The service password-recovery command appears in the configuration file for informational purposes only; when you enter the command at the CLI prompt, the setting is saved in NVRAM. The only way to change the setting is to enter the command at the CLI prompt. Loading a new configuration with a different version of the command does not change the setting. If you disable password recovery when the security appliance is configured to ignore the startup configuration at startup (in preparation for password recovery), then the security appliance changes the setting to boot the startup configuration as usual. If you use failover, and the standby unit is configured to ignore the startup configuration, then the same change is made to the configuration register when the no service password recovery command replicates to the standby unit.
