IOS 15.4 Enable Secret issue

[Brett Martin]

Hello,

My understanding is that enable secret type 4 is a security concern and the type 4 command is deprecated in IOS 15.4M.

I would like to create an enable secret using a plaintext password and have it encrypted so it is not visible from command line or the configuration file. I woulkd like to be able to "copy" this enable secret password into other devices as well. Is there a way to create an enable secret password in plaintext and have the router hash/encrypt it?

Thanks!

Brett

[Philip D'Ath · Accepted solution]

Simply type:

enable secret <plain text>

You can then copy either the plain text or encrypted version of the command to another device.

ps. I have written a type 5 password cracker in javascript.  It is fastest on Chrome.  If you can crack the password with this then you know you have chosen a weak password.

http://www.ifm.net.nz/cookbooks/cisco-ios-enable-secret-password-cracker.html

If you are using IOS 15.4 as you indicate, they you can use the much much much stronger scrypt algorithm.

enable algorithm-type scrypt secret <plain text password>

Once again, you can copy and paste either the plain or encrypted versions of this line to another Cisco router and have it work just fine.

[Brett Martin]

Thank you for the clarification and instruction!!