How do I recover my lost EXEC mode password?

[kevinwong11]

I can't figure out what happened but I can not enable privileged mode in my Cisco 3750.  I am stuck in Read-Only mode.

At first, I tried:

   enable

to enter EXEC mode. My password would not work and it kicked me out after 3 retries.

Did some troubleshooting and happened to try:

    enable 5

and the password worked. The Switch shows the "#" to signify EXEC mode.

The problem is that from this command prompt I can't run the normal commands such as "configure terminal". Only basic commands like "show vlan" are valid.

Any thoughts?

[SANTHOSHKUMAR SARAVANAN]

Hi ,

  I think your switch is configured with enable & enable level 5 password . when you try like below you will be taken to privilege level 5

Router>enable 5 
Password: 
Router#

Router#show privilege 

Current privilege level is 5

Router#configure ter
                 ^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-15878

try with enable password with no level , if you dont know enable password , you need to  break password for your cisco switch .

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3750/software/release/12-2_44_se/configuration/guide/scg/swtrbl.html#wp1021182

Recovering from a Lost or Forgotten Password

HTH

Sandy