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Lost admin password for SPA-941

ishi_spa941
Level 1
Level 1

Hi all,

The short version: how to reset/disable admin password in SPA-941 phone?

The long version:

I have an IP Phone SPA-941 --- bought it on eBay with 'lost admin password'.  I've found somewhere on the Internet that it's possible to reset the phone to 'factory defaults', which is supposed to reset the admin password as well (which is why I bought the phone with this 'warning').  However, the 'information', failed to mention, that the factory reset is protected by the said administrator password.

Now, I have a bit of a problem since without this password, the phone is useless --- I cannot configure my SIP account there.

I cannot believe that loosing the admin password could yield a device unusable, so I presume that there must be a way to reset/recover password.

I have found somewhere a tool to upgrade firmware.  I tried it.... Not surprisingly, it requires the admin password.  However, it also prints a very promising message: "If you are the administrator and forgot the password, you may perform a factory reset by entering ****, option 73738#, and value 1 from a telephone connected to the unit to be upgraded.".  I have no idea what the 'option' might be and the 'value 1'...  I also do not know what they mean by 'telephone connected to the unit to be upgraded' --- this seems to indicate that the upgrade tool (or message) isn't meant for a phone, but for some other device to which a phone is to be connected.

I also found some discussions about the jumpers (JP1 and JP4) in the printed board of the phone.  I tried all of possible combinations and none of them caused the phone to be any less demanding in terms of admin password (if it booted at all).

I also found some kind of 'recovery software'.  It is supposed to 'recover' firmware to a version 4.1.x (I have 5.1.8 now but I assume that I'd be able to upgrade it back again when the 'downgrading' removes password).  There are two options --- one is for 'normal' upgrade (well.. downgrade in this case), which requires admin password.

The second option is the 'recovery' --- it requires serial number.  When I choose this one, the program warns me that it's only meant for phones displaying SOS message... I tried it regardless (what do I have to loose?), but the 'device couldn't be found'.  Perhaps there is a way of corrupting the phone and entering this SOS-state?

This, for the moment used up my ideas as how to use my phone.  In desperation I'm trying the brute-force 'attack' --- I'm able to check about 1k passwords in 60s...  I've found in some docs, that passwords can be 63 character long alphanumeric strings, which means that I should be able to check all of the combinations in something about 264646141002173127075674008932259139731080369373079015446569116064180887885670843 years, so I'll not hold my breath.  In the meanwhile...  Please help.  Is there a way to 'crack' the phone and reset the admin password?

1 Reply 1

paolo bevilacqua
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Long post but wrong forum, try "small business - ATA and phones".