Password Recovery
[This modification has been verified to work with Smoothwall Express 2.0.
I haven't yet tested this mod with on Smoothwall GPL 1.0, but it should work fine.]
This page describes how to reset the passwords for the various user accounts on a Smoothwall box.
It will not show you how to break into a remote Smoothwall box.
This information is intended to be used by people who have a valid reason to reset the
passwords on a Smoothwall box.
This can occur if you simply forget the passwords for the accounts on your Smoothwall box,
or if someone else has setup the Smoothwall box, and you're now tasked with maintaining it.
Note that you will need to have physical access to the Smoothwall box to be able to
reset the password for the root account.
As always, there are multiple ways to reset passwords - this page describes one method
of doing so.
Background:
Smoothwall has two user accounts which can be used for logging into the console
or via SSH, namely root and setup.
It has two user accounts which can be used for logging into the web interface,
namely admin and dial.
The passwords for the admin and dial
users can be set through the web interface
(assuming you can login as admin), and the passwords for
root, setup and
admin
can also be set via the setup application.
The user accounts which you can use for logging into the web interface are not
"real" user accounts - they are .htaccess user accounts
(see here for more information).
Note that if you know the passwords for either the root
or setup users, you have no use for the information on this
page, as you can reset any/all of the other passwords using the setup
utility.
To access the setup utility, either login to the Smoothwall
console or via SSH as root, and run setup
from the command line, or login to the Smoothwall console or via SSH as
setup.
the setup utility
Requirements:
You'll need:
-
A Smoothwall Express 2.0 installation (obviously...).
-
Physical access to the Smoothwall box.
Resetting the root password:
You need to use the console on the Smoothwall box for this one, so
ensure the Smoothwall box has a keyboard and screen attached.
Reboot the Smoothwall box. If you know the password for the
admin user, you can initiate a reboot through the web interface,
else just hit ctrl-alt-del to reboot it.
At the GUI lilo prompt, hit the tab key to get a
text-based lilo prompt.
the lilo boot prompt
At the boot: prompt, boot into single user mode by typing
smoothwall single
and hit the enter key.
type "smoothwall single" at the prompt
Once your Smoothwall box has finished booting,
you'll be presented with a prompt, logged in as root.
booted to single user mode
Your Smoothwall box is now in single user mode. Normally, in single user mode,
a linux box will mount the local filesystems,
but won't activate the network, leaving you with a usable system maintenance shell.
However, due to Smoothwall's minimal runlevel support, the network is still activated
in single user mode.
Reset the root password using the following:
passwd root
and you'll be prompted (twice) to enter a new password.
entering a new password
If you also want to reset the setup or admin
passwords, do so now before rebooting.
To reboot, run the following:
shutdown -r now
from a command prompt.
Resetting the admin password:
Once you know the root password, you can reset the
password for the admin user.
This can either be done manually from a command prompt using
htpasswd /var/smoothwall/auth/users username
Alternatively, the setup password can be reset by
logging on to the Smoothwall console or via SSH as root,
and running the setup utility.
Resetting the setup password:
The setup password can be reset either while in single user mode,
or when logged on as root.
Reset it using the following command:
passwd setup
You'll then be prompted (twice) to enter a new password. Note that you don't have to know
the previous password for the setup user in order to be able to
change it.
Alternatively, the setup password can be reset by
logging on to the Smoothwall console or via SSH as root,
and running the setup utility.
References:
Adding Web Users to Smoothwall
Single User Mode
last updated 15 Aug 2006
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