Troubleshooting : Solutions by issue type : Login issues : Resetting passwords
 
Resetting passwords
If someone has forgotten or lost his or her password, or if you need to change an account’s password, the admin administrator can reset the password.
If you forget the password of the admin administrator, however, you will not be able to reset its password through the web UI. You can either:
• reset the FortiWeb appliance to its default state (including the default administrator account and password) by restoring the firmware. For instructions, see “Restoring firmware (“clean install”)”.
• connect to the local console, reboot the FortiWeb appliance, and set the password (see “To reset the admin account’s password”)
To reset an account’s password
1. Log in as the admin administrator account.
2. Go to System > User > User.
3. Click the row to select the account whose password you want to change.
4. Click Edit.
5. In the New Password and Confirm Password fields, type the new password.
6. Click OK.
The new password takes effect the next time that account logs in.
To reset the admin account’s password
 
To do this, you must either have direct physical, local access to the appliance, or have connected it to your terminal server which serves as an aggregator for direct physical accesses. For security reasons, this cannot be done via the web UI nor via CLI through the Ethernet network adapters.
1. Power off the FortiWeb appliance.
2. Find the serial number of the FortiWeb.
This is usually on the bottom of physical appliances. If you have previously registered the appliance to associate it with your Fortinet Technical Support account, you can also retrieve it from the web site.
3. On your computer, copy the serial number.
This is so that you are ready to quickly paste it into the terminal emulator. (Typing it slowly may cause the login to time out.) The serial number is case sensitive.
4. While the appliance is shut down, connect the local console port of your appliance to your computer.
5. On your management computer, start a terminal emulator such as PuTTY. For details, see “To connect to the CLI using a local console connection”.
6. Power on the FortiWeb appliance.
Power on self-test (POST) and other messages should begin to appear in the console.
7. Between 15 - 30 seconds after the login prompt appears, immediately enter:
maintainer
then enter:
bcpb<serial-number_str>
where <serial-number_str> is the serial number. (If you have copied it, in PuTTY, you can right-click to quickly paste it, instead of typing it in. This will prevent the login from timing out.)
If you are successful, the CLI will welcome you, and you can then enter the following commands to reset the admin account’s password:
config system admin
edit admin
set password <new-password_str>
end
exit
where <new-password_str> is the password for the administrator account named admin.
If you do not enter both the correct user name and the password within the correct time frame, the console will display an error message:
The hashed password length is invalid
To attempt the login again, power cycle the appliance.