Updated RT-AC68U to 384.3 and can't login

[cdturri]

Hi, I have updated my RT-AC68U to 384.3. I could login after the update and then went to setup Let's Encrypt. The HTTPS Certificate was issued correctly (I downloaded the cert to see it). I then enabled HTTPS for the admin page on port 8443. I can now see my router Admin login page over HTTPS but my admin password is no longer working (error is "* Invalid username or password"). I use LastPass so it's not "user error". I tried all the passwords listed here but I still can't login. Luckily I still have SSH access as I have set up SSHD keys. Any ways to reset the admin password from the SSH console? Or is it the HTTPS on the admin page on port 8443 which is the problem here?

 

[cdturri]

OK just did some Googling and found that I can see password via SSH doing "nvram get http_passwd". I can confirm that the password is what I got on the LastPass record and has not been changed but the Router won't let me login with it. So it looks like it's an issue with the admin interface being on HTTPS. How can I revert this change via SSH?

 

[john9527]

OK just did some Googling and found that I can see password via SSH doing "nvram get http_passwd". I can confirm that the password is what I got on the LastPass record and has not been changed but the Router won't let me login with it. So it looks like it's an issue with the admin interface being on HTTPS. How can I revert this change via SSH?

How long is the password....it's limited to 16 characters max. Also, be careful of using special characters.

 

[cdturri]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The password is h55@Wf^gGsSWZG8dXb%r so it's 20 characters and has special characters (I will obviously change it after I get the login working again). Any ideas why it was working before if it was 20 characters long with special characters?

 

[cdturri]

Umm OK I just changed the password via SSH and I still can't login via the Web GUI:

admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram set http_passwd="zaq1xsw2"
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram commit
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram get http_passwd
zaq1xsw2
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc#
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# echo \"$(nvram get http_passwd)\"
"zaq1xsw2"

Any ideas?

 

[john9527]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The password is h55@Wf^gGsSWZG8dXb%r so it's 20 characters and has special characters (I will obviously change it after I get the login working again). Any ideas why it was working before if it was 20 characters long with special characters?

A change in the parsing routines? Hard to tell.

Since you have ssh access with keys (good move!) you can re-write the password.
nvram set http_password=new_passwd
nvram commit
service restart_httpd

 

[cdturri]

OK I wasn't doing the service restart_httpd but it still doesn't work. Here is what I did:

admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram set http_passwd="zaq1xsw2"
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram commit
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# nvram get http_passwd
zaq1xsw2
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# echo \"$(nvram get http_passwd)\"
"zaq1xsw2"
admin@ASUS-RT-AC68U:/tmp/etc# service restart_httpd

I still get "* Invalid username or password". I looked at the login page on Google Chrome with the Dev Tools enabled and there is brief error on the Console but it disappears quickly when the page reloads. I did a SlowMo video with my iPhone and caught the error:

https://ibb.co/dgDbVn

Any ideas?

 

[john9527]

Not being funny, but did you update lastpass with your new password so it doesn't autofill the old one?
Might also try with lastpass disabled just to rule it out.

 

[cdturri]

Not being funny, but did you update lastpass with your new password so it doesn't autofill the old one?
Might also try with lastpass disabled just to rule it out.

Yes, I am trying from a different browser (IE) which doesn't have the LastPass plugin. This sounds like a problem when enabling HTTPS and Let's Encrypt. The router booted on 384.3 and login to the Web GUI was fine. I lost access after setting HTTPS and Let's Encrypt. I also tried to login using the non-DDNS URL (ie https://192.168.1.1:8443/Main_Login.asp) and it's the same problem (* Invalid username or password).

 

[cdturri]

I saved the previous configuration before I enabled HTTPS and Let's Encrypt. Any way I can apply that from the SSH console?

 

[cdturri]

Ummm I did a reboot from SSH and now the password works. Very weird... Any logs files I could look into to see what was wrong?

 

[john9527]

I'm pretty sure your original problem was the password length/special chars. restarting httpd SHOULD have activated the new password, but maybe something has changed such that the reboot is now required. Right now, I'd just move on.

 

[Hinnerk]

Sorry, to bring this old thread back up, but I seem to have a similar issue. My router is an AC88U, I updated from 384_13 to 384_16. Unfortuneately, I do not have ssh enabled. So now I am stuck with a working router that I can't login to. Or is there some way to recover other than restoring factory settings and starting over?

 

[Hinnerk]

And once more sorry. Issue can be closed, it was my mistake... typo. *blushes*

 

[martinr]

And once more sorry. Issue can be closed, it was my mistake... typo. *blushes*

Happens to us all.. And welcome to the forum.