Re: 3Com switches - undocumented access level.

[mouse () RODENTS MONTREAL QC CA (der Mouse)]

> From: [presumably someone at 3Com -dM]
> Sent:   Friday, May 08, 1998 3:32 PM
> Subject:        Re: FW: 3Com switches - undocumented access level.

> [L]et me assure you that the undocumented access level for the
> LANplex/Corebuilder products are purely for support reasons then
> anything else.  We have many cases where customers will forget their
> passwords or userids and find themselves in a spot as they could not
> get in to the console.  This is the only way we can help them to
> recover from this situation without losing their entire
> configuration.  [...]

Excuse me for being blunt, but: poppycock.  Pure spin-doctoring.  I can
think of at least two other ways right off the top of my head.

One would be to give the switches in question a physical setting (a
back-panel switch, a jumper on the pc board, whatever) that overrides
the password somehow - for example, causes any password to be accepted.
(Of course, one would not normally run with the hardware set this way.)

Another would be to keep the password information in a separate NVRAM
from the rest of the configuration, so that either can be reset without
having to touch the other.

Either of these would be an appropriate disaster-recovery mechanism.

A "secret" backdoor access mechanism is not.

To anyone receiving this message: you are welcome to forward it to
anyone you please.

                                        der Mouse

                               mouse () rodents montreal qc ca
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