Re: Default Passwords for World Wide Packets/Lightning Edge Equipment

[Bjørn Mork <bjorn () mork no>]

"Jeffrey I. Schiller" <jis () MIT EDU> writes:

> An option I saw years ago (I forgot on whose equipment) was a default
> password which was a function of the equipment's serial number. So you
> had to have the algorithm and you needed the serial number which was not
> related to the MAC. So if you didn't have physical access, you were not
> in a good position to learn the password.
>
> I suspect this was a support nightmare for the vendor and I bet they
> went to a more standard (read: the same) factory password.

Another class of devices, but the Compaq OOM management cards for
servers ("RILOE") used to do this.  Really nice when the serial number
is placed on a sticker on a PCI card...  You would usually have to shut
down the server and pull out the card to read the sticker.  Unless it
had fallen off.  Did I mention that the cards had a number of stickers
with similar numbers on them with no indication which was the real
serial number?

Well, I'm not going to claim this was the reason why there is no Compaq
anymore, but it must have cost them *a lot* in support and frustrated
users.  For what passible gain?  It was still a default password, just a
tiny bit more obscure. 



Bjørn