Fortinet: Instructions reset password or reset default on FortiGate firewall

Overview

The article tutorial to reset password or reset default Fortigate firewall device in case of forgetting password access to firewall

For firewall lines without a hard reset button, you will use the maintainer account to reset the password for the firewall (in case the maintainer account has not been disabled). This method is also applied to firewall lines with hard reset buttons

Preparation

Console cable
Terminal software Putty
Serial number of device

How to configure

Connect computer and firewall device with console cable
Open Putty software and set the parameters:
- Speed: 9600
- Data Bits: 8 bit
- Parity: None
- Stop Bits: 1
- Flow Control: No Hardware Flow Control
- Com Port: Check COM port on computer

Reboot Fortigate firewall device. If the device has not power button, unplug the power cable for more than 10s and plug the power cable back in (it is not recommend to plug in the power cable early because it may lead to memory errors)
When firewall reboot finished, login using account
- Username: maintainer
- Password: bcpd + serial number of firewall (Ex: bcpdFGT60D3F4039403)

** When the login display, you only have 14s to enter the username and password. When the 14s that the maintainer account has not been entered, you will have to restart the firewall device

When enter maintainer account finished
Configure reset default by command. After the device reboot, using username: admin and password: blank to login

Configure reset password admin
- In case of VDOMs disable

Configure reset password admin
- In case of VDOMs enable

** Note: Maintainer account are used in cases of forgotten access passwords, which also leads to outsides being able to access the firewall to change the configure. So you’ll have to consider whether to enable or disable the maintainer account