Trying to find a way to recover the password to a computer's EZ Firewall software. Suggestions?

February 1, 2006 11:14 PM

So, a friend of mine who is helping out with tech support at a small business is trying to find a way to recover the password to a computer's EZ Firewall software. Suggestions?

The person who previously held the position claims she "can't remember it". She is obviously doing this to spite her former employer. This is a problem because new programs (such as firefox and network printing) cannot be installed without EZ Firewall's permission. And, the computer cannot be reformatted because it is the network server and contains sensitive data.

posted by jne1813 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Is your friend's company up to date on the software? If so, I'd think they could call vendor tech support. Assuming they actually have an admin password on the system they should have some options.

As for not being able to reformat it. I'd hope it wouldn't come to that, but any business better have a contingency plan, starting with offsite backups, in case the server holding their sensitive data has a major issue.
posted by Good Brain at 11:26 PM on February 1, 2006

I don't use EZ Firewall, so I don't know how it works, but if the password is hidden by asterisks, you can use a free little utility called Asterisk Key to recover it.
posted by katyggls at 12:17 AM on February 2, 2006

Did you try contacting technical support for this product: http://www.my-etrust.com/Support/TechSupport.aspx

note: sadly their browser only supports Netscape 4.7 and up as well as Internet Explorer 5.5 and up.

The second result when doing a Keyword search for 'lost password' yields the following advice for the etrust firewall/EZ firewall (I have bolded the parts you need):
-------------------------------

How do I remove or reset the EZ Firewall password?
**** Effective May 17, 2005, we will be discontinuing support for:

- eTrust™ EZ Firewall version 1.0
- eTrust™ EZ Firewall version 2.0
- eTrust™ EZ Firewall version 3.7
- eTrust™ EZ Firewall version 4.5

For more information, please Click Here

Summary:

How do I change my password, or what do I do if I forgot my password in EZ Firewall and how do I reset the password?

Resolution:


This Document Applies to:
eTrust™ EZ Firewall 3.7
eTrust™ EZ Firewall 4.5

EZ Firewall r5.1 (standalone) is now avaliable, for upgrade instructions please click here

To change your password settings (add or remove a known password), Open EZ Firewall and click Overview -> Preferences -> Password box -> Set Password button. You will need your current EZ Firewall password in order to change or remove an existing password. Leave the New Password field blank in order to remove a password. In some cases, until you reboot, EZ Firewall may request a password for changes but the password will be blank - simply click on the box to go on.


If you have a password problem, or can't remember your password, the only way to remove a password without being able to access it is the following. Please note that this will remove your program permissions and zone settings (so you may want to make note of them), but re-establishing them is a simple process; you will be prompted again for program access for all the applications as you use them.

Prior to following the procedure found below, please try the following things to recover your password.

Try entering the password you think it is in all CAPS.
Try all possible passwords including possible misspellings.
If neither of these options allowed you access to EZ Firewall, please follow the steps below.

1. Reboot your system into Safe Mode. The method for this is determined by your operating system but normally either pressing F8 at the beep, or holding the control (CTRL) key during boot up works.

NOTE - Do NOT start EZ Firewall while in Safe Mode, or you will not be able to make the changes necessary.

2. Open the Internet Logs directory.
In Windows 98/ME this will be C:\Windows\Internet Logs
In Windows NT/2000 it will be C:\WINNT\Internet Logs
In Windows XP it could be either of these folders but typically, C:\Windows\Internet Logs.

3. If you need to keep a copy of old alerts, copy the ZAlog.txt file to another location first. Then, rename the internet logs folder to EZ Firewall. (if you are running Windows NT/2000/XP and cannot rename the folder, please be sure you are logged onto your system with administrative rights).

4. Reboot your system normally. You should now be able to access EZ Firewall without a password. If you are still having trouble removing your password, please contact my-eTrust support for further assistance.

--------------------------------
So all you need to do apparently is boot up in safe mode and rename a folder. Hope that helps!
posted by tweak at 12:22 AM on February 2, 2006

I'm going to make a suggestion here that I hope you will find helpful, and might solve the password problem as well. From the way you describe their setup, it sounds like this company's server also acts as a gateway to the internet. If this is the case, and the data on this server is valuable, they should know that this is a very insecure setup. A possible solution would be to have a hardware firewall solution, which can be an old PC with one of the open source firewall distributions. Once this is done, they should uninstall the software from the server and they will be able to do any kind of printer or file sharing without interference. And I echo what Good Brain said above about having backups and a contingency plan.
posted by SteveInMaine at 5:46 AM on February 2, 2006

Seconding/Thirding the recommendations said here. Use this situation as a reason to change the way you do things -- because your firewall has clearly reduced your security to the point where one person has all the control over your network, which is the opposite effect.

Externalize your firewall, and test your backups regularly. (You do have a backup routine, right?)
posted by Jairus at 6:22 AM on February 2, 2006

Also, I wanted to mention that if booting in safe mode and renaming a folder is the way to defeat a password, then EZ Firewall's 'security' is absurdly weak.

Go hardware. For example, a cursory search for a network switch led me to this page.

Go for a router with built-in firewall, vpn and printer support, if necessary. How many computers do you need to run? You can still keep the network server to do email or what have you, but basically leaving a password in the hands of a former employee is bad security.
posted by tweak at 9:34 AM on February 2, 2006