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Readynas Pro 4 - undo password recovery?
Hi All,
I didn't know my password anymore, so i started 192.168.xx/password_recovery, it says "succes, mail is send" -> but no mail is send.
I read this topic: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/password-recovery-fails/m-p/1367938
I now have found my password, and i know it is the correct password. But since I had clicked password recovery, this password doesnt work anymore.
Is there any way to Undo the password_recovery and still use my old password?
Only if neccesary i am going to try an OS reinstall...
Alfnie wrote:Im not very comfortable with doing OS reinstall without having a proper back up of the data (that is what im doing right now).
It is best to have a backup, so I agree that's worth doing.
Alfnie wrote:
I was wondering, why can you Reset the Admin password with OS reinstall?
Is it true that when the ReadyNAS gets stolen, the thief can simply OS reinstall and access your data?
Note I don't work for Netgear. I'm thinking the feature is there because many people do lose the password - so it is a balance between security and potentially losing your data.
If the NAS is stolen, then it is true that the thief can do the OS reinstall. A thief can also access the data without the admin data in several other ways:
- Just boot the NAS and attempt to access the shares over the network
- Recover the data from nearby (perhaps connected) USB backup disks
- boot the NAS in tech support mode and manually mount the data volume
- Remove the disks and either mount the data volume in a linux PC or use RAID recovery software
Alfnie wrote:
If yes, how can one prevent having others access to the data? What kind of security is required?
You can attempt to physically lock it down somehow.
OS 6 systems support disk encryption, though the encryption key needs to be stored on a USB key. But if that is stolen with the NAS, then of course the data can still be accessed (and if it is secured separately from the NAS, it needs to be put back into the NAS every time you boot it). Your Pro can can be converted to OS-6 if you want - Netgear doesn't support that, but many users have done it.
Another approach is to store particularly sensitive data in an encrypted container. For instance, an encrypted ZIP file or an encrypted iSCSI LUN. Since the decryption is done in the client devices, the containers (including backups) are secure no matter what happens to the NAS. Of course you'd want to use good practices on the encryption keys (strong password, etc).
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Do the OS reinstall - that will set the password back to the factory default and won't affect your data. The NAS network configuration will be set back to DHCP also. On OS 4.2.x systems, the default password is netgear1.
Thanks for your reply.
Im not very comfortable with doing OS reinstall without having a proper back up of the data (that is what im doing right now).
I was wondering, why can you Reset the Admin password with OS reinstall?
Is it true that when the ReadyNAS gets stolen, the thief can simply OS reinstall and access your data?
If yes, how can one prevent having others access to the data? What kind of security is required?
Alfnie wrote:Im not very comfortable with doing OS reinstall without having a proper back up of the data (that is what im doing right now).
It is best to have a backup, so I agree that's worth doing.
Alfnie wrote:
I was wondering, why can you Reset the Admin password with OS reinstall?
Is it true that when the ReadyNAS gets stolen, the thief can simply OS reinstall and access your data?
Note I don't work for Netgear. I'm thinking the feature is there because many people do lose the password - so it is a balance between security and potentially losing your data.
If the NAS is stolen, then it is true that the thief can do the OS reinstall. A thief can also access the data without the admin data in several other ways:
- Just boot the NAS and attempt to access the shares over the network
- Recover the data from nearby (perhaps connected) USB backup disks
- boot the NAS in tech support mode and manually mount the data volume
- Remove the disks and either mount the data volume in a linux PC or use RAID recovery software
Alfnie wrote:
If yes, how can one prevent having others access to the data? What kind of security is required?
You can attempt to physically lock it down somehow.
OS 6 systems support disk encryption, though the encryption key needs to be stored on a USB key. But if that is stolen with the NAS, then of course the data can still be accessed (and if it is secured separately from the NAS, it needs to be put back into the NAS every time you boot it). Your Pro can can be converted to OS-6 if you want - Netgear doesn't support that, but many users have done it.
Another approach is to store particularly sensitive data in an encrypted container. For instance, an encrypted ZIP file or an encrypted iSCSI LUN. Since the decryption is done in the client devices, the containers (including backups) are secure no matter what happens to the NAS. Of course you'd want to use good practices on the encryption keys (strong password, etc).
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