Question Resetting a Cisco ASA Firewall to factory defaults, button disabled

[EXCellR8]

I've got an abandoned ASA 5506-X firewall that was left over from before the company I work for sold to another. It hasn't been powered on for some 6-7 months now and I wanted to see if I could reset it and possible offload it at some point. Problem is, it seems the reset button on the back has been disabled because it doesn't do anything. I think the device uses the default IP but the ASDM firmware doesn't respond to anything through a UTP cable... so I can't really access it at all.

I don't know all that much about Cisco ASA administration, nor do I care to freshen up on it, so I was wondering if anyone knew how to do it--or has had to do it before. Looking through all of Cisco's documentation is a slog and might be more perplexing than managing the actual device.

Any info is helpful, thanks.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Cisco ASA 5506-X reset to factory settings (Reset button does not work)

Hi everyone, I just bought a used Cisco ASA 5506-X to learn CCNA Security. The seller said there is Firesource license on it. I powered it on, I hooked up an ethernet cable to slot 2 and the other end to my laptop. My laptop got an IP 192.168.1.X. I followed the instruction, I tried to...

community.cisco.com

Break out your console cable

 

[EXCellR8]

Bookmarked. Will read through tonight, thanks!

Hopefully I still have a console cable lying around

 

[EXCellR8]

So, I was ultimately able to reset this thing... at least I think so. Couldn't find my DB9 serial cable but I was able to find the Cisco USB drivers to emulate the connection.

Once I was able to jack in with Putty it was easy enough. Don't think I'd know how to deploy it in an actual environment though lol

Thanks!

 

[ch33zw1z]

So, I was ultimately able to reset this thing... at least I think so. Couldn't find my DB9 serial cable but I was able to find the Cisco USB drivers to emulate the connection.

Once I was able to jack in with Putty it was easy enough. Don't think I'd know how to deploy it in an actual environment though lol

Thanks!

Yea, I can get around basic functions of most Cisco devices, but no way am I getting an ASA up and running for a production environment!

If you're concerned about security, remember to clear the nvram as well (in case the factory reset doesn't, but I suspect it does)

 

[EXCellR8]

Turns out, and the VID/serial confirm this, that this particular unit is possibly affected by a known hardware flaw that eventually prevents it from booting... so, I probably wasted my time anyway.

I'll sell it off cheap for parts as-is I mean it still works but I don't think it's an issue that can be solved by firmware; it's a physical hardware level issue that affects certain ones. Awesome.