The new Nirsoft application Router Pass View may help computer users in the recovery of router passwords. These passwords are used to access the administrative dashboard of the router or modem to manage things like Internet connection parameters, a firewall, port forwarding or WiFi settings.
Many modern routers have an option to backup the configuration of the router into a file so that the settings can be restored at a later time.
These router configuration backups often contain important data like the login password of the router, the ISP username and password and wireless access configuration settings.
Router Pass View has been designed to extract the login information found in router configuration backups.
Note: Some antivirus solutions may flag the program as malicious. This is a false positive.
The portable software program supports a limited number of routers with the promise to add additional routers in the future.
Update: The most recent version supports lots of additional routers. We suggest you check out the homepage of the program for a full list of supported routers.
Router backup files can be loaded into the software program which will automatically discover and display the login information if the router is supported.
If RouterPassView manage to detect and decrypt your router file, you should get a list of passwords/wireless keys in the main window of RouterPassView. If RouterPassView cannot detect your file, it'll remain empty.
Nothing will be displayed in the interface if the software can't decrypt the information. It is possible to switch to Ascii Text Mode (F3) or Hex Dump Text Mode (F4) if the information are not displayed correctly. The information can be saved and HTML reports can be created.
Router Pass View can be downloaded from the Nirsoft website. The program is compatible with Windows operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 10.
The program can be useful if you have forgotten the router password. While you could reset the router to access it with the default password, doing so would reset all values and modifications that you have made as well.
This works only obviously if you have access to a backup file, for instance if you have created it in the past as you cannot create it anymore if you cannot access the admin dashboard.
Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.
Wow)
Very useful!
Thanks!
Awesome again Nir Sofer!
Ummm…I just saved the configuration of my WRT-54GL to a file using the backup feature on the router. Then I opened it in a text editor.
The password is sitting there in all it’s glory – in totally unencrypted plaintext!
I wonder how many other routers do the same thing?
Makes sense when you realize most are based on some variant of Linux since most config files in that are also plain text files. And this is by design – not an oversight.
very good tutorial
ok