Troubleshooting Tip: FortiOS fails to accept admin password with special characters

Description

This article explains an issue while editing already created password for an admin account. These symbols should not used.

Scope

FortiOS 7.4.x, FortiOS 7.6.x.

Solution

Currency symbols such as '€, £, ¥' might be accepted while creating a new admin account via the GUI. Although the admin account can be logged into, the password will not be editable. FortiOS gives an error message either in the GUI or in the CLI:

For instance, an 'admspec' super-admin profiled account has '£' in the password, and while trying to adjust it, there is a GUI error:

CLI outputs (logged in account -admspec itself):

Logged in account: admspec itself

fgt12-A (admin) # edit admspec
fgt12-A (admspec) # set password
fgt12-A (admspec) # set password fortinet1234!
Please enter current administrator password: ************
Incorrect admspec's password.
Command fail. Return code -30

The reason for this might be due to parsing these symbols. FortiOS in the CLI parses as follows:

Fortinet12!£ - “Fortinet12!\702\643”
Fortinet12!€ - “Fortinet12!\742\602\654”

If there is already an admin account for which the password must be edited, the following workaround can be performed:

1. Create, or login to the FortiGate GUI with another account, which has a password that does not have any special listed characters.

2. Change the password of the desired super-admin account which has an incorrect symbol.

3. Try to login using the desired, in-question admin account, and change the password.