Troubleshooting Tip: Exporting the device config backup shows masked passwords

Under the device revision section, the device configuration database functionality can be used to download a FortiGate configuration backup, which can then be used to restore or replace a FortiGate as needed.

Starting from FortiManager v7.4.3, all encrypted passwords are masked as "*********" and are only displayed in encrypted form if the logged-in administrator has the read-password permission.

In FortiManager v7.4.10, there is a known issue where encrypted passwords may randomly appear as masked values instead of their encrypted form, even when the logged-in user has read-password permissions. This behavior is inconsistent; the encrypted values may appear correctly at one time, while at other times they may be displayed as masked values.

Example:

config system admin
    edit "admin"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
        set vdom "root"
        set password *******************************************************************
...
end

If the downloaded backup file contains masked password values, it can cause issues related to passwords.

As a workaround, ensure that the downloaded configuration backup contains encrypted password values rather than masked ones.

This issue is expected to be fixed in FortiManager v7.6.7.