Technical Tip: Changing the firewall admin password

[sselvam]

Description

This article describes how to change the firewall 'admin' account password.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

To change the admin administrator password from the GUI.

1. Go to System -> Admin -> Administrators.
   
   
   

2. In the row corresponding to the admin administrator account, mark its check box.
3. Select 'Change Password'.
4. In the old Password field, do not enter anything. (In its default state, there is no password for the admin account).

5. In the New Password field, enter a password with sufficient complexity and number of characters to deter brute force and other attacks.
6. In the Confirm Password field, enter the new password again to confirm its spelling.
7. Select 'OK'.
   
8. Select 'Logout'.

The FortiGate appliance logs the user out.  To continue using the GUI, log in again.

The new password takes effect the next time that the administrator account logs in.

To change the admin administrator password via the CLI
Enter the following command:

config system admin
    edit admin
        set password <new-password_str> <old-password>
    end
exit

Where <new-password_str> is the new password for the administrator account named admin, and <old-password) is the password the current password that will be changed

The FortiGate appliance logs the user out. To continue working in the CLI, log in again using the new password. The new password will take effect only for newly initiated sessions in the CLI or GUI.

Note:

Starting from v7.2.x and above, it is now mandatory to provide the old password to update the admin's password.

Related Article: 

Technical Tip: Change in Behavior When Updating Admin Password via CLI