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Six Types of Cisco Password

In this guide, we will introduce the types of cisco password that can be found in Cisco IOS based network devices.

The following table shows the six types of cisco password.

Cisco Password	Crackability	Best speed	John the Ripper	Hashcat
Type 0	instant	instant	n/a	n/a
Type 7	instant	instant	n/a	n/a
Type 4	easy	26.4 million per second	--format=Raw-SHA256	-m 5700
Type 5	medium	1.2 million per second	--format=md5crypt	-m 500
Type 8	hard	11.6 thousand per second	--format=pbkdf2-hmac-sha256	-m 9200
Type 9	very hard	1.8 thousand per second	--format=scrypt	-m 9300

Cisco type 0 password

Cisco password type 0 is basically clear text password. There is no encryption nor obfuscation. It is the oldest and the most insecure method of storing passwords in Cisco devices. It should never be used.

The following example shows type 0 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type0-password

Cisco type 7 password

This password type uses Vigenère cipher which is essentially a simple alphabetical substitution encryption. The algorithm is reversible and thus it can be deciphered instantly into a plain text without any need for cracking.

The following example shows type 7 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type7-password

Cisco type 4 password

This password type was designed around 2013 and the original plan was to use PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function version 2) algorithm. But due to an implementation issue, it somehow ended up being a mere single iteration of SHA256 without salt.

The following example shows type 4 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type4-password

Cisco type 5 password

This password type was introduced around 1992 and it is essentially a 1,000 iteration of MD5 hash with salt. The salt is 4 characters long (32 bits). For modern computers this is not difficult enough and thus in many cases it can be successfully cracked.

The following example shows type 5 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type5-password

Cisco type 8 password

This password type is a proper implementation of the failed password type 4. This time it really uses the PBKDF2 algorithm and 10 character salt (80 bits). Essentially it is 20,000 iterations of SHA256 and this makes it much harder to crack in comparison with the previous password types.

The following example shows type 8 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type8-password

Cisco type 9 password

This password type uses Scrypt algorithm. Scrypt was specifically designed to make cracking very difficult even on large-scale cracking rigs with many GPUs or hardware ASICs. This is due to the fact that Scrypt requires large amount of memory to perform its function.

The following example shows type 9 password found in a Cisco configuration:

cisco-type9-password