Can't Change RT-AC86U password

[spokey]

I have my password manager remind to change my router password at 177 days. When I tried to do that today, the change screen comes back with
*Your current login password is incorrect!
I've rebooted my computer and the router. I've enter it via the browser (firefox) saved password and by copying from my password manager. I've eyeballed both of these in a text editor and they seem the same. I've also logged in using the password manager copy instead of using autofill. Finally I've also tried to change it in chrome. So I'm sure I'm putting in the right password that logs in to the router fine but doesn't work on the password change screen.

The router is currently on 386.5.2. Thought I'd post here before trying to update the firmware.

 

[L&LD]

Does your password have more than 32 characters? Are they all alphanumeric, with no spaces, special characters, punctuation, or smiley faces?

Try entering your old password with 1 character less each time (until it works).

 

[spokey]

will give that a try. Is there some bug with non alphas? I do have numerals, upper/lower case letters, and special characters. Not > 32 but is greater than 15. I tend to change the length when I change the password as a bit more security.

 

[spokey]

got down to 4 characters and still no good. PITA as it forces a re-login every 5 failures

 

[ColinTaylor]

Some special characters can't now be processed by the password input field. Can't remember the exact details but it's things like "/" and "&". There have been a few reports about it.

 

[spokey]

Some special characters can't now be processed by the password input field. Can't remember the exact details but it's things like "/" and "&". There have been a few reports about it.

is there anything to be done at this point? Or do I have to do a factory reset. I don't have those specific characters but similar

 

[Yota]

Can you log into SSH via SSH key? If you can, you can avoid resetting and recover your password.

Tutorial - How to reset encrypted admin password via SSH

Asus and Asuswrt-Merlin have introduced encrypted passwords since 3.0.0.4.384_81790 and 384.17 firmware, which I appreciate, but I messed up a few days ago. I tried backing up all encrypted password hashes in nvram in ssh and re-writing to nvram, but I found that even though nvram didn't change...

www.snbforums.com

 

[spokey]

I didn't need to recover my password. I know what it is. I can log in fine. It is just that the change dialog isn't accepting the current password.

I was able to SSH in like the link. That actually resets the password back to admin which forces a password change. And that worked although a bit difficult as it would not allow a paste of my new one. So I had to go in to Firefox's saved passwords, modify it and use autofill.

So I do have a nice new longer password but with out any special characters. I went back having done all this and I still can not change the password via the gui. I originally made the logon password a very simple 5 character one that I knew I could type. Logged in and out of the router a couple times to make sure I had it. But the change dialog still told me that it was invalid. Have done this a couple times now. Change it via the SSH method, logon on/off a few times to make sure things are OK and then fail trying to change the password via the gui.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? I'm thinking of updating the firmware to see if that helps.

Also @ColinTaylor says above that some special characters are not allowed anymore. Any docs on that? I would like to put some back

 

[ColinTaylor]

I've just changed my password a few times using 6 or 7 characters with a mixture of letters and numbers. There was no problem. So I think your problem is more than just the password now.

Have you tried changing it from a completely different machine? Preferably using a browser in "safe mode".

 

[spokey]

I've just changed my password a few times using 6 or 7 characters with a mixture of letters and numbers. There was no problem. So I think your problem is more than just the password now.

Have you tried changing it from a completely different machine? Preferably using a browser in "safe mode".

yep, same problem. Usually use firefox. Used chrome on the other machine. Same thing. Logs in OK but the change password dialog says invalid current password.

 

[spokey]

Is there a way to get a readable dump of my settings in case I end of doing a reset? Or, would it be reason able to do a save and restore? I actually have a save from today but I guess would do it again for the new password.

Maybe reapply the current firmware? Newest firmware?

 

[ColinTaylor]

yep, same problem. Usually use firefox. Used chrome on the other machine. Same thing. Logs in OK but the change password dialog says invalid current password.

Open the browser console and look for errors. There may be some unrelated problem with the web page that is being incorrectly reported as a password error.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is there a way to get a readable dump of my settings in case I end of doing a reset? Or, would it be reason able to do a save and restore? I actually have a save from today but I guess would do it again for the new password.

Maybe reapply the current firmware? Newest firmware?

A quick thing to try would be to backup your current settings and JFFS. Then do a factory reset followed by the minimal setup, just enough to log in. At this point you can test the password changing behaviour. Then restore your old settings and JFFS and reboot.

 

[spokey]

no errors. I cleared the console after clicking on 'system'. popped up the change dialog, filled it in, click OK. No messages at all.

Will try your reset & restore tomorrow

 

[Yota]

This is weird, if you are denied login even after trying a password like 12345678, then the problem may be with your browser, disable the browser extensions/addons you have installed, and if necessary restore your browser to default settings to see if there is any help.

 

[spokey]

I have tried it from another machine using a browser that I have done absolutely nothing to except a couple bookmarks and have the same problem. But given I don't use the browsers on that machine it was simple to uninstall chrome and re-install. Same result. I also tried Edge which I'm not sure I have ever used on that machine and got the same results. I am going to try the save, factory reset etc..

 

[spokey]

figured I'd try updating to the current version. Didn't work of course. Have backed up stuff and will try resetting this weekend

 

[OPR]

figured I'd try updating to the current version. Didn't work of course. Have backed up stuff and will try resetting this weekend

Any resolution finally to this mystery problem?

I am interested to know if this is one way an AC86U typically starts to die, as I recently acquired a couple of used ones for a home mesh.

 

[spokey]

I have been able to update the password since doing a factory reset. Not a lot of time has gone by but it seems OK so far.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I am interested to know if this is one way an AC86U typically starts to die, as I recently acquired a couple of used ones for a home mesh.

I don't think so. The OP's p/w trouble most likely relates to some firmware data corruption, imo, which a reset will/has fixed.

The AC86U typical failures are a dying WiFi radio and/or power regulation circuit that exhibits a half lit LED4. The latter can cause strange behavior but I've seen nothing here related to password management corruption.

OE