Recovering admin password of your modem from backed up configuration file

Model: BSNL Dataone ATE ZXDSL 531B modem. (Below points worth a shot for any other modem also)

Assumption: You have saved your modem settings locally on your machine. If not, don't be disheartened (Do slap yourself thrice though), this post will help you out.

If you don't know how to upload/save your modem/router's configuration file, read this.

I had forgotten the admin password and I didn't want to reset my modem. Just wanted to see if I could get any info from the configuration that I backed up.

I opened up the file and searched for the keyword "admin" and I came across this block:

<sysusername value="admin">
<syspassword value="YWRtaW5fcGFzc3dk">

Took a blind shot to see if it is a base64 encoding and <insert your jumping-with-surprise word here> it was base64 encoded!

Securing my DSL modem

I had a BSNL modem installed at my home quite some time ago. The guy who installed it did the minimal configuration - just enough to connect to the internet. He did nothing on the front of basic security - hiding the wireless network, changing the default password, etc.

As with all standard modems, this one had a web interface at http://192.168.1.1 The interface was easy to navigate and through it I hardened a few of the settings. I am going to share them in this post.

The security measures that I describe will be available on any standard DSL/ADSL modem. The UI navigation will vary across different models. But the ideas - like changing your modem's IP from 192.168.1.1 to some non-standard value e.g. 10.2.3.44 will stay the same.

The changes are limited by my own experience and I'd appreciate if you could share any other security measures that you took. If you are happy with the way things are going on - your wireless network is not hidden, your modem's IP is 192.168.1.1, default password is "admin" - stay happy and go back to watching that skating cat video on youtube, while I download the entire LOTR trilogy on your connection :). If you want to get your hands dirty and learn a few things in the process, read on.

The author is not responsible for temporary/permanent loss of internet connectivity or inadvertent establishment of communication with alien life forms resulting from the changes described in this post.

Modem: BSNL Dataone - ZTE - ZXDSL 531B

Before moving on to the changes, I'd recommend that if you are going to do them as you read this post, please read the whole post first. And the changes don't come into effect until you save them or in some other cases restart the modem (changing the modem IP for instance). So if you want to experiment with the changes, do them one at a time - change the config, save it, check it and move on. Doing multiple changes and not knowing what went wrong is not worth the debugging time. You can also keep on saving changes as you move through the post, creating snapshots of the configuration file.

The first thing to do before messing around with any settings is to insure yourself against the destructive streak of the geek in you - the one which prods you with the "Go on, try it out, let's see if it blows anything up" thought. Hence I backed up the minimal configuration that was done by the BSNL guy.