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Reveal your Citrix XenServer password in XenCenter

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So, we’ve all been there, you’ve lost your password to your host machine or you can’t remember, and restarting the machine to reset the password would be just too troublesome. But thankfully, if you are like me and most others, you have your XenServer host root password saved for auto-login. With that said, here is an easy way to go about getting your host XenServer root password.

The setup

So to set this up, you need to make sure of and have a few things:

  1. Your XenServer root password is set to be saved for auto-login in your XenCenter.
  2. Putty or another SSH client, I use MobaXterm since it pre-installs a ton of things for you(And its just a great program)
  3. OpenSSL installed
  4. Your XenServer Host Management IP

And we go

I’ll try and break down the process in an easy step-by-step way with pictures.

1. Grab your XenServer Host management IP. Leave the XenCenter open, but minimize it for now.

2. Once you have the management IP, Change your local work stations IP to that IP. You do not need to worry about putting a proper Gateway or Subnet. In my example, I’ll use 10.0.0.1 as my “Xenserver Host management IP” as I covered my actual IP for privacy reasons.

3. Now what we want to do is create a PEM certificate locally, Server Name/Hostname is not relevant. If you have not downloaded and installed OpenSSL, do so now. Leave the OpenSSL window open, but minimize it for now.

4. Open XenCenter back up, and try to connect to the server. a Security warning about the Certificate changing will appear, Accept it.

5. Now swap back to the OpenSSL window, and there it is, your XenServer password in plain text!

Conclusion

So, as we can see above, Xenserver is not a very well-secured system. Being able to trick XenCenter into thinking its connecting to the Xenserver, and sending the full password in plain text, never good. But, since this does help us without the need for a full restart of the host box. Saving tons of time and headache.

Original Guide for this pulled from https://youtu.be/ll_Zey8BSQI
Scarecr0w12
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Scarecr0w12

https://www.jacobbowen.me
I am a IT nerd, Video game enthusiast, Linux admin, web developer and Entrepreneur. I've worked most of my life in and around the technology industry, mainly in the server administration and network areas. But when it comes down to it, i'm just a Trekie, gamer, nerd.

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