Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) Version 3.00.00.00 User's Guide

Using hash passwords for improved security

On PowerEdge servers with iDRAC version 3.00.00.00, you can set user passwords and BIOS passwords using a one-way hash format. The user authentication mechanism is not affected (except for SNMPv3 and IPMI) and you can provide the password in plain text format.

With the new password hash feature:

• You can generate your own SHA256 hashes to set iDRAC user passwords and BIOS passwords. This allows you to have the SHA256 values in the server configuration profile, RACADM, and WSMan. When you provide the SHA256 password values, you cannot authenticate through SNMPv3 and IPMI.
  NOTE Remote RACADM or WSMan or Redfish cannot be used for Hash password Configuration / Replacement for IDRAC. You can use SCP for Hash Password Configuration / Replacement on Remote RACADM or WSMan or Redfish.
• You can set up a template server including all the iDRAC user accounts and BIOS passwords using the current plain text mechanism. After the server is set up, you can export the server configuration profile with the password hash values. The export includes the hash values required for SNMPv3 and IPMI authentication. After importing this profile, you must use the the latest Dell IPMI tool, if you use an older tool, the IPMI authentication fails for the users who have the hashed password values set.

• The other interfaces such as IDRAC GUI will show the user accounts enabled.

You can generate the hash password with and without Salt using SHA256.

You must have Server Control privileges to include and export hash passwords.

If access to all accounts is lost, use iDRAC Settings Utility or local RACADM and perform reset iDRAC to default task.

If the password of the iDRAC user account is set with the SHA256 password hash only and not the other hashes (SHA1v3Key or MD5v3Key or IPMIKey), then authentication through SNMP v3 and IPMI is not available.