Recover Symantec Protection Engine Lost Password

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Recover Symantec Protection Engine Lost Password

Version: 1.2

Symantec Protection for SharePoint Servers (SPSS) is an antivirus solution for SharePoint. SPSS uses Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) as the underlining solution to provide the security framework to SPSS.

On each SharePoint Server running SPSS, usually you also have Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) there as well running under https://localhost:8004. SPE portal is usually password protected.

I came across a scenario where the password for the Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) portal was lost. We were using the right password but somehow SPE was not accepting it. On top of that the Symantec license was about to expire in few days. It was a race against the time!

Error Message

Login failed or Symantec Protection Engine server is not running.

SPE and SPSS services in Windows services console were running.

Symantec Protection Engine Portal Password Failure
Symantec Protection Engine Portal Password Failure

Method 1

I looked at the Symantec Protection for SharePoint Servers implementation guide and under chapter-7 found the section titled ‘Unable to remember the console password’. That is the one method to recover lost password for Symantec Protection Engine (SPE). It didn’t work in my case.

If you forget the console password, you can reset the password. The command line tool CmdSymScan lets you remove the password. It is located at the location
<installdir>:Program FilesSymantecSharePoint.

Type the following command in the command prompt:
cmdsymscan clearconsolepassword

You are not prompted for a password again.

Time was ticking….

Method 2

I went to the Symantec Scan Engine folder location and opened the configuration.xml file.
C:Program Files (x86)SymantecScan Engine

I then searched for the password parameter. Guess what, I found the encrypted password there. I cleared the value and saved the file. The password parameter should look like this.

<password value=””/>

After that I restarted the Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) services under Windows Services console.

Symantec Protection for SharePoint - Windows Services
Symantec Protection for SharePoint – Windows Services 

I closed and relaunched the Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) portal and I was able to successfully log in without the password. From there, I saved the new password, updated the license file and SPSS time clock stopped ticking.

One Response

  1. This is not working anymore. As you delete the (encrypted) password from the configuration.xml, the service won’t be able to start anymore. Information about this can be found in SPE\SymantecProtectionEngineAbortLog.txt
    Once I pasted the previously backed up password in there, the service was able to restart again.
    Just for those of you, that are – like me – wondering, why the service isnt starting anymore 🙂

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