Subscriber Discussion

Is Hikvision Admin:123456789abc The New Admin:12345?

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 06, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Bought a new Hik 3MP dome off Amazon. Tried admin:12345, no luck, then remembered Ethan's article about the new firmware password requirements, Hikvision Anti Hacking Firmware Tested, and was resigned to use SADP to set up a unique password with the new constraints.

Then I remembered seeing recently in a RTSP URL database somewhere a username pass like admin:123456789abc, so I tried it.

It worked. Is this something that middlemen are doing to reduce support costs, or??

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JH
John Honovich
Mar 06, 2016
IPVM

What firmware version are you on?

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 06, 2016
IPVMU Certified

5.3.6 build 151103 - English language by default

Rv
Rogier van der Heide
Mar 07, 2016

Just tried it on a DS-2DF7286-A, but it doesn't work.

It's running on 5.3.8

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Mar 07, 2016
Nelly's Security

They dont come with a preset password anymore. You have to "activate" the camera before even using it at all, the activation feature makes you create a password.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Update: reset to factory defaults, now forced to activate.

I wonder who set the password before and why?

btw, this firmware has a reset to default except for ip and users, so you could keep it if you wanted to.

JH
John Honovich
Mar 07, 2016
IPVM

Who did you buy from on Amazon?

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

You know, Folivinus. As you can see a large majority of their customers are satisfied:

I'll send them a message, complaining.

Folivinus = For those living in the US

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Mar 07, 2016
Nelly's Security

if you bought it off of slamazon, it was more than likely a Chinese version TFTP'ed upgraded to a USA version, I assume they didnt care to or just forgot to default it.

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

...a Chinese version upgraded to a USA version...

A practice you cannot condone, I assume? :)

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Mar 07, 2016
Nelly's Security

Was your statement to imply that we do the same thing? We actually do not do this.

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Honestly did not know but was curious. Why not do it?

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Mar 07, 2016
Nelly's Security

Probably not that big of a deal to most people but the main thing is you wont be able to upgrade to any newer USA firmwares in the future unless you do the complicated TFTP process. Also, warranty and tech support is pretty much non-existent through those types of sellers. Luckily Hik is a pretty reliable brand so for some buyers buying just one camera, I guess its a risk worth taking as its not a huge loss if your camera poops out, but if you plan on buying multiple or if your a professional installer, its probably not worth it.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Curious, how does Hik prevent upgrading to the new USA firmwares (via the normal process) once the firmware is replaced with the USA version? Is there some embedded hardware check?

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Mar 07, 2016
Nelly's Security

i assume so. Its gotta be something in the hardware that differentiates it.

Take Dahua for example, they dont have this feature, you can easily upgrade from USA to Chinese firmware and back again on any camera at any time easily.

It was quite smart on Hikvisions part. Now they just gotta make it where a TFTP upgrade wont work at all and this will solve the majority of their sales channel problems they have (aside from the ezviz debacle).

This is my main gripe with these 2 large manufacturers. Once and for all, do something about the Chinese version cameras that the Chinese-USA sellers are selling for a dollar profit out of their garage. I cant imagine this would be hard to implement on current manufacturing runs. If they really wanted to take care of this issue, they could. Sometimes I wonder if they want to or not.

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Avatar
Jon Dillabaugh
Mar 08, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

While the slammer will always beat me on bottom line price, the garage based biz will always undercut you as well. However, I don't think our competition will have a very long existence in their current business models. They will either want to become Sean/Jon or they will find a more lucrative business.

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Campbell Chang
Mar 13, 2016

That's a 3000 series camera which are supposedly Asia only lines.

Europe/US/Australasia get the 2, 4 & 6 lines.

Asia are supposed to get the 3 & 5 lines

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 27, 2016

Just wanted to also say that the SN listed in the picture shows it's a Chinese region camera with the "CH" in the middle. That means Chinese Region and tells you it's running a modified firmware. "WR" is labeled on the US region cameras.

I used to have no problem with the modified version as well, but now over time I'm starting to realize it's not worth it for me or my customers. The primary reason is not being able to upgrade firmware, but now if you lose your password, Hikvision might decide not to help you recover it, and I have started wondering about the quality control of the products going through these gray markets. I've been having a lot of failures start to popup after about a year. Only time will tell if it's the same or not going through Hikvision USA.

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U
Undisclosed #1
May 27, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Back in the day, Chinese firmware used to be easy for Westerners to spot, basically because it was in Chinese.

These days though its a lot tougher to tell...

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