Previously I’ve posted how to do this – but it was a bit hacky. You had to know your Admin’s UserID, which can change between instances now. So, here’s the SQL to do it for any Sitecore\Admin user…

Update membership 
    set [Password] = '2hwfEqtM7gDFekQaV/IOkog5DFmxRtywvUsRJqRf7j82Ns3pUkiu/WohjLk8mIV2+7MjXdMeO9MgAUjildTLtg==', 
	[PasswordSalt] = 'ETJOU1+PX4CwEOw/eN3F6Q==',
	[IsLockedOut] = 0,
	[Comment] = 'Sitecore Administrator (512)'
from [aspnet_Membership] membership
INNER JOIN [aspnet_Users] users ON membership.UserId = users.UserId
WHERE users.UserName = 'sitecore\Admin'

Okay, this this relates to my recent post on password hashing in Sitecore, and why we should move away from SHA1. Let’s say you’ve decided to use SHA512 for a brand new instance like Sitecore recommend…

When you create a new website, you must change the weak default hash algorithm (SHA1) that is used to encrypt user passwords to a stronger algorithm.

To change the hash algorithm:

• Open the web.config file and in the node, set the hashAlgorithmType setting to the appropriate value. We recommend SHA512.

Okay, funky, but how do I make the existing admin’s password work? Continue reading “Reset your Sitecore Admin password to ‘b’ when using SHA512 hashing” →